Once more unto the breach
11 February 2008, 09h55 EST (GMT-5)
https://www.maharaj.org/blog/2008_02_11.shtml
UNICEF Team Canada Tent Pegging
Click logo for the team's page
Letting slip what little grasp I retain on sense and reason, I decided to fly to Asia to represent Canada and UNICEF at the 2008 International Tent Pegging Championships, just a few days before the games began. It was undoubtedly an appropriate approach to a sport that prizes reckless abandon above forethought.
A 2 500 year-old discipline of horse, lance, sword, and sabre, tent pegging is better known in the New World as equestrian skill-at-arms. My tent pegging page gives the details of the sport, the championships, my partnership with UNICEF, and how I came to captain Canada's national team.
I first took up the sword and stirrup for Canada at the 2007 international championships in the Sultanate of Oman, and if I did not ride entirely to glory, I hope I represented our country with honour. During the championships, I kept a daily blog of my misadventures astride Shomool, a warhorse out of the Sultan's stables, bred for bloodlust and battle frenzy.
This year, the international championships were held in Imphal, a city in India's north-east hinterland. With the odd feral boar rooting about the streets, I was not surprised to find my Internet access from Imphal halting at best. I am, therefore, only able to publish my account of the games to my blog after my return to Toronto. I trust the account will not suffer for the delay.
I will also publish images from the games to my online photo albums at Facebook and at Flickr, as well as through an iPhoto photocast.
My journey to the far side of the world and to the edge of medal podium is one that I will carry with me always, as one of the most improbable experiences in a life littered with happy absurdities.
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