Trec started over in France approximately 30 years ago. It started off as a means to test professional equestrian guides and soon the tourists wanted some of the action too.
T.R.E.C. stands for Technique de Randonnee Equestre de Competition.
Cornwall Trec Group started when some Trec enthusiasts asked Jane Fisher for some help to put on some Trec's locally. At the same time Rod Brake from BrePen Farm had also approached Jane asking if anyone would be interested in running Trec competitions from his Farm. The best way forward was to set up an affilliated club and put the two parties together and so Cornwall Trec Group was born.
What is Trec?
Trec consists of three phases. There are four levels. Level one being the easiest.
Phases
Parcours d'Orientation et de Regularite (P.O.R) or Orienteering
Level one orienteering will take about 2 -2.5 hours and will need very basic map reading skills. There will be regular checkpoints to minimise the risk of anyone getting drastically lost. The speeds are set at normal hacking speed so if you get a stretch which looks inviting for a canter, do it! On the other hand a steep downhill slope would indicate a slow walk.
Control of Paces (CoP)
The CoP takes place over a 150m long, 2 m wide corridor. It is designed to test your control of the horses canter and walk. You will canter one way as slowly as you can without breaking pace and then walk back as quickly as you can without breaking in to a trot. Your times are then converted in to scores. There are a total of 60 points to be gained in this section so it's worth doing some training.
Parcours en Terrain Varie (P.T.V)
This phase contains 16 obstacles (a maximum of two will be jumps). There could be an s-Bend, a water crossing, a rein back, pole bending to name a few. Each obstacle carries a maximum of 10 marks and there is an optimum time to complete all 16 obstacles. The great thing about Trec is that if there is any obstacle that you really don't want to do you can just tell the judge that you want to pass it by and record a zero score for that obstacle.
