Day 1 of competition India 2015

This morning started with a good breakfast at the hotel, i have taken to drinking strawberry milk in the mornings.

The hotel is suffering from power cuts, which is slightly nerve wracking if you are in the lift.

When we got to the ground, all horses were present and correct and we got a 5th horse, but was bigger and looked angrier than Nakul , so I stuck with him.... in hindsight might not have been the smartest move!

We had one practice runs on pegs and Nakul was drifting left severely. So in rings i went one spur on the left, but managed achieve the second fastest time, but no where near the rings....

Second run i added a whip on the left, but failed once more to get anywhere near the gallows, but did slow him to 7.2sec (time allowed 7.5, first run was 6.77secs)

Sarah didn't far much better on Raja got no where near gallows on first run, but managed one ring before she drifted left on the second run.

Michael and Rachel had nice straight horses, and Michael went to town with the South African overarm technique and tied in first place with Osama of Iraq.

Next cam a nail biting run off gold and silver, with Michael taking the first run and did a beautiful run just dropping one ring and square on a 1" peg. However luck was against us and by a nip Osama managed both rings and a nick out of the side of the peg for a 2, so won by the two points!

However we are all still absolutely delighted with a silver medal in the first event of the day.

Next came team sword and I ditched Nakul on safety as didn't to wipe out my team, the Indians came trumps with "Mr India" a chestnut with the most floppy ears I have seen.

I was told he was good but slow, however on first team he turned into a pocket rocket and out raced the others.

I guess it depends on your definition of slow, but the grooms did say the have never seen hime run so fast!

Team sword was lucky for us, although when first faced with a huge crowd of hundreds, GB pulled it out of a bag for a full house, but we couldn't repeat the effort so no more medals today.

Some teams and certain managers are looking very pink after the first day under the Indian sun!