[MR] Thank you from Atlantian Cavalry

[Christy Dollymore]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!  

Many thanks go to everyone at Novice Tourney this past weekend, from my
boss  
and the marshallate staff and the horse owners, to the riders and the
event  
staff and to the populace of Storvik and the spectators. Thank you so
much for  
supporting the Atlantian Cavalry.

The Cavalry activities would not have been a success without all of the
hard  
work you put into the event and your willingness to work as a team and
make us  
feel so welcome.

Thank you to Baroness Beatrice, the Deputy Earl Marshal of the Horse for

holding my hand and working her tail off helping me to get this thing
organized,  
finding the rental horses and the stables and hauling three horses all
the way  
from Nottinghill Coill and Sacred Stone and Hidden Mountain areas.
Without  
her, there would not have been any Cavalry activities at Novice Tourney
at all.

Thanks go to the entire Cavalry marshallate who was present at the
event;  
Mistress Quentryth (who was a witness to every single authorization),
Lady  
Gwenhwfar, and Ursula who helped marshal and do authorizations, reset
games, worked  
with new riders and generally kept me from being a total basket case.
Thanks  
also to my two new Marshals-in-Training, Lady Nem and Pepsia for
bringing and  
setting up the shade for the spectators, brining weapons and other horse
stuff,  
helping with the new riders and a great many other things during the
day.

Thanks to the horse owners, Ursula, Eleri, Katrin and Jennifer and the
stable  
owner who also let us rent one of her horses, Judy Strohmeigher. She
opened  
up her barn to house the horses for two nights and we gratefully
appreciate all  
her work.

A special thank you to Sir Vlad for fixing Ursula's truck. He spent the  
greater part of the event working on it so that she could haul her
horses back  
home. Vivat! and Thank you!

Thanks to our Minister of the Lists, Kiara of Ironwood, who worked her
tail  
off and managed to make sense of the total chaos. She processed
somewhere in  
the neighborhood of 20 authorizations and kept track of the scores for
the  
tournament at the same time, all by herself! I was so amazed that she
was so  
organized, calm and collected and kept her cool and was smiling and
cheerful  
throughout the entire day. She even fielded a lot of inquiry's as to
where the troll  
was with good nature. Thank you, Kiara!

A special thanks goes to each and every rider and ground crew person.
You  
guys really pulled together and did the bulk of the work. You helped set
up the  
course and the tents and the stalls and barrier ropes, you cleaned up
the field  
of road apples (thanks Aramis and Mark - I saw you two with the bucket -

thanks to everyone else whom I did not see), you helped reset the games,
hand off  
weapons, water the horses, groom them, tack them, feed them and strike
the  
entire field in record time before the storm hit. A special thanks to
Martin  
Gareth and Kiara for hanging around to the bitter end and helping me get
my car  
loaded just moments before the bottom dropped out and the rain started
gushing.  
I never would have made it without you.

Thank you riders; Ursula, Lady Nem, Gwenwhyfar, Pepsia, Beatrice,
Aramis,  
Eleri, Olwen, Swieszka,Catriona, Ethelfleda, Elspeth, Leslie, Mark,
Martin,  
Katrin, Sarah, Veronique, Jennifer, Maura, Isabella, Dee, Vlad and
Minna. Thanks to  
Alex who came just to ground crew. Our ground crew people are sooooo  
important and we cannot tell you enough how much we appreciate you.
Thank you! Thanks  
so much for all of you riders pitching in as ground crew. You made the
day a  
success.

Thank you to Lady Elizabeth and her event staff, most of whom I did not
meet  
since I arrived so late and missed with the set-up. Thanks for setting
up the  
huge mucking tent for shade for the horses, hauling it to the site and  
stringing hose for water all across that field. Thanks for supporting us
and putting  
up with me before the event and catering to our every need. You people
are  
outstanding!

Special thanks to the Barony of Storvik and Baroness Johannes for making
us  
feel so welcome. We were all commenting on the way home how nice
everyone was  
to us and how much they appreciated the horses. Thank you so much for
being so  
nice. We look forward to doing this all again next year.

I am sure I have left some people out, and I appologize. All I can say
is  
that I was a bit frazzled and am still recovering. If I missed someone,
please  
let me know who and how they helped and I will thank them publicly.  

Thanks to everyone for bearing with me on this, my first foray into  
organizing cavalry activities. I learned a great deal about the process
and about how  
to do things differently next time so that things will run smoother.  

Thanks also for your understanding at the lateness of the arrival of the

horses and marshals due to a variety of car breakdowns and other
problems we  
experienced on the way up to the event and in the week preceeding the
event. I  
appologize for the delays in the morning and blowing our whole schedule.
All I can  
say is I will try to do better at the next one.  

We are currently planning to have some kind of cavalry presence at
Coronation  
(though not with the horses) this fall (There has been talk of a stick
pony  
competition!) and would like to invite everyone to come by the Atlantian

Cavalry tent and check it out. The event Roxbury Mill is planning for
October was  
going to possibly have the Cavalry there, but I have just found out that
the  
site will not allow for space for the horses, so we will have to plan
for another  
event.We are having a Cavalry Marshallate weekend at the end of July,
contact  
me if you are interested in the marshallate program. There is also a
practice  
in the Windmaster's Hill area being organized for September and the
Cavalry  
will be at Cossak, Mongols, and Huns November 13. Bright Hills is
currently  
planning to have Cavalry activities at All Things Marshal next year on
July 4th  
weekend. Check out the Horse and Hound email list, the Atlantian Cavalry
web  
page or contact me for more information on these upcoming events and
practices.

Thanks to everyone!
Brandy
(Lady Brandwyn Alston of the Rift, Northern regional deputy cavalry
marshal)