FRIEZLAND Arena was the starting point for the annual fun TREC for horse riders from as far afield as the Midlands,
The winner was Alex Wells, from Redditch, Worcestershire, with her mount Heron and the winning pair was Zoe Morton, of Deepcar, Sheffield, and Wakefield’s Judith Fisher who both recently competed at the National Championships in Oldham back in August.
Local riders Julie Swindells, from Mossley, and Gee Cross’ Naomi Bromley took the trophy for the highest placed novice pair and Leek’s Elen Rees took the trophy for the highest-placed rider on the obstacle course.
TREC, which originated in France, is a sport intended to test the skills of a horse and rider in planning and executing a long-distance ride in unfamiliar country.
Fortunately, the weather was extremely kind, and the storms of previous days had subsided to leave good conditions for the competitors.
More than 20 riders took part in the three-phase challenge that saw them head off on their orienteering route of approximately six miles towards Uppermill along the multi-user path that was originally the railway line.
Then they turned and headed back to Greenfield, via Bunkers, and up on to Moor Edge Road, returning to the arena past Mossley Hollins School and along the old railway.
Prior to starting the orienteering phase, the riders completed their control of paces – maintaining slow canter and fast walk.
Once they returned to Friezland, the riders then completed the third phase of obstacles designed to simulate situations that may be found when out on a hack, such as walking over a bridge, ducking under low branches and jumping a fallen log.
