GB team and travel plans

Well it seems that I am doing a bit of a tour of Asia in 2013

I will be heading to Pakistan on the 5-13th February, to take part in the International competition held in Faisalabad

This has been a very last minute rush, but I feel privileged to be able to attend

The second trip will be 17-25th in India, this is the tentpegging World Cup held near Delhi. This should be the most exciting event of the season, as it will see the biggest gathering of the tentpegging nations.

I will of course be updating the blog with the news from Pakistan and India, so watch this space!

Winter training

Impending competitions means that I needed to get out practicing.

One of the bad things about tentpegging, is that to practice at speed really requires a minimum of a 100m run, which is longer than even some of the more impressive indoor schools

However when it snows, another opportunity presents itself - "snow pegging"! Fortunately I had just taken the shoes off Peer, so I had the perfect if albeit rather unfit candidate for some fun in the snow.

Improvised dark pegs were required, as white pegs in snow would be too much of a challenge

Fortunately the snow was good and as Peer was unfit I was out for short periods, which meant I could still feel my hands!

However snow is on the whole a bit of a pain, as everything grinds to a halt in the UK with only a few inches.

Unfortunately this snow also cancelled the first training session of the 2013 season, but the next is due on the 17th February and should hopefully go ahead.







Of course if you are rather bored, you can also practice wearing your medieval costume in the snow and train your horse to rear on command.

Season catch up

Well I'm afraid the blog has been neglected since Windsor

The 2012 season went well for tentpegging, as with the exception of Melton, nothing was cancelled and we only had one brief stint of towing lorries out of fields in Norfolk in July.

This year saw three new venues hold competitions, the first on the 12th August was Bicester and Finmere show. The tentpeggers got to rub shoulders with some of the best showjumpers including Stockdale, Funnells and Whitakers. The show ran well and we didn't seem to cause any problems with the serious showjumpers.

The second new show was home for me! Whilst its great not having to travel, I did find running the show including all the preparation a bit of a challenge. All went well, although the competitors did experience the first frost of the year and all woke with ice on their lorries!

The third new show was Larkhill, which was picturesque with the most amazing ground. We had plenty of space and the speed was upped in the competitions. This was a fantastic new addition and one that will hopefully continue in the future

As you can see the peggers were up to their usual larking around, but there was a tinge of sadness as this was the last event of the season and the last chance to party.

I will admit I may have overconsumed on the evening before the competition, however fortunately this seem to only affect sword pegging, and I managed to sober up to collect a nice haul of prizes, winning all team competitions with the dream team of  Sarah and Rachel.


This season I have started pegging my ginger polo pony, Minnie, who is coming along nicely and thinks that running 100m is right up her street being half a quarter horse. However perhaps the flying oranges weren't quite to her liking !

Windsor competition

Well getting ready was interesting, but managed it without me or Chally attracting too much mud.

Walked down to the arena and tucked in behind around 30 of the Oman cavalry, now this is the first time I have ever seen riders with bagpipes!! Very impressive, but I missed their demo due to pegging.

The warm up was interesting, worse than any hunting field with ankle deep mud, I felt really sorry for the organizers as this couldn't be avoided!

We did a practise run, then on to the real runs. In the two prelim rounds I picked up both pegs, but scored 11 for both (max mark is 12, with 3 marks for style and pace), I know where I dropped the first mark as I bumped into myself which made the recovery messy. The second one is a mystery

This is one problem with the BTA system as it becomes a bit subjective like dressage.

I made it to the final and we swapped running partners, unforunately on the first run I needed to correct Chally as she wasn't run straight which made the drill a fraction late and I missed my peg, which is came over for placing! The next run picked up for another 11 (still not sure where I dropped the mark), but was still out of the running.

The team event was next and I was running with the Frontiersmen, on the first run one team member just missed their peg, but was a full house on the next run we got a full house. Another team managed the same, and we just got pipped into second again due to style points. The winners were the royal logisitic core, but with a borrowed Frontiersmen too!

Finally SLR was next, this is sword lance revolver, the ultimate test. We were allowed to jump round the course with no weapons and Chally felt great and was jumping well.

On our run jumped the first jump attacked the dummy, jumped the second fence and attacked the final dummy releasing my sword, all going well.

Pulled out my gun and headed towards the next jump and we ground to a halt miles away from it. Chally had obviously clocked the gun and fence with balloons and just threw in the towel. Even squeezing hard with spurs just resulted in reverse, so at that point there was no consoling her and even putting the gun away didn't help, so I retired rather than embarass myself further.

Clearly more training required at home!

So a mixed day, and lots to work on, but did come home with my first Windsor pegging rosette!!

Windsor arrival

Well we are parked in mud and managed about 1m off the track before the lorry got stuck

Towed by a nice polish guy in a big tractor!

A friend is 3 lorries down and not parked in mud, so clearly I should have arrived 5 minutes earlier!!

Melton - cold and wet!

In the light of cancellations it was dubious whether this competition would go ahead.

However the stalwart peggers turned up the evening before and we were all rocked to sleep with gales and driving rain!

More rain on Sunday, but we were told that the SLR class would happen indoors, but without the final peg.

Putting the majority of clothes I had brought, I then had to strip down to new Frontiersmen kit for the competition. Frankly it was freezing and I could have done with more thermals!!!

I was drawn 3rd to go which was a relief as not too long to wait in the driving rain. I opted to use a small 9mm short nitro blank, as the indoor meant the guns were noisey.

Chally was kitted out with zilco ear plugs, plus extra sheepskin and a fly veil

I felt my round was a bit sloppy, especially as I fumbled to put the gun away and dropped one rein on the final lance run.

However it cannot have been that bad as I ended up 3rd and qualified for Royal Windsor!

Preparation for Aldershot

The first UK pegging event is next weekend, and most of my energy has been focused on gun training this week. I have been doing extensive equine ear plug testing, and the results will be on here shortly.

I also have a new lance to test this week, Harrison rods have sent me a beautiful piece of carbon and my father was able to make this into a lance in just over an hour. This is exciting as peggers don't have easy access to sectional lances, which makes fitting lances into normal vehicles or taking on aircraft can be challenging as they exceed the 1.9m set by most airlines

Lances are something you cannot easily just purchase, so most peggers are adept at DIY projects, (or know someone who can take care of this for them!). The material choices are bamboo (ideally solid), aluminium or carbon fibre. 

I am mulling over my saddle choices for Aldershot (which is in Melton Mowbray this year), at the moment I still have the WOW stock saddle, but I also have Chally's normal WOW jumping saddle. I do think the stock helps you reach, but would require a saddle change for SLR as you cannot (comfortably!) jump in them.

At the moment the weather looks pretty unkind, so I am hoping that this show still goes ahead, my lorry doesn't sink and we don't get too wet. This time last year it was almost barbecue weather, what a contrast!

Talking of lorries, mine is once again being repaired, it has spent weeks fixing various problems. At the moment it leaks.. badly! This appears to be from PRB installing solar panels but drilling rather large unsealed holes in my roof, so these are being sealed from inside and out. Whilst I am at it I have splashed out on some insulation - possibly linked to the -1oC experience

The downside is that the lorry won't come back until Friday, which means I don't have long to clean and pack for the trip to Melton Mowbray, so I need to be super organised, I think this week will be constructing check-lists!