AFTER spending much of her teenage years enjoying show jumping, young rider Emma Mackie has taken up the sport of TREC – becoming a force to be reckoned with in just 12 months.
Now 16, Emma has been selected for the GB TREC Young Riders Squad and is hoping to represent Great Britain at the European Young Riders TREC Championships in Belgium later this year.
Over the years, Emma has successfully show jumped her pony Indi, but since starting out in TREC, they have gone from strength to strength in this exciting sport.
Based at Biggar in Scotland, Emma has ridden Indi for five years and has taken a close interest in the change of her feed regime as she has moved from the show jumping arena to the sport of TREC, which requires stamina and slow release energy.
TREC involves a 30km endurance‑style ride, followed by a control of paces phase and an obstacle phase, all of which requires horses and ponies to be both fit and have plenty of stamina.
Says Emma: “I really enjoy TREC and to be successful you really have to think about the fitness and correct feeding regime.
We have used TopSpec Comprehensive Feed Balancer for years and have started to use TopSpec Turbo in preparation for Indi going in to competition mode.
She looks fantastic and TREC provides us both with so much fun. It is a very testing sport that requires excellent orienteering and horsemanship skills, as well as a lot of training, thought and planning.
We are keeping our fingers crossed for selection for the Europeans and I am working hard to compete at the highest level with a pony that is fit, well and at the top of her game.”