Tag: wintersport

Snow Polo in Georgetown MA

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle2 Comments

Hello! Its been a crazy few days. Huge blizzard this past Thursday into Friday, and another big one Sunday in today. We have gotten over two feet of snow in these storms. Thank god for our snowblower. This past Saturday that snow was useful for the first annual Northeast Snow Polo Championship. The match was between a team from NY and Boston Polo at Boston Polo’s new home as of this summer, Twisdenwood Farms in Georgetown MA.

Boston Polo, Stage Hill Polo, Newport Polo; all polo clubs in New England that have serious high level players but also have lessons and programming to help people get involved and develop skills in polo to eventually play in the higher level chukkers! It’s smart, they bring more people into the sport while generating revenue to keep the clubs going. Mark Tashjian is the man behind Boston Polo- head instructor and manager of the club. He served as the umpire for the match on a cute flea-bitten gray pony named Mimosa. They used red arena balls and played 3 on 3 for 4 chukkers.

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Boston Polo was wearing green, NY was wearing the white/gray
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The white pants that we typically see on our polo players are called polo whites!
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Love the BP clip job
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There were gray ponies, bays, chestnuts, and yes…a palomino polo pony!
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This pic shows the red arena ball over to the right! It was challenging to deal with the ball getting lost in the snow and bouncing in the uneven terrain

It was a cold day for sure but we dressed for it, brought blankets, and of course some thermoses of hot apple cider. We packed some chicken salad sandwiches, cheese n crackers, and I even made some chocolate dipped strawberries. Spectators set up around the arena and there was also an indoor area that had live music and get this, heated bathrooms!

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Hot drinks were a necessity! We brought our LLBean thermos and our Woolrich thermos
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Bundled up in my favorite LLBean pom hat and my Horseware Newmarket throw blanket. That’s Mark Tashjian to the left of the photo!

It wasn’t St. Moritz or Aspen, but it was beautiful. I love horses, I love watching them move. Watching these polo ponies race through the snow kicking up snow dust instead of dirt was pretty cool.

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To check out some of my other posts on polo:

Aiken, SC Part 2: Sunday Polo!

Polo lessons with Stage Hill Polo

Sunday Funday at Myopia Polo

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A New Hampshire New Year’s Weekend

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle2 Comments

I am back to work today feeling refreshed after a week off. I would like to think that my students also feel refreshed and ready to learn annnnnd so I am going to continue to think that haha! I absolutely loved my New Year’s weekend this year. My husband got out of work early on Friday and we headed up to Gunstock Mountain for some night skiing. We had just gotten all that snow on Thursday so the conditions were great! Some areas were a little icy/bumpy because the snow gets pushed into piles in steep parts, but my skis are pretty new still, nice and sharp!

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Lake Winnipesaukee view from summit of Gunstock!
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View from the summit, we got one summit run in before the lift closed at 4!
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View from the Pistol lift, the light made it all look strangely purple

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View of the Stockade and the night skiing trails all lit up!

Saturday night we went to a friend’s house for a get together that included multiple bonfires, fireworks (because those are legal in NH, whaaaaaa?), and snowmobiling! It was such a fun night. We were all together in the living room for the ball dropping and champagne toasts.

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Welp, I don’t have any resolutions. Trying to eat better and exercise, be kind to the people I love….those aren’t resolutions, they are things that I try to think about all day every day. I am doing my first dressage clinic/lesson this coming Saturday with the trainer who worked with the horse I ride when his owner first brought him here from Ohio. I am so looking forward to it, Draki and me have been working hard and have really made progress since I started riding him in the fall. Its been quite a year- I got married, bought a house and moved to NH, and started a new job. I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store!

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Ski Day at Gunstock & Valentine’s Day!

On By careofmonIn Lifestyle, TripsLeave a comment

Happy Presidents’ Day!! Today we celebrate George Washington’s birthday which is on February 22nd AND Abraham Lincoln’s birthday which is on February 12th. The official holiday name is actually still Washington’s Birthday though.

This past weekend, we braved the cold to ski at Gunstock on Saturday. It was cold, but we were dressed for it- no exposed skin at all. We skied from 8:30 AM to 1 PM, did about 13 runs. My new skis were awesome. They are Rossignol Temptation 77’s and they definitely made me look like a better skier than I actually am. They turn so easily and really are no work at all. I am used to using rentals and sometimes really having to bend my knees and push to turn, my new skis are very little effort at all. I got an awesome deal on them too because ski places are trying to get rid of inventory and the snow is a little late this year. I got a great deal on my Nordica boots too!

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Beautiful view
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Me and Jon bundled up! Look at the beautiful backdrop we have!
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End of the day as the worse weather was rolling in….

The views from Gunstock of Lake Winnipesaukee are breathtaking. All of the trails are awesome, but my favorite is Stonebar. I usually try to do that one a couple times. Saturday, we all ended on Stonebar which was awesome. It was just starting to get really windy and the sun went in behind snow clouds when we were leaving, perfect!

Sunday’s Valentine’s Day was an extremely cold day, thank goodness we skied on Saturday. Jon got me a Lindt dark chocolate & pomegranate bar and the Harding Lane mountain hat I mentioned here! He does read the blog!! Woo!! It was the perfect gift. Jon loves his Yeti koozie, and put the Miller High Life tshirt I got him right in the laundry to wear this coming weekend. We made a delicious dinner with heart shaped steaks, roasted kale, and wheat rice pilaf. I made little chocolate heart cupcakes too! We chose the Southern Tier Choklate stout to go with our meal, so good!

I honestly don’t know if we will ever go out for dinner on Valentine’s Day because we have such a good time planning a nice meal and dessert. We save so much money too!! Tomorrow I am off to Florida for a few days, and my new hat will be coming with. It will be in the 70s, which is cold now to my parents, but will be soooo warm for me! I wish Jon could come but he sadly has to work. February vacation is a definite perk of being a teacher. I hope that you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed Valentine’s Day no matter who you spent it with!

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