{"id":2162162,"date":"2021-04-07T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forelockandload.com\/?p=2162162"},"modified":"2024-03-13T14:04:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T14:04:47","slug":"team-mountford-march-musings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/team-mountford-march-musings\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Mountford March Musings!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two Team Mountford happenings this month that show lockdown really has gone on for far too long now.  One, I\u2019ve taken to occasional sleeps in the lorry that we bought in February 2020 and has hardly left the yard since.  It\u2019s obviously a subliminal thing \u2013 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 \ud83d\ude0a  
 
The second is also lorry-related \u2013 but not quite so voluntary.  You know it\u2019s been a long lockdown when an (unnamed!) member of Team M\u2019ford refuels the little lorry and as it\u2019s been sooooo long since we last filled up, put unleaded petrol where only Diesel should go\u2026. 3 hours, \u00a3300, and a lot of AA mickey-taking later, the lorry finally spluttered home and yet another win for \u2018lockdown\u2019 was chalked up\u2026!
 
Talking of teams, can I shout\/celebrate\/glory in ours for a minute or two?
 
January\/February 2021 won\u2019t have been reveled in by many I\u2019m guessing, but all the more so for those like us who\u2019ve been battling lockdown, weather, mud, temperature, dark etc etc alongside a yard full of constantly-demanding and expensively-hungry horses.  What makes it doable is The Team.  Lauren, Tia, Sam and Sofia fuelled by a lot of coffee and chocolate, we\u2019ve done it, we\u2019ve giggled, slid and wailed our collective ways through to Spring 2021, and I for one couldn\u2019t be more grateful for your company and your expertise.  THANK YOU \ud83d\ude0a
 
We all look forward to Sofia joining the team full-time this next month on the Apprentice Scheme.  I learnt so much from my two years down in Marlborough with Andrew Nicholson, and am looking forward to having the opportunity to pass on as much of the Kiwi wisdom as I can possibly remember!  I do believe there is no better way of \u2018learning horses\u2019 than by \u2018doing horses\u2019, and look forward to being a part of Sofia\u2019s equine journey. Talking of Andrew \u2013 anyone hear his Eventing Podcast<\/a> on the Zebra Show the other day?  Really interesting.  (Even though listening to it through headphones as I rode gave me alarming \u201ckick-on\u201d flashbacks of being under the daily and very, very close A.N eye all over again!!)
 
More Team stuff this month in the form of cracking osteopath sessions with Jim<\/a> for Donk, George & Tilly; followed by the human equivalent for Lauren.  I think we need to up the heating in the tack room though next time \u2013 or maybe just set Jim\u2019s treatment table up under the infrared heat lights!  James Blake and team from Breckland Farriers<\/a> have also been spotted under the heat lamps once or twice this last month \u2013 very much deserved, especially as Covid rules have meant that warming mugs of fresh tea have been out of the question for them. It\u2019ll be good indeed when all that changes\u2026
 
Other news from here?  
The delicious Aoife arrived safely in USA and is now busy wowing her new American owners.  We\u2019ve learnt a lot about horse export, and have made some exciting new contacts.
A lovely Irish unbacked 4yo, Whispa<\/a>, arrived as Aoife left \u2013 and immediately impressed with her attitude, thinking nothing of unloading in the dark at 4am from a lorry several leagues too big to get in our gates, and following a torch down the main road and on into her new home.  She is now long-reining beautifully and starting to learn to balance all that baby power.  I do love Irish horses \ud83d\ude0a
Iggy has headed off to his new owner\u2019s home, but we\u2019re looking forward to seeing them both again later this week when we all meet up at The Jays for SJ schooling.
Chilli\u2019s back from her winter grazing and is being prepared for motherhood Mark II; she\u2019ll be heading to Clements Equine<\/a> in a couple of weeks. 
The two colts are, unbeknownst to them, enjoying their last few days of entirety \u2013 nuts off soon I\u2019m afraid boyos \u2639
A lovely pony due in for Sales Livery soon \u2013 I\u2019m looking forward to getting to know him, and a much bigger version coming in for backing – both called Ted so that makes life simple, exactly as we like it!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Smiling in the sun, clothed in Ariat from Forelock and Load
Photo Credit Laura Fiddaman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I had a fun day with photographer Laura Fiddaman<\/a> wearing some of the fabulous new clothing from Ariat. Forelock and Load very kindly arranged this for me. I’ve always loved Ariat clothing and footwear, firstly for the functionality on and off the yard, the styling and the amount of wear I get out of it. The Ariat riding tights<\/a> and sunstopper <\/a>top in the photo above are both really stylish and comfortable to wear and ride in. Click the links and use my code MSH for a cheeky saving. The added bonus, is they are super easy to wash!
 
So, it\u2019s all happening \ud83d\ude0a   Bring on Easter and trips and travel and jumping and whatever else happens to be in store!
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Polly x <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Team Mountford happenings this month that show lockdown really has gone on for far too long now.  One, I\u2019ve taken to occasional sleeps in the lorry that we bought in February 2020 and has hardly left the yard since.  It\u2019s obviously a subliminal thing \u2013 the evenings are lighter, the sun sunnier, the numnahs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":2200278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[45,12,106,49,13,141,89],"class_list":{"0":"post-2162162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-equestrian","8":"tag-british-eventing","9":"tag-dressage","10":"tag-equestrian","11":"tag-eventing","12":"tag-forelock-and-load","13":"tag-horse-riders","14":"tag-team-forelock-and-load"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/61\/2022\/09\/Polly-1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kirstie","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/author\/kirstie\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/61\/2022\/09\/Polly-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2201367,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162162\/revisions\/2201367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2200278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}