
July 26, 2018 · 0 Comments
By Mike Pickford
A little over a month removed from what organizers are calling Dufferin County’s second-ever Triple Crown event, three different recreational organizations are reaping the benefits of community collaboration.
The event, held in the Dufferin County Forest on June 16, featured seven three-person teams made up of a mountain biker, trail runner and equestrian, each competing to take home the Triple Crown title. The brainchild of Sue Downing, a member of the Ontario Competitive Trail Riding Association, the event seeks to bring user groups of the forest together for a singular event they can all enjoy.
“This is just a fun thing we put together at a time when user groups weren’t necessarily communicating or seeing eye-to-eye on certain things,” Ms. Downing told the Citizen. “Now, we have found a solid partnership and a good understanding of one another’s sport. We feel it’s important to share that.”
The competition lasted a little over four hours, with mountain bikers tasked with riding a 15 kilometre trail, runners tackling a 10 kilometre trail and equestrians finishing the race off on a 10 kilometre trail. There were pit stops throughout, with the main one coming right at the end, when the trail runner and mountain biker, with verbal assistance from the equestrian on their team, had to perform a cooling procedure on a horse.
Johnny Yeaman, representing local mountain biking squad Team Van Go, enjoyed that particular part of the event as it provided a unique educational tool for people who otherwise would have little contact with a horse.
“For me, this event is about coming together as a community, participating, learning and having fun. It’s about everyone being out there together, using this uniquely beautiful space together,” Mr. Yeaman said. “For me, it was a lot of fun seeing someone who has never dealt with a horse before learning how to properly handle a horse. This whole thing was about educating each other about our sports and, in the end, we were able to make all these different disciplines work together as a cooperative unit. That’s pretty cool.”
In total, 21 individuals participated in this year’s Triple Crown event. That’s down from the 27 that came together for the inaugural event back in 2016. After seeing how much fun everyone had this year, however, both Ms. Downing and Mr. Yeaman indicated they were on board to bring the Triple Crown back in 2019.
“I’d definitely like to repeat this year. It was a fantastic success for is, I hope we come back and make it bigger and better next time around,” Mr. Yeaman said.
Sue noted the group was looking at ways to provide further education through Triple Crown and were toying with the idea of implementing a station where people can learn how to properly fix a puncture on a bike, during the race.
“We’re ready to make this into whatever people want it to be. I think we’re both committed to continuing this in some fashion. It’s a very unique idea, one that I think a lot of people enjoyed,” Ms. Downing concluded.