The eventing season is just around the corner, St David’s day is behind us signalling the start of spring and the daffodils are peeking up from the ground.
And it’s the end of Mere Farm and the start of Chedington as Team Price relocate to Dorset after some 18 years as friends and tenants of Tim and Melissa Brown. The team has grown over the years as Mere Farm has evolved and it’s fair to say that the final drinks party was emotional to say the least! And when you have as good a story teller as Mr Brown giving a wonderfully funny speech and as good a hostess as Melissa then it was always going to be a defining memory of how closely intertwined both families have become.
Tim had posted a photo of a rocking horse on social media a couple of days before stating that “this is the last horse left at Mere” but since he took it in apparent twilight it was more like a ‘where’s Wally’ shot. All the horses are indeed now stabled in their fine new yard at Chedington amidst the rolling hills of Dorset and a new era of Team Price begins in the land of the Durdle Door. They have swopped the chalk White Horses of Wiltshire for the naked and club wielding Cerne Abbas Giant but the valleys and hills of Dorset, the stunning coast line and the quirky towns are very much to the liking of the Team Price vibe.
It’s business as usual from Monday 6th of March at Chedington and with some 15 horses having returned direct from the Sunshine Tour in Andalusia Tim and Jonelle are a step ahead of most of the UK based eventers as always. Jonelle reckons they have jumped around 3,500 fences between them already and it was yet another successful trip with all the horses being on good form. The plans have been made for the start of the season and all the staff have moved with the team apart from Lucy Miles who is on maternity leave. Which means we have a new 2IC in the happy go lucky Megan Hodder who spent most of the winter trying to find a nice HGV tester who would tick pass on her shiny new licence. Mission accomplished and she even added waitressing to her list of ticked boxes before she left Mere. Kerryn Edmans continues to lead from the front with her unique blend of humour, work ethic and drive and the horses could not have a better team as their PA’s. We welcome Cosby Green to the team who has flown over from the USA with her three horses to base with Tim and Jonelle and the spring plans are all down on paper so no doubt that will start changing straight away!