My latest endeavour on the "Ridgeway" ride.

17.04.06

This weekend we surfaced from our slumbers at an ungodly hour in order to make the journey to our latest Trec competition. It was in Swindon Wiltshire in the beautiful setting of the North Wessex Downs. We had asked for a late start time to give us a bit more leeway with finding the venue and getting organised when we arrive, as I still had to walk the course.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the PTV (obstacles) They were set out in a field amongst various cross country fences and it looked like some lucky persons beautiful lawn.The course started with a small jump(a log pile) and then the bending poles, which I opted to trot through as Cherie often seems to get her legs all of a muddle by the last pole if we try to lope it and breaks gait, which results in a lower score than just trotting.

After that it was straight on to another jump, a small hedge and then a ridden step down into a sunken box and a step up to pop out again. After this we had to put on the brakes and go into calm mode to tackle the S Bend, which can only be done in walk and then the reinback. The next obstacle was a water crossing which was basically a very well made water jump, but luckily we dont have to jump in and out of it, just walk through! We then made our way over to the immobility, where you have to dismount and lead the horse into a small circle. You then leave the horse standing there while you stand outside a larger circle and hope it doesnt move.You can speak to your horse but no hand or body movements. Once the judge gives you the ok  you can lead your horse away and on to the next obstacle which was to lead through a trailer and then lead over an open ditch and up a step to another small circle where you remount from the offside(I definitely have the advantage in a western saddle). Continuing on again to pop over another ditch and through the corridor of poles and finally to the gate to finish. Such fun and so rewarding to complete the course.

Having already succesfully completed the control of paces section there was a quick break while I loaded up with my compulsory equipment for the orienteering phase (and a quick cuppa!) 

 The map room was in the barns of the farm and when my turn came to copy out my route I saw that we were to ride around the famous Ridgeway area.The tracks looked pretty straightforward and the speed was 7kph which was a nice slow to medium start off.

The route took us right through the village of Avebury which was heaving with tourists. Here, there is the largest stone circle in Europe creating an impressive Neolithic ceremonial landscape, with over 200 stones. As you rise up onto the Downs there are some spectacular views over miles of beautiful countryside. Altogether the ride was about 16 Kilometres and took just under 3 hours.I was pleased with my speeds as they were very close to the ideal losing only 7 points but I omitted to find some hampers on the way round, which gave me penalties and left us in 6th position overall. The hampers were a novel idea specific to this Trec. Usually you might be asked to look for Tickets or markers along your route to make sure you have followed the correct tracks and an example would be in the map room at the start. But we were told to look for sweet wrappers in hampers and I was so engrossed in my map that I didnt see any!! I learn something new at every Trec I do!!