How I got into TREC
I first got into TREC a few years ago when I was 10. My mum had already competed in a few Level 1 and 2 competitions the year prior and I became interested in competing when I went to watch some people do the PTV at a TREC near us. Later on that year we found a competition about an hour away from us that happened to be on the same day as my 10th birthday.
My first competition
My first competition was a Level 1 at Wormsley back in the August of 2017 when I was 10. I was taking part on my old pony Monty, a 12.2hh Welsh mountain pony. The PTV didn’t go very well as Monty ran away with me and we nearly left the PTV course, and we also got the maximum amount of time penalties, but we weren’t eliminated. The POR went a lot better and we ended up coming third.
My first season
My first season was in 2019, when I was 11 and 12, and I was riding a pony called Bruno. This would also be Bruno’s first season as we only took him to one TREC in Wales in 2018. Our first competition of the year was at Park Farm and Bruno wouldn’t go through the start flags of the MA, but apart from that it mostly went well and we came fifth out of thirteen pairs and qualified for the championship. Our next competition was at Rabson Manour, and we nearly got a perfect score on the POR (239), but Bruno wasn’t very confident with fences and ditches out on the PTV course. In between this and our next competition we did a lot of schooling and went to a cross country course a few times to practice fences and ditches. At the next competition, Bruno did a lot better, but we got eliminated on the PTV for missing an obstacle.
My first championship
My first championship was also in 2019 at Bucklebury equestrian, and I was 12. My mum had to ride a friend’s horse since her horse, Dougal, had already competed at the Level 2 championships the year before so she wasn’t allowed to ride him. We finished day 1 with the highest score on the POR and, for the first time, stayed in first for the second day as well. All the hard work from earlier in the year paid off and we came first.
My horses
At the moment, I am riding a grey connemara cross called Raiden who is 15hh. We bought him a week before the first lockdown in March 2020, and we have been trying to take him to lessons whenever we can. We have only been able to take him to one TREC in September, but he did very well and tried his best. Since we weren’t able to take him to any competitions in the summer, we instead took him up to the North Yorkshire Moors for a three day ride and he proved to be very good across long distances. My younger brother is now riding Bruno, but since neither of us are old enough to compete on our yet, Bruno probably won’t be doing any Summer TRECs for a while. Once competitions start back up again we will be doing some Level 3 Pairs TRECs.
