January has nearly gone and what has it contained for me? Well thoughts are starting to turn towards the 2012 TREC season and my diary is filling up at a scary rate. The most exciting dates popping up are my training for the Olympics but unlike most other Horse Hero bloggers, I am not aiming to represent Britain as my sport is not an Olympic sport, rather I have been selected to volunteer in the role of "Eventing Officials Team Member". I’m still a little unsure as to what this actually means but I have my first Role Specific training day at the end of February so hopefully all will become clear before too long. Mum has also been selected for a role within the Equestrian Team so we’re extremely excited about what the summer has in store for us, a once in a lifetime experience I’m sure and what an honour to be a part of such a unique occasion.
Back in the world of TREC I have attended my first unmounted practise session of the year, a club grid reference and bearings session on the outskirts of Birmingham. This was a great opportunity to dust off the orienteering skills and meet up with TREC friends; I even dragged Ed, his father and dog along for the walk too.
Last week Wiz dusted off his obstacle skills too, when we were asked to give an evening demonstration to Sedgley Equi-Centre and Pony Club. I was surprised by the number of attendees on such a cold evening and then had the further surprise at being given a microphone for the session; nevertheless, I warmed Wiz up whilst I chatted away with my wonderful helpers, Bev Stevens and Julia Lowe, who filled in any gaps that I missed. Wiz was quite spooked by the arena at first but once he’d started to settle we ran through each of the obstacles in turn with the audience doing an excellent job of being very stringent judges!
Everything was running swimmingly, Wiz had remembered his training and completed the obstacles extremely well, including the life threatening water tray with real water in it…..until the low branches. We lined up for the obstacle and rocketed at it at our usual pace. However, I’d not thought about my exit from the obstacle; as usual I lent to the right, cleared it with ease but then we reached the end of the arena and Wiz turned left at which point I exited stage right and landed in the metal barrier separating the spectators from the course! Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen! Thankfully the worst injury was my dented pride and I remounted and went back for another attempt, this time leaning to the left and completing the obstacle without any further mishap! Hopefully I’ll learn my lesson from that one.
The remainder of the evening passed without incident. Once I’d demonstrated all of the obstacles, I was then joined by the wonderful Lauren on Jasper, who on their first attempt at the sport showed how accessible TREC is and put in a very respectable performance, maybe a couple of stars to watch for the future?!
