The Pony Club Tetrathlon omits the Fencing as we have a large number of competitors and for other logistical reasons the other competition phases are adapted.
In the Pony Club Tetrathlon, the competitors range in age from eight to 21 years and in our Competition we had 220 entries from across the south of England and Wales – Aylesbury to Penzance, Pembroke to the New Forest. They brought their Ponies/Horses with them and were camped and stabled at Bicton.
Day one started with air pistol shooting at ‘turning targets from 10-metres for senior boys and girls and seven metres for Junior Boys and girls. The Minimus competitors shoot at static targets from seven metres. The shooting phase is scored towards their final score
They swam as far as they could in four minutes (senior boys) while the girls and juniors swam for three minutes and the minimus competitors swam for two minutes.
On day two the competitors completed the cross country course of 20 fences over about a mile and a half. The fences range in height from two-foot-six-inches to three-foot-seven-inches, depending on age.
After the riding they completed a cross country run, against the clock – senior boys ran 3000metres, girls 1500metres and minimus 1000metres.
We proved to have some very talented competitors and three from the South West have been selected to represent Great Britain in Australia this summer against teams from USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
They are Chris Harris from Truro, Kelsey Pillage from Plymouth and Molly Handsford from Lyme Regis.
A great time was had by all and the organisers of The Pony Club were extremely grateful to be able to use the outstanding facilities at Exmouth Leisure Centre and Bicton for the hosting of this event and particularly to the staff of each venue for being more than helpful to the organisers of this Pony Club Inter Area Tetrathlon Competition.