Around Morsang Polo Club

To give you a better idea of what it is I do in France - here is a bit from a typical day with a few pictures to go along with it.

This morning Caroline picked me up from the house a little after 8am (for someone who insists she doesn't like Paris, she sure spends quite a few nights there with Virginie at their apartment). Then we went down to the Morsang polo club and fed the horses. They get their buckets first - different combinations of pellets and a corn mix. I wrote it all down when I first started - what each mare gets in her bucket. Now I pretty much have it down. Thankfully the buckets are color-coded according to which pasture the horse is in. Two pink buckets for the front pasture, moss green for the middle pasture and dark green for the last pasture.

Then comes the picthforks of hay. Literally pitchforks - just like in "olden days". The hay comes on these huge round barrels and you have to fork it off into flakes of hay. At least it suppose to be flakes but its usually more like wisps of hay that you then pile neatly on top of each other and fork to the horses. Its easy said than done. Especially because Caroline insists that the hay be kept neat as a pin. So I spend just as much time raking up the loose hay as forking the flakes. Then once all the horses are fed I cover the hay barrel with a tarp, put two logs on top to stop it from blowing away and wrap twine and bungee cord around the outside.

After the horses are fed I get to get my breakfast in the clubhouse. Fruit, tea and cereal. Then I brush my teeth and meet up with Caroline to ride sets. This morning we each took a set - four and four. Its the second time I've had to ride a set and its getting much easier. Although surprisingly this worked out a lot easier for me then I could have hoped for - truly grateful. I rode Caroline's favorite mare - "Kiss Me" and ponied "Stefi", "Moome" and "Photo" - short for Photocopia (photocopy machine in French I think). Moome is always so grumpy and tries to bite anyone she can. So the whole time we're galloping she's jerking her head about, biting Photo or Kiss Me. Stefi is a perfect angel and goes smoothly the whole time. Photo is pretty good as well but she's a bit lazy so Caroline usually rides behind me or me behind her to keep the lazy ones going. Kiss Me is really smooth to ride but she kept pulling today. I didn't really notice much except that Caroline kept asking why she was pulling because "she never pulls with her!" I thought it was because she was riding behind me and darn Moome kept biting her but what do I know? Anyway it went well.

Then we rinsed the horses and put then away. After leaving the barn we went grocery shopping with Caroline asking me did I know where we were going the whole time. She's so afraid I'll get lost again and she's probably right - in fact I told her to plan on it. We both had a good laugh when she recalled getting Kim's email to make sure I got plenty of sleep and ate plenty of fruits otherwise I would get sick. Caroline sent her an email back saying yes she had noticed the first one and that at the moment she wasn't even sure where I was.

I miss you all a ton but keep sending me emails and messages - I love them all!

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