One last TREC...

As some of you will know, we are heading back to the UK at Christmas, dog, (most of the) horses and all, so yesterday was our last French TREC competition. Fitting that it was the Beaumont Christmas TREC which was the first competition we ever did here four years ago.....

This time we went with Carole and John from the club and Ali took Kinna for her first ever competition. We didn't have a particularly early start time but in true French style, we still managed to be half an hour late. Nobody minded though, so after some strong coffee, second breakfast and a quick bit of map copying, we donned our tinsel and off we went.

The weather was perfect, sunny and not too cold and for once we didn't get rained on. We managed to get our average speed about right because Carole's Arab, Nadjma, wanted to rush off thinking she was doing endurance and poor old G, despite wanting to keep up with her, just couldn't do the speed, especially at canter, so they had to wait for us every so often which meant we didn't lose any marks for going too fast.....

But he still had a nice spring in his step, even though I'd ridden him the 15kms up to the club last Friday and he'd been out on a hack with Kinns the day before.

Kinna was ace, she seems to really enjoy hacking out. Carole reckons she could be good at endurance as she doesn't seem to stress about much so her heart rate shouldn't be too high. She will be staying here in France at the club as Ali is already too tall for her really and Carole is just the right size :-)

Chox came with us too and really enjoyed herself, especially as when she looked longingly at the snacks on the checkpoints people took pity on her and slipped her bits of the charcuterie....

Those last three pics were taken by the professional photographer and really show the colours well, my little camera doesn't unfortunately, although I was surprised that this pic I took whilst cantering came out quite well:

After a few wine stops, or checkpoints as they are usually known, we got back to the stables for the main event, the slap up meal in the indoor school. Posh this year though as there were tablecloths and everything! In the absence of the SNO who had opted to go to the Bordeaux Christmas market with Mamie, Aliénor did her trick of hoovering up all the free chocolates and then not wanting her dinner.

And then it was the prize giving. Tamzin and her friend won the fancy dress prize for their angelic look.......

....and our team came.......second out of 8 teams/individuals in the Club competition, really pleased with that :-) Especially as if you look at the team only comp, we were first out of 3.

Christmas holidays......

Fially got a bit of time to catch up with the blogging, all been a bit busy recently....

To start off, my Christmas present from the other half - a trip to Olympia! Have never actually been before and it was great. Some hightlights were (in no particular order)getting driven past Harrods in a Roller,

 meeting Tim Stockdale,

having a pint of London Pride in a proper pub,

the extreme driving competition,

 seeing the GB medallists,

the Barcelona Mounted Police (gorgeous Iberians)

and of course getting to finally see the Hobbit (Richard Armitage, ding dong......)

And here are the video highlights, Nick Skelton jumping (for Ali), Boyd Exell in the extreme driving competition (he won), Jean-Francois Pignon, Shetland Pony Grand National, Royal Barcelona Mounted Police, Team GB medallists and the Christmas Finale.

Didn't get a lot of sleep over the two days we were there, but it was worth it.....!

Back home, the man priority has been getting Kinna out on the road. We did an in hand Interdressage class on the one sunny day of the week and she was very good about having rustling boxes strapped to her back and thought the tinsel looked very tasty......

We went out round the village to do the video (it was a family horse or pony class), gave the locals something to stare at anyway....

On Christmas Day, we made a wreath for the horses, plaited hay, carrots, sprouts and mints, it went down very well, apart from the sprouts, only Gandalf was prepared to eat them!

Then yesterday we tried Fina's saddle on Kinna and it's a reasonably good fit, Kinns is quite wide for a spindly horse! So we went for a little amble round the village and she wasn't too bad, apart from the shenanigans when she wanted to eat grass and wasn't allowed to! Luckily Ali found it all rather amusing......

Off up to Bordeaux later to see the Hobbit again, well I promised Ali I'd take her to see it, shouldn't be too much of a hardship to sit through a second time ;-)

Merry Christmas......

Christmas TREC

This year's Beaumont Christmas TREC competition at the weekend didn't quite go according to plan......we had entered as a team of four, but the day before we got the bad news that one of the tow vehicles wouldn't be ready in time so we had to decide which two could go. One of them had to be me, because, let's face it, I'm the only one who can actually read a map.......

So in the end, we loaded up Gandalf and Polo for the trip and everyone else came along to watch. I had managed to secure the services of a Shetland for the SNO, which she thought was rather marvellous, especially when her father, who was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, let her off the leadrein......

...unfortunaltely, as there was a record number of teams this year, they didn't have a spare horse for Ali to ride, even the mules had been pressed into service, so she went round in the car with Tanya.

