TENT PEGGING

Tent pegging is an Equestrian Sport to demonstrate the energy, skill and obedience of the horse and the physical power and aiming skill of the rider. The origins of this sport can be traced to the Asian warfare tactics. In the days of the Cavalry, the soldiers mounted on the steeds would make a preemptive strike on unwary enemy camp, and in a charge across the sleeping soldiers in their tents, they pulled the pegs of the tents with their lances, causing them to collapse and putting them into complete disarray and confusion.

Ever since then, this competition is held to test the skill of the rider to pick up the wooden peg embedded in the ground by striking with the point of his lance, and we presently have two variations of this competition, i.e. Individual Tent Pegging and the Team Tent Pegging. In the Individual Tent Pegging the competition is based on the individual skills of the horse and the rider, white in the team event, 3 riders complete as a team with other such teams.

As of today, the Tent Pegging is a competition in which the combination of horse and rider with lance is tested on a marked track, with prescribed speeds, to pick up the peg with the lance. It is a competition to exhibit the horses energy, skill and obedience to gallop on the marked track, when the rider is aiming and picking up the peg. it is therefore both the rider and his mount together, contribute towards the successful results.

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