Paddle Power!
Before I worked for top riders I had loads of preconceptions about what top event horses were like - to ride, to look after, to be around.
It didn’t take long to realise I’d been wrong on all counts …
Get Set Go
I’d planned a slow start to our BE season this year….
Reality instead saw us anything other than slow in every direction!
Bedtime Adventures
Our Bed’Oscar awards (Best for Sensitive Schnozzers, Best for Belted Budgets, Best for Minimal Muckheaps etc) go to….
Life lessons!
When I left Andrew Nicholson’s yard to ‘set up on my own’, I was ready for hard graft, excited at the prospect of making my own decisions and was champing at the bit to ride as, when and how I felt was right at any one time. It was, I thought, all about the riding – and as even Andrew had admitted I was ‘useful’ at that, what more did I need?
It turns out, quite a lot…
Spring is here!
Two Team Mountford happenings this month that show lockdown really has gone on for far too long now. One, I’ve taken to occasional sleeps in the lorry that we bought, ridiculously, in February 2020 and so has hardly left the yard since. It’s obviously a subliminal thing – the evenings are lighter, the sun sunnier, the numnahs hairier, so surely it is time to be overnighting in the lorry?! The novelty will probably wear off soon (hopefully not before we have to start overnighting proper), but for now Hubble and I are bedding in to the lorry, and loving it!
T-shirt weather in February…and BE announce the competition schedule!
T-shirts today – and that’s without having 6 other layers on top, yup, t-shirt weather in February! Admittedly our ‘t-shirt weather’, when riding the eighth horse of the day or mucking out the 10th, may not be everyone’s idea of lounging hot - but the sun is out, the sky is blue, the horses are out in the field getting some sun on their backs, and there’s bounce in ground which is neither frozen hard nor sodden wet!
Crystal balls and lockdown challenges – January Diary of an Eventer
The January Diary of an Eventer is always going to be weather-heavy. However much you want to avoid talking about this all-British of subjects, it can’t be ignored when you’ve got 11 clipped and stabled horses bouncing out of their skins, ‘trying’ conditions underfoot, and you and your team are outside for all the daylight hours allowed you…
Competition, Creosote and Christmas!
Our Autumn 2020 competition calendar was, by any normal measure, quiet. If there’s one thing we’ve learnt about 2020, it’s that there’s no such thing as ‘normal’! We were delighted to at least get a few BE runs in with Parc Junior (Elmo) before the eventing season drew to a close. As well as plenty of flair-in-the-air-BS-time with both Leanorth JD (Donk) and the youngsters.