It rained all morning, until it was time to go, which was better than I was expecting. We set off down the slippery path into the woods, and very quickly caught up with the Shetland group shepherded by some disgruntled looking adults in big waterproof macs - and Mike, who had already relinquished control of Éowyn's pony. Which meant that as we passed the ponies (the one at the back tried to kick poor Gandalf, no wonder he's not keen on small ponies), hers was at the front and tried to trot off after us. She of course though this was great fun, so we had to wait until one of the unhappy helpers caught hold of her before we could carry on.

At the first checkpoint, predictably, Hollie forgot about unclipping her airjacket and had to do some undignified hopping with one foot still in the stirrup until she'd detatched herself, fortunately it didn't go off. The boys were happy to have a munch on some hay - until the Shetlands turned up and Gandalf thought it would be prudent to get out of there sharpish.....

On we went (still no rain) until the second checkpoint which consisted of a gazebo in a field. Gandalf, safe in the knowledge that gazebos are not, in fact, horse eating monsters, walked right on under it and attempted to help himself to the bread on the table......he nearly got away with it too, as I was momentarily distracted by one of the mules attempting to roll with its rider still aboard. The boys were both quite interested in the mules, actually......

Then we set off on the third leg of the course which took us back towards the town of Beaumont. At one point I saw from the map that we had to cross a main road, so I'd got Tanya to take Choccy away in the car. Turns out I needn't have worried, as we had to go UNDER the road in a not very inviting looking, low, narrow tunnel!

So I got off, and the boy breathed in, and calmly followed me through. Love him. Polo followed us and Hollie didn't even need to get off, just as well as if the air jacket had gone off in the tunnel, we might have had a problem getting her out......

Next, on up into the town itself and we rounded a corner to see.......some steps

I double checked the maps, but it was indeed the right way, so after a moment's hesitition (I think he was figuring out just where to put his feet), Gandalf went on up, and as soon as Polo saw him put a foot on the first step, he scrambled up ahead of us. Nice to see that all the strange stuff I do with him pays off :-)

We arrived at the last checkpoint after the usual wiggle through the little cobbled streets in Beaumont and we even managed to arrive by the right one. Stopped off for some wine and excellent pepper sausage, then headed back to the stables.

After the TREC was the traditional slap up 5 course meal with extra chocolates, mostly hoovered up by the SNO. Lots of people sitting in an indoor sand school wearing Santa outfits.

And finally the prize giving.....and we came 5th out of 12 teams, happy with that :-)

It's that time of year again.....

Time for the Beaumont Christmas TREC! Got up at stupid o' clock to load the boys in the dark and the rain, Gandalf won't load unless we put all the lights on in the car and open the doors at the front of the trailer. Ches doesn't care because he knows there's hay in there!

Drove to Beaumont in the rain. Unloaded and tacked up in the rain, you get the idea. Lots of other nice dry clean horses emerged from various trailers all rugged and booted, ours were muddy and hairy, never mind. Went down to the map room, there were various letters to add to the map, not sure about the significance of them, never mind, got on and got going. In the rain.....

Ali's pony wasn't too chuffed about leaving his mates and going out with strange horses, lots of ears back and at one point tried to kick Gandalf Never mind, still loads better than the pony from hell we ended up with last year......

Arrived at checkpoint one in the rain, nice bit of hot soup to keep us going, the team behind arrived and Ali's pony, recognizing some of his mates, got a bit unneccessary and started rearing, had to read him the riot act, he soon settled down. We carried on, in the rain, mostly went the right way, got to checkpoint 2.

Glass of wine and some charcuterie this time, and we were handed a piece of paper explaining that the letters on the map are for the clips you have to punch your card with, but you must only clip the card if the clip is where the letters are, there may be some letters without clips or some clips in the wrong place, so don't clip the card with those..... 

It's not usually so complicated!

On we went, still raining, the tracks were getting nice and muddy by now, at one point we cantered up a hill, well the other three did and Ches set off after them but couldn't work out why he was running and not moving, he'd found a huge patch of mud and was just wheel spinning in place, the others looked back to see me laughing and laughing....he eventually got some grip and we charged up the hill.......

Last checkpoint and more wine and nibbles, Ches managed to knock a tray of them out of the guy's hand sadly for him it was all meat so even he didn't try to eat any off the ground. He did try to eat the plastic bin bag though......

Back to the stables, still raining, put the boys in a box with some hay, and hung around waiting for the rest of the teams to come in. The littlies on the Shetlands arrived back, the SNO had a brilliant time, Mike possibly less so trudging through the mud for 9kms.

Then it was food time, slap up lunch by a local traiteur with more wine of course and chocolates, we had to keep an eye on the SNO who kept trying to sneak off and steal the chocolates from the other tables.

Then the prizes, we were't last in the club section (!) but came fourth out of 7, and got an extra prize for the best fancy dress.We got a bag containing some enormous dried sausages, jars of paté and walnuts. And Mike got a bottle of bubbly for trudging round in the mud.