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Please see the Irish Pony Club Tetrathlon Page for general information on the IPC Tetrathlon competitions.
Our club started to participate in the tetrathlon again about 2006 after a break of a few years. At the moment it looks likely that there will be participants in the years to come. Whereas this is an extremely exciting competition and everyone tremendously enjoys the competition itself, beware that the training for it takes up a serious amount of time. Nevertheless, in the last few years we have found that our tetrathletes keep going back for more. It seems that the joint training has a great social aspect attached to it that our members enjoy very much. In our club we see the tetrathlon as a fun team competition that can be enjoyed while also posing a challenge. Unlike some other IPC branches we are not dead serious about it competing only for the sake of winning.
Swimming Training
Swimming training for the Tetrathlon usually starts in April. It is on once a week, so when you get the text you can book in for this. Tetrathletes who have siblings doing the Minimus might find it more convenient to train with the Minimus group starting in February. In 2010 we were asked to start the swimming training again in October so we are looking into this at the moment. We have been holding our swimming lessons in the Aura Leisure Centre in Youghal. We find that usually our tetrathletes join in the swimming training we organise, however, if you want to organise your own swimming training there is no problem.
Running Training
In past years our tetrathletes had to organise their own running training since we found that trying to organise another day to suit all was impossible. A lot of our Tetrathlon participants have joined their local athletics club anyway. However, in 2010 we did the running training with the Conna running club on Thursday evenings before the shooting practice. This training is not compulsory so if you want to organise your running training yourself there is no problem.
Shooting Training
We have been organising gun shooting training for our junior tetrathletes the last few years. In 2010 we started doing pistol shooting training for the senior tetrathletes. In the past our seniors had done their shooting training with neighbouring pony club branches. We will try to organise this again if there is demand.
Cross Country Riding Training
You can participate in our general xc rallies to prepare for the xc phase of the Tetrathlon, but we will also organise special Tetrathlon xc trainings that are only open to Tetrathlon participants. Once you are on the Tetrathlon list you will receive text messages about these trainings. A text will go out to all our members at the beginning of each season to ask who is interested in doing the tetrathlon that year. Those members who reply positively to the text are put on the tetrathlon list and all further texts regarding the tetrathlon usually only go out to the members whose names are on this list.