Even before Dr. Orion Paul Mercatis saw Olivia Louise Stringer, he heard her trying to calm her down in the back of a trailer at New Haven Farm in Aiken, South Carolina in October 2023
“I don't have a series of polo ponies so I had to lease one,” said Dr. Mercatis, 35, who lives in Guilderland, New York, outside of Albany.
When he won the job, Mercatis couldn't think of a better way to play in the three-day Polo tournament at Aiken a few weeks later.
“Ride the horse,” Stringer said. She said when she brought out a thoroughbred named Flash, one of three ponys to try the day. “I'm pretty direct,” she added. “He definitely laughed.”
Stringer, 40, a professional female polo player, owns Liv Polo, which offers rental, sales, training and coaching in Aiken and the Northeast. She started polo at the age of 13 and represented the United States in a match between Indian International Women's Polo in 2018 and Australia's International Women's Polo in 2022.
“We were pretty surprised to see each other,” said Stringer, a client who holds a bachelor's degree in equine science and English from Colorado State University and is usually over 50 years old. “I thought he was older, too. He was a young and attractive person.”
Graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Mercatis fell in love with Polo while studying at Oxford, where he received his master's degree in musculoskeletal science in 2020.
“This is the kind of person you should consider going on a date when the time comes,” Stringer thought. Her previous marriage ended with divorce earlier that year, and she had not yet dated.
After Dr. Mercatis left Aiken, they texted each other about the polo, shared photos of the dogs, and sent him some images of his favorite pony.
“We were both professionals,” Dr. Mercatis said. He thought, “There's no chance.”
When New Year's Eve approached and Stringer asked if he had any plans, it seemed like an opening to him. He asked if he wanted to celebrate at Wildflower Farms, the new Catskills resort in Gardiner, New York.
December 30th – After she visited the Florida family, she flew to Albany – he drove them to the Catskill.
“I had Jack Russell on the comet, very much my buddy,” Stringer said, and he brought Golden Retriever Sirius (he named after his polo team).
Both dogs got along well, and so did they.
“We started talking and never stopped,” she said. “It was the first date of three days,” and there was a meal from the farm to the table, a hot tub and a hike with the dog.
After dinner on the Big Year Day, they had their first kiss and when the band later played “Auld Lang Syne”, they began the year with another kiss and champagne.
Before Stringer returned home, he gave her a tour of his hometown, the Albany area. He took her for a flight lesson in Saratoga, New York, where she flew a helicopter around the New York State Capitol. They landed at the airfield in Albany, and then she took a Cirrus SR20 plane to revolve around the capital. He finishes pilot licenses on both.
Later in January 2024, she joined Robert Burns Night, celebrating the Scottish Bard annually at the Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh. He wore a quilt along with Tartan from Oxford University and enjoyed reading the poems with Haggis, so she wore a matching sash.
In March he drove to Aiken to celebrate her birthday, but the night before Easter he received shocking news. His father has passed away. Stringer stood by him for the next difficult week and traveled with him to Albany.
“I didn't know they made women like this,” he said, and he stayed in Aiken until the end of May.
Over the summer they spent time with her family in Baltimore, and her parents joined them in late August on a trip to Provincetown, Massachusetts, Cape Cod.
During that trip, as the two walked along the quiet beach at Race Point, he pretended to see the dolphins to deflect her. He was on one knee after she looked for it and turned around.
On March 1st, Rev. Cannon Calhoun Walpole, president of St. John's Episcopal Church in Johns Island, South Carolina, hosted 72 guests, with at least 30 polo players at Grace Chapel on Wadmarrow Island, South Carolina, where the bride walked through AIZLE to the trumpet player and performed a pianist playing “Canon” by Paychell Bell.
We then enjoyed a southern menu of shrimp and grits, barbecue pork and brisket at the Charleston Yacht Club, featuring two polo mallets with initials on cocktail napkins and other items.
The following week, on March 5th, on her birthday, their offer was accepted at Aiken's dream farm.
“Olivia is bright and resourceful and always stays a step ahead of me,” he said with a laugh.
