Even earlier than Dr. Orion Paul Mercatis to see Olivia Louise Stringer, he heard her attempt to take a Ferp horse to cool down in October 2023 behind the trailer on the New Haven Farm in Aiken, SC
“I’ve no string of Polo Pony, so I needed to rent one,” says Dr. Mercatis, at 35 years outdated who lives in Guilderland, New York, outdoors of Albani, and is a senior supervisor at the US Marketplace for Oncology Medicines at Pfizer, the pharmaceutical firm.
When he did this job, Mr. Mercatis couldn’t consider a greater method to rejoice than to play in a three-day polo match just a few weeks later in Aiken, together with Adam Snow, a Polo champion and New Haven Farm proprietor.
“Get on the horse,” stated D -Ja Stringer as she eliminated a thoroughbred named Flash, one of many three ponies to attempt that day. “I am fairly direct,” she added. “He positively laughed.”
G -Ja Stringer, a 40 -year -old, skilled polo participant, owns Liv Polo, who supplies hire, gross sales, coaching and training in Iken and Northeast. It started enjoying Polo at 13, representing the US in matches within the worldwide feminine polo in India in 2018 and Australia in 2022.
“We had been fairly shocked to see one another,” stated Mrs. Stringer, who graduated from a bachelor’s diploma in horses and English from the State College of Colorado and whose shoppers are often grownup amateurs, 50 plus. “He prompt that I used to be extra grownup. He was a younger, engaging man. “
Dr. Mercatis, who accomplished a excessive award with a bachelor’s diploma in biology from the College of California in Berkeley, fell in love with Polo of his 20s whereas learning in Oxford, the place he obtained a grasp’s diploma in musculoskeletal science in 2020, he additionally had a medical diploma from the College of Miami, and Grasp.
“That is the species that I would like to think about when the time comes,” Da -Ja String remembers, he thought. Her earlier marriage ended with a divorce earlier that 12 months and he or she was nonetheless not courting.
After D -R Mercatis left Aiken, they despatched one other polo textual content, shared photos of their canine, and he or she despatched him a number of photos to their favourite ponies.
“We had been each skilled,” stated Dr. Mercatis, who thought it was “so excellent and unattainable.” He determined he had no probability.
As New 12 months’s Eve approaches, Da -ja Stringer requested him if there have been any plans, it appeared like a gap. He requested if she wish to rejoice at Wildflower Farms, a brand new Catskills resort in Guardiner, New York
On December 30 – after she visited a household in Florida, then flew to Obani – he took them all the way down to Catskills.
“I had my Jack Russell, a comet, loads of my like -minded man,” stated G -Ja Stringer, and he introduced his golden retriever Sirius (he baptized his workforce by polo after him).
Each canine had been understood as they had been.
“We began speaking and by no means stopped,” she stated. “It was a 3 -day first assembly,” with a farm to desk, soaked in sizzling baths and hikes along with his canine.
After dinner on New 12 months’s Eve, that they had the primary kiss, and as later the band performed “Auld Lang Syne”, they started the 12 months with one other kiss and champagne.
Earlier than G -Ja Stringer returns dwelling, he gave her a tour of his hometown, the Obani space. He took it for flying in Saratoga, New York, the place she then flies with a helicopter across the Capitol of New York. They landed in an air base in Albani, after which she picked up a Cirrus SR20 plane to rotate round Capitol. He completes a pilot license in each.
Later in January 2024, she joined him for Robert Burns Night time, an annual celebration of the Scottish bard, on the royal yacht Britain in Edinburgh. He drew Kilt together with her Oxford School Tartan and he or she matched wings as they loved the readings of Haggi and Poetry.
In March, he left Aiken to rejoice her birthday, however the evening earlier than Easter he obtained stunning information. His father had died. D -Ja Stringer stood subsequent to him for the following tough weeks and traveled to Albani to be with him.
“I did not know they made ladies like this,” he stated, after which stayed in Iken till the tip of Could.
In the summertime, they hung out together with her household in Baltimore, after which her mother and father joined them on a visit to Provincestown, Massachusetts, in Cape Code in late August.
Throughout this journey, as the 2 had been strolling alongside a quiet stretch of the seashore in Race Level, he pretended to see a dolphin to distract her. After she seemed for it and turned again, he was on one knee.
On March 1, the Reverend Canon Kalhun Walpol, the rector of the bishop’s church “St. John” on the island of Jones, SK, served in entrance of 72 company, no less than 30 are polo gamers, in Grace Chapel on the island of Can, the place the bride went alongside the trail to Trumpet and Piak participant, enjoying on Piak, enjoying on Piak.
Later, in a yacht membership in Charleston, the place two polo minks with their initials appeared on cocktail napkins and different objects, they loved the southern menu, together with shrimp and sand, pulled pork and roughly.
Subsequent week, on March 5, her birthday, their supply was accepted right into a dream farm in Aike-Plevnya with 30 acres, a 27-sector with a polo area and plans to name it exploded farms.
“Olivia is vibrant and witty and all the time a step forward of me,” he stated with amusing.
