Sun 2nd
Finally put all 14 Trec obstacles together so that Bella and I can practise it…before we film it. I am not going to practise too much, I know the obstacles we need to try to get better so will be working on those individually.
What is Trec and why am I putting up a course? Well, Trec is a horse sport that started in France, as the Trec UK website states: ‘TREC is a sport intended to test the skills of a horse and rider in planning and executing a long distance ride in unfamiliar country. It originated in France as a way of testing and improving the skills of trail ride leaders, and was introduced into the UK in the early 1990s.’
It has three parts to it with the competition. Firstly a cross country section (learning to orienteer with map and compass) very similar to hacking out, then an obstacle section and then the paces section. The obstacle section is very similar to what I do and train with Horse Agility (although agility has more imagination with the tasks done with each obstacle and can change and rearrange them as much as wanted) and the paces will be fun to learn as we have to do a Fast Walk then a Slow Canter 😉
AND…why am I doing it? Well, after training a good horsemanship foundation on my horses I do things like this to test our connection and to see where we are with training…it puts ‘a purpose to the principles’ of horsemanship and everything I do 😉 I will be able to see the things that are in place and also the things we can work on to get better SO it’s a test and a test is not a win or fail, it’s a place where we can just see where we are and know where to progress 😉
So, here is my course…..mostly the obstacles but I’ve also included the paces.
The 14 obstacles are as follows:
- Immobility: horse stands still in the pole square while I walk around one way then the other
- Mounting: ask horse to sidle to mounting block, mount then dismount and ask horse to sidle up to the mounting block on other side
- Gate: open, walk through then close without taking hand off rope gate…repeat back the other way
- Rein back: into parallel poles to the end then backup to the start of poles then walk on
- ‘S’ bend: walk around poles in S shape without touching poles
- Bridge: between bunting lanes and over wooden ‘bridge’
- Water: walk through water or simulation such as a tarp with or without water in it
- Bending: trot through a weave
- Low branches: simulation using upright poles with crossbars
- Jump: trot or canter into and out
- Fig 8: trot pattern using one hand only
- Uphill then downhill: any gait
- Fast walk: fastest without going into trot
- Slow canter: slowest without going into trot
Tues 4th
Managed to get out with the horses and Mark today. Started doing some obstacle practise with Bella and the Trec stuff and she was so good. I think she (and Stormy w/Mark) really enjoy the challenges we give them and also they enjoy the time we spend together. Here’s some pics of us working on line through the obstacles.
I LOVE the way Bella ducked her head when I ducked mine through the low branch simulation (archways), really helped me know that she can do this. I was going to do that obstacle in trot but know generally it’s done in walk or canter as those two gaits are smoother and not bumpy.
It was Mark and Stormy’s turn to have some fun afterwards, they did it at liberty and Stormy showed he knew exactly what he was doing 😉 such a big clever boy 🙂
Lastly Bella and I did our first ridden practise session with it all. All went pretty well. The obstacles I knew would be new or not fixed in our general training need a bit more practise but for today I was very pleased with her bravery and try throughout 😉
Obstacles needing more practise are: gate, arches, slow canter, up hill and one handed fig 8’s.
I’m looking forward to getting out to do a bit more and progressing to where it all flows together more 😉
Fri 7th
Today Bella and I tried the Trec out properly. Mark video’d it all for us, warts and all. You can see she is needs more work on the gateway but when I forgot to open the end of the arena up and had to do the gateway again it went quite well. We also need to work on the slow canter…we’re just doing more canter work so this is a fun challenge for us both. What I was SO happy with was the fab first round of obstacles, nice smooth under the low branches (archways), the fig 8 one handed, the jump and the fab canter uphill 🙂
We will continue practising this course, between other things to make sure we get plenty of cross training and fun 😉 Here’s the video from today….
Sun 9th
Just had a bit of fun riding around the field on Bella with Mark and Stormy 😉
Me and Bella…..really love this big girl, she tries her heart out and makes me feel so safe
We started with just going around the round pens in trot….consistent, rhythmic, balanced trot
Then we went to try out our 2023 challenge…this is to canter around the round pens in a fig 8 pattern. This means we’ll do one full circle on the left lead and one on the right lead AND hopefully with a SLC in the middle. A SLC is a ‘simple lead change’ and is when we get to the centre of the fig 8 we come down from canter to a trot for a couple of strides and then back up into canter with the different canter lead 😉
TODAY….we managed almost full circles around the round pens in canter. This is a fabulous FIRST for us today and she was relaxed, balanced, willing and on the correct canter leads….So impressed and SO glad we’ve taken our time finding relaxation in canter before trying this 😉
It might not seem a big deal to many but this is a BIG DEAL for us…to have us both relaxed and for me to be ‘feeling’ the reins and not holding or pulling her into the circle was fab. So light, polite and such happy canters 😉
We then went on to test our one handed trotting fig 8’s around the tyre piles too 😉 Slowly getting ready for another try at Trec.
Mark and Stormy took it all in their stride, did some lovely cantering up a hill and then trotting fig 8’s too 🙂
Tues 11th
Had to do a ‘saliva’ test with Stormy today (part of our regular worming test program) and he needed to stop eating/drinking for half an hour SO I groomed him and then rode him bareback for a bit. Just a lovely plod but asking for a nice, even, big stride out 😉
Stormy is always such a good boy and it was a lovely ride.
Bella came over thinking I had a treat for her but no treats, just some fussing and lotsa Love <3
Best pic of B&S together <3
Then after a nice groom I rode Bella. We did a lovely workout of consistent trotting around the field helping to get both our energy, core strength and fitness better. She did very well keeping in gait for me and it was a lovely dry sunny day so glad I rode them both as I think we have a day of rain tomorrow.
Sat 15th
Chilly day but nice for riding
Decided to try a nice wee hack out…Stormy wasn’t feeling like he wanted to do it
but we got out of the field and a bit down the track which was enough for Storm
Bella did a good job of leading a lot of the way back, such a brave girl she is
Mark and Storm took it nice and slowly
Bella and I did the same, nice and slow, calm with a lovely soft walk
Back in the field we enjoyed stretching the walk out a bit more and then watching the lambs and ewes in the field below for a bit
Really nice to just be out and about with the horses in dry weather 😉
Tue 18th
Decided to bring Storm & Bella back to the home paddocks just for a change of scenery for them and to have them at the back door for a few days. Love doing this, it gives us a wee hack out and then lots of hugs and treats because they’re so close for a few days 🙂
They both did so well being so close to the Highland cows and their calves 😉
Wed 19th
Spent an hour or so trimming Bella’s feet while Mark did Stormy’s feet 😉
Fri 21st
Just LOVE that Bella is good at sidling to anything I ask for me to remount after having to open/close a gate.
I used a gate, then this big stone and finally one of the field jump wings 😉 🙂
Sat 22nd
