This weekend Mark is participating in a tournament in the Cortland, NY area. His first game is Friday afternoon, in Skaneateles, second game is Saturday in Ithaca, and hopefully there will be a championship match on Sunday. For anyone that has had to travel with horses a long distance from home, for any length of time, it is a huge process gathering together all the "stuff" that you will need, might need, and doubt very much you will need, but bring "just in case"! My first job is finding a place to stay that is near the games, and making arrangements for all our animals that stay home. Mark needs to work on getting a team together, finding stabling for his horses, and getting the playing schedule. Between the two of us there are blankets and the "dredded" polo wraps to wash(5 horses times 4 legs times 3 games equals 60), tack to clean, lists of food and clothing to bring for both horses and humans, and the horses must be in top condition, and of course, looking beautiful. Looking beautiful and having enough feed for the horses is my biggest concern-big surprize! No matter how much time goes into the preparations there is always a last minute frantic rush. The "stuff" necessary for 3 people and 5 horses is monumental. It reminds me of vacations with my 3 children, when they were young. Cribs, walkers, car seats, toys, diapers, clothes, thing to entertaine them in the car, medicine, sunscreen, strollers, ect. This doesn't even cover the adults! Then just as you are about to drive out of the driveway,or worse yet, a few miles down the road, you remember that you forgot a favorite pacifier! Mark left with the horses on Thursday, Tom and I left early Friday morning, so it wasn't a problem gathering together last minute/forgotten items like an extra bag of grain, a different size feed scoop, and a toothbrush. After all of this we finally got to the designated location of the first game in Skaneateles, and during the 2nd chukker a stirrup leather breaks and then a set of reins. Did we have extras? We used to have some in the trailer. I know I have a new set of leathers, and reins back home, which is 6 hours away. Panic starts to set-in, and then you remember that Mark is stabling his horses with a family that owns a tack shop.
No comments:
Post a Comment