Love to trail ride and feeling competitive?

Love to trail ride and feeling competitive?

Try a NATRC Competitive Trail Ride.

This past Memorial Day weekend a few of us decided to head down to the NATRC Region 3 One-Day Competitive Trail Ride at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. A short haul for us from the Boulder area. I myself had never ridden there and heard the trails were wonderful. Myself and Nico, and Mary and Spear registered as Novice. This entailed a 17 mile total mileage day on this one-day ride (often these are two-day rides). My other friend Jill and Goldie have been doing this for years and they rode Open which entails about 27 miles in one-day. To prepare for this ride we just put in the miles and the hills for a few weeks. Condition....condition...condition. We arrived Saturday afternoon and set up camp (horses must be tied to the trailer) then a Vet check in which involves trotting out your horse and lunging to access gait and any lameness. A fun potluck that evening with about 70 other competitors and volunteers, a briefing and to bed early. Up at 5:30 AM to feed and get the horses ready for a start at 7:30 AM.

So how does the judging go?

Competitive trail is a bit different then Endurance—you are judged not only on time (getting to points on your map), but also on horsemanship and horse. During the competition you will be judged by both a Horsemanship and Veterinary Judge. The Horsemanship Judge will have prepared obstacles such as logs and side passes, off-side mounts, in-hand work, crossing water, etc. They are also looking on your body position while going up and down hills. Are you off your horses back or grinding your butt into the saddle? Sore backs on your horse will cause you to lose points. Along the way you will also come across the Veterinary Judge and Pulse and Respiration (P+R) stops to access other aspects of you and your horse. P+R stops are usually placed at the top of a good climb. When you arrive you should receive a card with your arrival time. At this point you should calm your horse and loosen your girth a bit. After 10 minutes a volunteer will take your horses pulse and respiration and record it on the card. Good conditioning leads to good numbers and no points lost.

The two-mile mark.

The two-mile mark is the last place to access your time. You must arrive in camp at the finish within a designated 15-minute window of the time recorded on your divisions map. So you may need to slow your pace or speed it up to make this happen. Once in camp you settle your horse back at your trailer, clean him/her up and wait for the car horn in order to do the check-out Vet check. The Vet checks for any back soreness or lameness issues. Be prepared to trot along a line, and teach your horse to lunge it saves you from running (you are pretty tired at this point, especially on a two-day ride). 

One thing I learned at this check was that I should have left the saddle and/or saddle pad on Nico for about 10 minutes prior to removing. His back developed a temporary, non serious, edema (heat bumps). I did not lose points but learned how to avoid this in the future.


TIP: a good way to learn about the sport and see if it is right for you is to volunteer to help on a ride in your area, they always need help. I helped manage two rides in Granby at Snow Mountain Ranch before I decided to compete. And when I did at the Grand Mesa ride we placed (awards are given for up to six positions and breed)!


To view pictures of the ride please click here.
For more information on Competitive Trail, upcoming 2012 rides, and more information on this fun sport please visit NATRC.org or NATRC3.org.