Went to a TREC competition.....

...but sadly without the horses, due to lack of transport. So we decided to volunteer for judging/checkpoint duties and we had an interesting day. The comp was at Horseplay Central, a centre run by a Parelli 3 star instructor, and is in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, we had to stop a local and ask directions to find it......

The Wessex TREC people were very welcoming and we were given clipboards and sent off to various PTV obstacles. Ali went off to do the maniabilité and I had the figure of eight and the rein back. It would seem that TREC GB have changed things a bit since they took over. I'm pretty sure the fig of 8 isn't on the PTV list in France. It's a fairly straightforward ride round two markers in a figure of eight pattern - but you can only have one hand on the reins, using two at any point means you score zero. The faster you do it, the more marks you get. Most people did it at the trot, some at the walk but a couple did manage it at canter.....

After that they had to do the rein back and most of them totally failed to score any marks (a foot out of the corridor means a zero score) Some horses were really unhappy and sent the poles flying all over the place! A big fluffy cob did one of the best jobs, as did a Western horse.

Once everyone had been round the PTV, we went back to the car and were assigned our checkpoint. This proved to be in a nice little spot at the end of a track from the woods. We waited a while for the first rider to arrive and predictably loads turned up at once so we had our work cut out filling in forms and sorting them out so they left at more staggered times. Unlike some French competitions we were not providing them with wine and nibbles ;-) The organisers did give us a free packed lunch for helping out though and I'd brought a flask of tea so we were well provisioned.

Scenery made for some nice photo opportunities.....more pics here if you're interested

After a while, we seemed to run out of riders but there were still 5 on my list who hadn't arrived. We passed the time idly wondering just how fast the mad tractor driver was going who seemed to be charging up and down our tiny road every ten minutes causing me to fear for the safety of my wing mirror every time he rushed past the car......Three of the missing riders eventually turned up over an hour later than expected, they'd got a bit lost in the woods!

By this time, I'd realised that our nice little checkpoint spot had no mobile phone coverage whatsoever, so leaving Ali clutching the clock and clipboard I drove up the hill to try and call about the remaining two missing riders, only to see the organiser driving down the same road coming to tell me they'd retired, their horses having lost shoes.

So we headed back up to the start field, handed in our results and managed to get home at a reasonable hour. Also met one of the ladies from our livery up there with her horse who she'd brought on his own in a double trailer, might have to see if she fancies a passenger next time......