So this weekend D and I went off for our first ever outdoor trec competition together. I've done 4 before, D, aged 5, had done none. Only one indoor and one training session. So of course, we went for none other than the English trec champs.
We woke up Saturday morning, loaded the lorry and off we went. Arrived with enough time to get unpacked and set up the corral before we had to tack up and get to our tack check. My pair and I passed that (with a dart back to the lorry as I'd lost my hoof pick!) and off we went into the map room. 'One minute remaining' came up and we were only about half way through the route! Quickly finished off, with seconds to spare and we grabbed our horses and off we went.
Some muppet in a discovery comes flying over the cattle grid we had literally just navigated, scaring the living day lights out of the horses and said 'you're going the wrong way' ... On questioning, he hadn't a bloody clue, but it shook us up all the same. We then sat debating about some difficult gate for about 10-15 mins, and we were frazzled by the time we made it through all 3 gates! After this point it was mainly plain sailing, but slow as it took me over half the ride to settle my little pest down! Finally we made it back home, only an hour behind time, we untacked and off to the pub we went!
Yesterday, we learnt that the POR was indeed the full 15km, and the fact D had returned full of energy, was somewhat disconcerting! She had a rough night, calling out for a fair bit of it, missing her friends I think. Thankfully, a friend let us have a haynet full of haylage as she didn't like the hay we took, and I gave her a fibre block and a bigger feed. She came out of the corral fairly tired though, and I'll admit that while I slept, it wasn't a great nights sleep in the lorry. Next time I won't tie the net up to the side of the lorry!
Close to my time, I tacked up and went to warm up for the control of paces and PTV. I had a few lovely comments about D, and as there was a 10k run on across the road, with lots of marquees and excitement, the COP was causing a few issues. My pairs horse decided that it was much safer away from it all and thus ended up with my poor pair on the floor, her scoring 0 for COP. D was stood next to her horse when he reared, leapt up into the air, bronced and then bolted with his head down and back arched. She got a bit antsy but listened to me at all points and walked on to find my pair on the floor, when asked. At this point, I couldn't have been prouder of my little 5yo.
Then off we went, and we managed to score a 14 for our walk, but 0 for our canter as apparently we went out of the corridor. I didn't see it, but she must've swung her bum out. It was upsetting but, we went onto PTV next. Up the incline we went, we slid a bit so scored 8, spun round and got a 10 for our ride down. We also got 10's for our bending, and ridden bank, but nothing for our rein back as we stepped outside. We then went on to the scary water and got a 4, walked under the low branches and got a 5, a 0 for the ditch as D really wasn't keen, so attempted to walk round it... I walked, she jumped and decided it was much safer to get a piggy back from mum and crippled me by standing on my heel. We hopped (quite literally as I couldn't stand on my left leg) over the log and got a 10, a 2 for our led s bend but a nice 10 for our remount. We stumbled around the gate so gave up, got a 10 for immobility and a 9 for neck reining because I couldn't put my left foot in its stirrup. Finally a 9 for the ridden log and a 7 for the corridor.
I couldn't have been prouder of my little girl as we came 4th overall and qualified for nationals!
We woke up Saturday morning, loaded the lorry and off we went. Arrived with enough time to get unpacked and set up the corral before we had to tack up and get to our tack check. My pair and I passed that (with a dart back to the lorry as I'd lost my hoof pick!) and off we went into the map room. 'One minute remaining' came up and we were only about half way through the route! Quickly finished off, with seconds to spare and we grabbed our horses and off we went.
Some muppet in a discovery comes flying over the cattle grid we had literally just navigated, scaring the living day lights out of the horses and said 'you're going the wrong way' ... On questioning, he hadn't a bloody clue, but it shook us up all the same. We then sat debating about some difficult gate for about 10-15 mins, and we were frazzled by the time we made it through all 3 gates! After this point it was mainly plain sailing, but slow as it took me over half the ride to settle my little pest down! Finally we made it back home, only an hour behind time, we untacked and off to the pub we went!
Yesterday, we learnt that the POR was indeed the full 15km, and the fact D had returned full of energy, was somewhat disconcerting! She had a rough night, calling out for a fair bit of it, missing her friends I think. Thankfully, a friend let us have a haynet full of haylage as she didn't like the hay we took, and I gave her a fibre block and a bigger feed. She came out of the corral fairly tired though, and I'll admit that while I slept, it wasn't a great nights sleep in the lorry. Next time I won't tie the net up to the side of the lorry!
Close to my time, I tacked up and went to warm up for the control of paces and PTV. I had a few lovely comments about D, and as there was a 10k run on across the road, with lots of marquees and excitement, the COP was causing a few issues. My pairs horse decided that it was much safer away from it all and thus ended up with my poor pair on the floor, her scoring 0 for COP. D was stood next to her horse when he reared, leapt up into the air, bronced and then bolted with his head down and back arched. She got a bit antsy but listened to me at all points and walked on to find my pair on the floor, when asked. At this point, I couldn't have been prouder of my little 5yo.
Then off we went, and we managed to score a 14 for our walk, but 0 for our canter as apparently we went out of the corridor. I didn't see it, but she must've swung her bum out. It was upsetting but, we went onto PTV next. Up the incline we went, we slid a bit so scored 8, spun round and got a 10 for our ride down. We also got 10's for our bending, and ridden bank, but nothing for our rein back as we stepped outside. We then went on to the scary water and got a 4, walked under the low branches and got a 5, a 0 for the ditch as D really wasn't keen, so attempted to walk round it... I walked, she jumped and decided it was much safer to get a piggy back from mum and crippled me by standing on my heel. We hopped (quite literally as I couldn't stand on my left leg) over the log and got a 10, a 2 for our led s bend but a nice 10 for our remount. We stumbled around the gate so gave up, got a 10 for immobility and a 9 for neck reining because I couldn't put my left foot in its stirrup. Finally a 9 for the ridden log and a 7 for the corridor.
I couldn't have been prouder of my little girl as we came 4th overall and qualified for nationals!
