A MAN who has recently moved to Sampford Spiney is bringing some true sporting pedigree to West Devon — though in a sport you may never have heard of.

Michael Smith is a member of the British team for ‘tent pegging’ — the tradition of taking targets with real swords and lances on galloping horses. A team of four or five riders compete in team and individual classes. The aim is for the winning team to attain the very highest number of points.

Michael competed in South Africa in August as part of Team GB, riding to qualify for the International Tent Pegging Federation World Cup. He produced a high and consistent score which contributed to the overall team score. The team attained the best score a British team has yet achieved in the sport, finishing behind the world champions South Africa and a good team from Iraq while beating the USA side to clinch the important third place. Their efforts meant the team will compete in the World Cup next year.

It was Michael’s interest in cavalry tactics and mounted warfare that helped to spark his passion for the sport. He was a Prix St George level dressage rider but the horses were getting too expensive to continue competing.

He said: ‘A friend asked me to get one of my dressage horses along and try mounted games with swords and lances. I was sceptical but I went and I never looked back. We have trained horses from many backgrounds into tent pegging. Mounted games like polo are the easiest but others can do well. Dressage is a surprisingly good background for it actually, as I found. I have trained one person up to international level in two years and in South Africa he was the leading GB rider.’

He said it felt great to represent his country alongside his team mates. He said: ‘Our riders always apply themselves to the utmost, sometimes riding against military and police personnel fully funded by their countries. We are self funded and self-motivated. In the countries we visit, which are sometimes not the safest politically, we are treated like royalty or top soccer stars.

‘The rider must have good weapons skill and be a very good rider able to ride the horse and correct the horse’s line while riding one handed with a sword or a lance in full gallop, some times going under 7.5 seconds over 100 metres. Very importantly you must be a team player and trust your team mates with weapons sometimes quite close to each other!’

The British team receives no formal UK funding, or coaching, and has developed its success through the dedication of its members and its in-house coaching and training.

Michael narrowly missed individual silver medals in two classes in South Africa but helped the team to bring back three team bronzes under the team manager and his wife Tina Ricketts-Smith and their passionate South African coach, Dalene Baksa. Michael also recently returned from a twelve nation competition in Delhi with an individual silver out of 46 riders and helped produce the team gold in the Indian file event in which the UK excels.

Michael is also a UK coach and trainer and is always interested to meet new comers and help them into the sport.

The World Cup finals are expected to be held in Egypt in the first half of 2016 where the top ten qualifying nations will compete.