Leinster TREC PTV Practice Day, Kingsdale Stud, Co. Kildare

On Sunday, 15th February, eager riders and their mounts headed for Kingsdale Stud near Derrinturn, Co Kildare for a chance to brush up their PTV skills in readiness for the year ahead.

Thanks to owner Padraic O’Neill, we had both the large outdoor arena and the Derby Field Obstacles available for practice, and he had even organised the sun to shine for the day!  

With so much space, a total of 14 different TREC obstacles were laid out, many of which could be done as Led Obstacles also.  They included Mounting, One-Handed Figure of Eight, Low Branches, Slalom, Tree Trunk, Ditch, S-bend, Water Crossing, Path Crossing, Drop and Step-Up.

As the first group headed out, on-foot helper Rosemarie Bryson went with them, accompanied by experienced rider Diana O’Huid.  An experienced Judge, Rosemarie was able to tell the riders what was required at each Obstacle while Diana rode them to demonstrate how it should be done.   With many newcomers on the day, as well as riders who had come along for a refresher, this formula worked well.   Other groups were also accompanied on-foot, by Karen Reilly and Catherine Bartley who are both International riders, and with Niamh O’Huid (Level 3 TREC rider) mounted to demonstrate the Obstacles.

The last group of the day were 3 Junior Participants mounted on ponies, who were trying TREC for the first time.   Accompanied by Catherine on foot, they had a great time either trying to get the ponies to stand (Immobility) or go (Water Crossing) and enjoyed ducking down to do the Low Branches!

As always with TREC, the challenges of the variety of Obstacles made for an interesting and fun day, and the smiles on everyone’s faces on finishing their practice said it all.  

Our PTV/MA League starts on Sunday, 1st March and we have plenty more practice and training sessions organised throughout the year, so we look forward to meeting everyone again soon.