First Le Trec competition tomorrow

[Catherine M-S]

I am getting so excited! Hattie and I are going to our first Le Trec competition on Saturday. I have read the Rule Book and the longer Guide but if anybody has any handy hints then fire away.
I am particularly looking forward to seeing how I get on with calculating speed as timekeeping + maths are not core competencies. ;D
Thanks - who knows I may even pluck up enough courage to file a report?!

[Casper]

Hope you have a fantastic time Catherine. I LOVE TREC, think it is brilliant. Wasn't any cop with timekeeping etc as really did it more for fun. Just remember that if there are any obstacles in the PTV which you don't want to attempt you need to tell the judge as you get to that particular one.

It's great fun and a brilliant way to further bond with your horse I found.

Enjoy! xx

[Catherine M-S]

Thank you. I can see why you loved it, I am hooked after one go. We messed up a couple of obstacles and our timing was predictably hopeless but Hattie was such a good girl, got a couple of really encouraging marks and came home with petrol in the tank (unlike Henry who had to have emergency diesel administered through a funnel made of Evian bottles to get us home LOL!)
Catch up soon x

[jennyb]

Well done! It's great fun isn't it. I've only done one so far, I went on my vet's horse. My vet competes at national level TREC, so she's made a speed/distance chart which is really great. Basically I had to mark off half mile markers on the map in the map room using a bit of string. Then she had done a chart which said at 7kph it should take you x mins to do half a mile, x mins to do a mile, x mins to do 1.5 miles, and so on for all the various speeds you might get given. Then all I had to do was zero the stop watch at the checkpoints and let it run til I got to the next stage. I could look at the map to see where we were, and with the help of the stop watch I knew how long it should take us to get to each half mile, so I could figure out if I needed to kick on or take it steady! It worked well, I messed up the first few miles but once I'd got into my little system I was fine!

Still came last though, control of gaits was not all that controlled, lol!

[Casper]

Well done to you and Hattie, glad you enjoyed it so much Catherine. Where was the TREC held?

Hubby and I were planning to get the boys out more and if they were going well attempt a Level One TREC at Chesterfield in September... That's out the window this year now but hope to do some next year.

Love the improvisation re Henry by the way!

Jenny that sounds like a good system, I'm going to print that off for next year!

xx

[Catherine M-S]

Jennyb, thanks for the hints on measuring the distances, I had a ready reckoner with me but I forgot my stopwatch so I decided to just enjoy the afternoon as it was our first one. I also bumped into a friend of mine and Julia's from 30 years ago in the map room so spent most of the time gossiping which was not the best use of the 10 minutes. I will definitely mark the map as you suggest next time - we were "lapped" by a few people and I am not sure whether they were nearer the time or not.
We were in Lilley so really local and a good thing that I sort of knew the area as I really had not done enough prep for the distance section. John (long suffering OH) says that he will help me learn about this side more before we tackle another one in less familiar surroundings.

[silversnaffles]

Hi spotted this thread a little late, have you done anymore since this?
If you want help on anything just ask. I LOVE trec and have done 10 or so now, inc 2 championships. I'm not all that great at the PTV and CoP (riding an ex-trotter can hinder points in the canter section lol!) but my orienteering is much improved now.
x x x