Ingrid Klug and Haydn Bam
 Vuma Trec
Eston Show 2009

"Please click photos to enlarge"

Vuma Horse Feeds was very involved in the Trec event held at the Eston Show this past weekend. Apart from simply supporting the event and providing prizes for the winners, two of our team members actually rode as the Vuma Team on Sunday. Haydn Bam and Ingrid Klug, relative novices to the sport of Trec thoroughly enjoyed themselves and this is what Haydn had to tell us:

Haydn BamTrec is a relatively new sport and one that every horse and rider can enjoy, with the emphasis on having fun with your horse!

The sport is made up of 3 Phases, all designed to test a horse and rider through various challenges. It is similar to Adventure Racing, except that it’s done on horseback!

Phase A Orienteering Phase: involves following a route using a map as guidance, and having to look out for hidden check points on the route. This phase is done at a brisk walk with a bit of trotting and cantering.

Phase B Control Gaits: involves cantering 150m as slowly as possible and then walking back as fast as possible, without trotting.

Phase C Cross Country Obstacle Course: involves a course 1-5km with 20 obstacles to tackle. Some of them are jumps, banks, hedges, water, bending, reining back, walking on plastic sheeting, walking on a wooden platform, opening and closing a gate, and many more.

Ingrid and I entered as the Vuma Team a month before the event but we ignored all the organizers emails telling us to practice before the day because we had no time.

Finally the day arrived when we had to load up and get to Eston. We arrived at the registration with our horses tacked up to find out that our start time was only an hour later. We were number 30 and 31, so we killed time by watching the other competitors go through phases C and B, and picked up some tips.

Our turn eventually arrived and we started with Phase B which went very well, we did the gaits and we had to dismount on a square bale, lead the horse 10m then remount on another bale, but from the wrong side (right/offside). This was followed by passing though a narrow corridor and doing a figure of 8 on a bank.

We then went on to Phase C, where we struggled, because of the distraction of parachutists, loud music and announcements, kids fun-fare rides and many demos happening on the same field as us. We jumped the fence onto the field, then through the bending poles and onto the wooden platform. We then rode through a zig zag and narrow poles on the ground. Next was trotting under the low branches and rein back, followed by walking over a tarpaulin and moving a basket from one drum to another 20m away. Finally we had to leave our horse and walk away for 20 seconds, without the horse moving, and then open and close a gate while mounted.

Finally we went out on Phase A; this is what we were looking forward to! There was a little doubt in some places regarding which road to take because sugar cane lands have lots of contour roads. We managed to clock in at all the hidden check points but we rode too fast and were penalized for that. The scenery was fantastic, the weather was great and we had a great ride. We finished in 5^th place out of 14 teams (we have a rosette to prove it), and we will be practicing before the next event.

Thank you to the organizers for the fantastic effort that they put into the event.

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Trec South Africa