USTPF History – United States Tent Pegging Federation, Inc. (USTPF)

USTPF A NATIONAL GOVERNING BODY (NGB) FOR TENT PEGGING IN THE USA

BACKGROUND

No one exactly knows about the roots of “Tent Pegging” that from where the tent pegging roots rose. However, a myth is that Tent Pegging, which is also called skill at Arms was initially employed by the Macedonian conqueror; Alexander the Great when his armies couldn’t defeat the Raja Porus of Purushottama, which was the ancient King of Paurava. The main reason behind the unsuccessfulness of Alexander’s armies was that the Raja’s army was not only equipped with the Arms of that ancient times but also the army was supported with the elephants trained to attack the enemy armies.

This was a critical situation and because of the elephants role in the opponent armies was very exclusive. Alexander discussed this problem with his generals and they came to a conclusion that if Alexander wants to defeat the Purushottaman king; the Macedonian cavaliers should hit their spears between the nails of the elephants and in result the elephants will turn around and crush the Purushottaman army. This strategy worked extremely well and in result the Alexander’s armies successfully defeated the Purushottaman armies. Therefore, Tent pegging can be considered as ancient as 323 BC and an alien sport to the Americas.

Tent Pegging once has been very popular in the USA prior to 1940s between the WWI and WWII. Tent Pegging has taken many twists and turns before it started regenerating the roots once again in the soils of the United States of America and now it is an emerging equestrian sport in the greater Americas (North & South). Tent Pegging is one of the equestrian sports initially didn’t get significance and faced hurdles getting promoted in the USA in the current decade. This is an interesting story that how this miracle happened and when United States Tent Pegging Federation (USTPF) came into to existence? Answerer may not be very interesting for readers. There was a time when this sport was played in the United States as mentioned in start of the paragraph and fade away because of the people’s interest in other equestrian sports.

Many people tried and failed promoting this sport but due to lack of specific knowledge dealing with people and effectively drawing their attention for tent pegging. Dr. Asim Shahzad Malik D.B.A., the Chairman/ President of the Board and CEO of USTPF, always wanted to learn and play Tent Pegging, a childhood dream, which was not fulfilled for tent pegging other than riding horses on and off bases until December 2013. Dr. Malik entered the equestrian world permanently when he bought his horses in March of 2009 and rode specifically English and Western Pleasure disciplines but never seriously thought about tent pegging.

Time passed and in March 2010 Dr. Malik was deployed multiple times to fulfill his military duty on classified locations. During the year 2013 deployment period; one of those hot summer days on August 14, 2013; he was browsing the facebook and noticed a video song of famous Urdu singer Mehdi Hassan (Ya Daes Hamara Hay); someone posted from Pakistan (Dr. Malik’s Native country). He watched the video song just for the sake of fun and he saw tent pegging pictures in that video song. It just clicked in his mind and thought that was what he missed in his life (a childhood dream, wanted to be a tent pegger). This video really changed his life and he started searching for the Tent Pegging clubs and entities and could not find any in the continental United States of America other than noticing one individual by the name of Ron J. Smith registered an entity under the name of United States Tent Pegging Association (USTPA) registered in the State of Oklahoma in July 2004; advertised inviting the people for Tent Pegging Team Selection Trials from Dallas, TX to perform and represent in the USA in 2004 and 2005.

(http://www.usefnetwork.org/news/226/2004/11/18/selection_trials_for_the_us_tent.aspx).

Dr. Malik learned that Mr. Ron Smith could not carry his Tent Pegging promotion program due to his military deployments. Dr. Malik carried on his inquiry and foundout about the World Tent Pegging Federation (WTPF) website then and International Tent Pegging Federation (ITPF) now. Dr. Malik learned that there was no active tent pegging entity working in the USA. This situation frustrated and influenced Dr. Malik. Upon returning to the United States on a short vacation through the holiday season from military deployment Dr. Malik established and registered the United States Tent Pegging Federation (USTPF). The USTPF was registered as National Governing Body (NBD) for Tent Pegging in the United States on 30th December 2013 with the Secretary States, State of Oklahoma.

MILESTONES ACHIEVED

First milestone: The federation was registered as a Non-Profit 501(c)(3) organization with the Secretary State of Oklahoma.
Second milestone: USTPF logo was unveiled.
Third milestone: The Federation was recognized by the Equestrian &Tent Pegging Association of Pakistan (ETAP).
Fourth milestone: The USTPF was invited to participate in an event in Pakistan by the Equestrian &Tent Pegging Association of Pakistan (ETAP).
Fifth milestone: The USTPF website was launched.
Sixth milestone: The USTPF was officially recognized by the ITPF and offered membership.
Seventh milestone: The USTPF Tent Pegging training Clinic was conducted as planned on October 28, 2014 through November 1, 2014.

The USTPF participated in the first international Champion Trophy Tournament hosted by Prince Malik Ata Mohammad Kahn the President of ETAP. In that tournament two USTPF team players were sent to participate, Mr. Ammar M. Nomani and Mr. Aneet Singh Dhaliwal. First unfortunate thing happened before the tournament Mr. Dhaliwal went to visit his native country India and fell sick and could not arrive to Pakistan for the tournament. In an event when Mr. Dhaliwal didn’t make it to Pakistan, Prince Malik of Pakistan provided three players to the USTPF team from three different countries and called the USTPF team as UN team. The UN team was based on Mr. Ammar M. Nomani (USA), Tina Smith (UK), Bennie (South Africa) and Barry Biffin (Australia).

A very unfortunate thing happened in Pakistan, when the UK player Tina Smith who was representing the USTPF team fell from the horse and got seriously injured. However, the USTPF team lost many points because of one less team player and could not qualify for the Tent Pegging World Cup hosted by Oman in March- April 2014. As discussed above the USTPF achieved one more milestone when an invitation was received from the ITPF to come to Muscat, Oman to attend the opening ceremony of the Tent Pegging World Cup as USTPF official and represented the United States of America and the inauguration of the ITPF website. Before the opening ceremony of the Tent Pegging World Cup in a meeting three countries were given the official membership, which included Iran, Russia and the USA.

TENT PEGGING PROMOTION PLANS

During the stay in Muscat, Oman Dr. Malik met many dignitaries of the participating countries including Australia, India, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Sudan, United Kingdom and South Africa. Meetings with the countries’ officials were very useful and drew great results for the promotion of the tent pegging in the USA and worldwide. ITPF has raised their arms to support the USTPF with training and preparing the USTPF team for international tournaments. Once the details are discussed with the trainers from the South African team, USTPF will invite all the experienced and under training registered players to attend the training.

The training sessions are very important for successful future of the USTPF team. The officials at the USTPF are eagerly looking forward to complete the details with ITPF for visiting South African trainers. In the next step the USTPF has planned to have friendly matches in five different states in the continental USA followed by the friendly matches with Australia, Pakistan, United Kingdom and Sudan teams either in the USA or in Europe.

TULAS TENT PEGGING TRAINING CAMP

As discussed above the USTPF planned the tent pegging training clinic in October – November 2014. The plans for the tent pegging training were discussed and scheduled for the year 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Two training clinics are scheduled for 2021, first clinic will be conducted in last week of January 2021 and the second clinic will be conducted in October 2021 at Tulsa, OK training facility.