What is TREC?

Have you heard of TREC? It stands for Technique de Randonnée Équestre de Compétition (competitive trail riding technique). TREC is a discipline generally made up of three tests designed to help riders and horses progress, so that they can travel on horseback with a certain independence and all the safety that goes with it. So what exactly is TREC?

What you need to know about TREC

TREC is one of the best ways to discover and enjoy the countryside while getting excellent exercise at the same time. More precisely, TREC is a clever blend of several disciplines: trail riding, orienteering, jumping, dressage and control of the paces. It rewards teamwork and takes place over one or two days, with one phase run at night in several stages.

The orienteering and pace-judging phase (POR)

The first phase of TREC is the POR. Here, competitors follow a route marked on a map covering a distance of 5 to 40 kilometres, which they study in the map room and copy onto a blank map.

Checkpoints are positioned along the route, although the riders have no idea where they are. These checkpoints are used to record the time the competitor passes through and to check that the route taken is correct.

At the start of each section, competitors are given a speed of between 5 and 12 km per hour. The rider then has to be as consistent as possible to avoid the penalties applied for being late or early compared with the ideal time for each section.

To make the most of the experience, the rider needs the best equipment for their horse. On that score, La Sellerie Française offers the finest quality equipment available in France.

The cross-country obstacle course (PTV)

The PTV is a course of between 300 m and 2 km, which must be completed within a time set in advance. The course features a range of natural or simulated obstacles of the kind often met out on a ride. They may include tree trunks, a ditch, a footbridge, a hedge, a water crossing, a gate or low branches. Here the judges mark the effectiveness, the style and the boldness of the horse and rider combination. Maximum scores are set according to competition level in the technical sheets available online on the French Equestrian Federation (FFE) website.

Control of the paces (MA)

Control of the paces is a test whose purpose is to show off the horse's schooling and its natural paces. In a corridor one and a half metres wide and one hundred and fifty metres long, the horse has to canter as slowly as possible, then come back down to a fairly brisk walk.

The competitor loses points if the horse puts a foot on the line marking the corridor, or if it breaks pace. In pony classes, the corridor is replaced by five pace zones which must be respected, with no timing involved.