trecforbegginers

[trecforbegginers]

[trecforbegginers]

Our first trec sore sheet..

[trecforbegginers]

Trec for Begginers

Welcome! My name is Helen, and along with my race horse Tempo, we decided to give TREC a go.  As a complete newbie, I found it very difficult to find information about TREC, but we are learning as we go and there are many little tid bits of information which would have been helpful to know before our first adventure.  Trec is a great discipline which I think you will find highly addictive, especially if as a rider you dont fancy the higher risk events, such as XC and SJ. Trec is made up of phases, some competitions are made of FULL TREC which is usually set over a weekend and you have to stay on site with your horse, or there are individial competitions using just one of the phases. Phases explained: POR - Orienteering PTV  -  Obsticle course (handy pony) MA - Control of paces POR (orienteering explained) I have only completed one of these events.  We had great success with a 1st Place, but I can assure you this is more luck that judgement :) What to expect... Firstly you have to prepare you KIT.  Read the entry form carefully as it will give you all the information about what to carry.  In a nutshell, you have to have a first aid kit, High Vis, compass, pens and a map bag.  The kit HAS to be on the horse/saddle not just in your pockets.  You will be checked and marked on this kit so dont loose silly points for not having  hoof pick :) We were given times for our day, Map Room 11.25  ,Tack Check 12.10  Start POR 12.20 We made our way to the map room with no clue what to do, I thought there would be more more help available but actually it was all quite serious. 1st thing I didn't know is that you have to take your map bag, pens and compass INTO the map room with you, unfortunately all my kit was on my horse who was tacked up in the lorry! All I had was a couple of Bic pens haha. You will get TEN timed minutes to copy the route from the master map on to the provided blank map.  You will need thin nibbed highlighter NOT biros like we had, this is so you can see through your pen mark at the map below, it can be quite intricate, and a biro completly blacks out the route. While in the map room, you will be given an optimum time either for the whole course or for the first check point (Im still working out, I will update when I understand it properly) I was told 6km per hour.  I guess if I was smart I would calculate the length of the ride and keep tabs on the time, but Im not that clever LOL   Once your time is up, they KEEP your map bag and kit which they return to you at the start of the ride. Advice I was given on the day.... 6kph is a walk, 8kph is trot and anything above that will involve canter. So 7kph will be a mixture of walk and trot. NEXT you can get on your horse or lead to the tack check where you receive your map bag, and additional paper work off you go..! At the start you will be given a “Check Point Card” This is a card that you hand in at each check point and the stewards will check your horse, write your times and make you wait for 5 minutes. ***Flags*** The stewards are an obstacle on them self's, you have to enter and leave the correct way!  RED Flag on your right and WHITE flag on your left. The next thing you need to look out for are “Markers”  Every time you see a “Marker” (in our case White paper with a black number) you need to circle the number on your stewards card.  DO NOT cheat, some of these are penalty markers.. For instance if you are on the correct route, you may see numbers 2,3 5 & 7.  If you are on the WRONG route, you may see number 4&6, so if you circle THOSE numbers you will get a penalty. Thats all for now... ! I will update as I learn :)