TREC Ireland in Eersel - Kayleigh McCormack represents Ireland

Many thanks to Helen McCormack for this report:

Midlands Trec and Ireland Young Riders panel member Kayleigh McCormack made the trip from Athlone to PCK Eersel in the Netherlands for the latest leg of The European Cup at the end of April. Riding a local Halfinger called Merlijn, she spent the days prior to the first stage of the competition getting used to her mount and familiar with the locality which forms part of a National Park.

As she had just turned 16, the local club organised a rider to shadow Kayleigh and Saturday 22nd April saw her face 32km cross country through the extensive woodlands where good use was made of the vast network of tracks and trails, both man made and left by the local deer and wild boar population. Having found every ticket and checkpoint she was very pleased with her performance on the day, particularly taking into account the fact that the local maps were very different in format to those found at home.

Day 2 saw almost 80 riders from 9 countries face firstly the MA section, followed almost immediately by the PTV at the riding centre where a very good selection of obstacles and tasks challenged both horse and rider.

Kayleigh finished in top sport in the Level 3 pairs category and the weekend will be long remembered for the bitter cold of the wind, and the genuine warmth of the welcome from the local riders and organisers (and in particular the Peters family and Vera De Boer). There were also many new friendships made with the other visiting competitors and this gave a taste of what can be expected at this summers Trec Young Riders European Championships being hosted by Trec Ireland in, Gurteen, Tipperary.