The Sunnybanc Animal Feeds Welsh TREC Championships - Gower 2026
The 2026 Championships were organised by Red Kite TREC Group in Perriswood Archery & Falconry Centre on the beautiful Gower Peninsula. The event was eventually given the go ahead, after many adaptations were incorporated to meet the enhanced TREC GB Health & Safety guidelines, during the Equine Flu surge in the UK.
Please find below, a blog by Kirsty Adams winner of the Level 4 competition
"Welsh TREC Championships 2026.
Where to start with describing this epic and slightly mad event? This is the third time I’ve travelled to the Gower Peninsula to compete in a TREC competition. The first two times were notable for their howling gales and torrential rain, so I was hopeful that the weather would be third time lucky. Sadly it was not to be - I actually think that the wind was windier this time than either of the previous times!
We arrived on Friday night, returned the Welsh Level 4 Trophy (as we won it last year) and set up our corral. The view was incredible, overlooking Oxwich Bay, but the clouds were rolling rapidly in. I put a rug on Aurora and hoped for the best. By 3am the lorry was rocking as though someone was slapping the sides of it, and the rain sounded as though someone was hammering the roof for all they were worth. Next morning we woke to find a glimpse of blue sky - and had a bit of hope for the day. It was false hope.
20 minutes in the map room, and we had the route down in 15 mins. I then spent the next 5 minutes trying to work out which of the many paths we would be riding on were the ones I had to be very careful on (clue - the answer was ‘all of them!’) We were given 2 mystery sealed envelopes too, and then headed off to the tack check.
Unusually for a TREC, the MA (Control of Paces) was to take place after the tack check but before the POR start. We were directed to the top of Cefn Bryn (the hill behind the venue) and this is were the weather really started to kick in with ferocity. I’ve posted 2 photos of the MA here, and you can just about see the judges in the first one. The cloud came down, and the timing equipment could not cope with the amount of moisture in the air. So the judges decided to use a stop watch and hand signals - but the cloud was so dense they could not even see each other! Aurora gave it her best shot, and we managed a decent score given the conditions, but the judges were not able to keep it up and the MA was eventually abandoned.
Anyway, on with the POR. This was epic! Tracer Bridget Stein is an experienced foot orienteer as well as TREC competitor, and she put on a route that took in the best of the countryside as well as being a significant navigational challenge. It was a true Level 4 route physically and mentally, one of the toughest I have ridden. For 36km we had to count paces and keep accurate bearings in order to collect the right tickets (and there were many ‘wrong’ tickets out there too, set out for other levels on other paths.) We had a grids section and a 1:15k contours-only map where a good appreciation of the shape of the land would reap rewards. On the way we passed over 4 trig points, through 3 herds of wild Welsh ponies, within the walls of 2 Iron Age hill forts and encountered one naked man on top of a hill enjoying the breeze!
Red Kite TREC Group laid on a fabulous event - the evening meal and venue were beautiful and clearly a lot of thought had gone into all aspects of the weekend.
Difficult conditions (mainly the weather!) over the weekend mean results will be available during the week so watch this space."
Thank you Kirsty for your fabulous blog, if you want to follow Kirsty on all her British & international competitive adventures, you can find her on Facebook @Dougal the Horse
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