March 2020 Polo Players' Edition

MARCH 2020

P L AY E R S’ E D I T I O N

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CONTENTS

P L AY E R S’ E D I T I O N

MARCH 2020

VOL. 23,

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

26 Desert Oasis by Kristine Bonner and Lynn Bremner

6

Empire expands with two new polo venues

NO. 7

Association News USPA Bulletin Umpire spotlight

32 Daring Doc by Gwen Rizzo

Madison Richardson thrives on adventure

12 Instructors Forum

by Cindy Halle

14 Ask an Umpire 16 Equine Athlete

by Steve Kraus MARCH 2020

TION P L AY E R S’ E D I

OUR COVER

Polo expansion in California desert

Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, is expanding with its Empire Oasis and Calhoun Ranch properties

18 22 24 40 58 60

Polo Scene News, notes, trends & quotes Polo Development Intercollegiate/Interscholastic Polo around the Globe Calendar Yesteryears

by Joshua Casper

46 Polo Report Antelope defends Jason Memorial title

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2 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN SIGNED COLUMNS ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE PUBLISHERS OF THIS MAGAZINE.

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Donations • Purchases • Sales Injury or death • Bankruptcies Disputes & litigation • Liquidations • Audits • Insurance • Fraud Editor & Publisher

GWEN D. RIZZO

Contributing Editors

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS, ERNESTO RODRIGUEZ, ALICE GIPPS, CHRIS ASHTON, TOM GOODSPEED

Editorial Board BOB PUETZ, TONY COPPOLA, TOM BIDDLE, DAWN WEBER, AMI SHINITZKY Peter Rizzo, ASEA Certified Equine Appraiser

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©Copyright 2020 by United States Polo Association..

No part of this issue may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process without written permission of the publisher. Paul Brown illustrations are ©2018 and are reprinted by permission of Paul Brown Studios, Inc., P.O. Box 925, Hedgesville, WV 25427. Subscription rates: $45/one year, $78/two years. Other countries (air mail), $78 drawn on U.S. bank/one year, $144 drawn on U.S. bank/two years.

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VOL. 23, No.7 POLO Players’ Edition (ISSN #1096-2255) is published monthly by Rizzo Management Corp. for U.S. Polo Association, 9011 Lake Worth RD, Lake Worth, FL 33467. Periodicals postage paid at West Palm Beach, FL and additional mailing offices. (USPS: 079-770).

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4 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

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U S PA B U L L E T I N

NYTS Jump at the opportunity to host a National Youth Tournament Series qualifier tournament this spring or summer and watch an increase of youth participation at your club! Create relationships with players in your region while hosting a competitive tournament. A rewarding experience, NYTS qualifier tournaments provide young players an opportunity to compete with and against their peers, plus the chance to see your club represented at the championship level. The 24 players at the NYTS National Championship represented 20 different clubs across the United States and Canada.

For USPA outdoor clubs in good standing, the NYTS program supplies a branded poster to promote the event, assistance with day-of tournament coordination, NYTS trophies and support in planning the event. Players interested in participating in a NYTS tournament are encouraged to contact their local clubs. The NYTS schedule will be updated weekly as tournaments are approved on uspolo.org. For more information, please contact NYTS@uspolo.org.

ChukkerTV Livestream The United States Polo Association is pleased to announce its partnership with leading livestream provider ChukkerTV, extending through 2022. Utilizing ChukkerTV’s cutting-edge technology since 2017, the USPA Polo Network delivers the best livestreamed coverage and instant replay technology for fans and USPA rules officials. New this year, the USPA will elevate the distribution to a channel platform viewable online at GlobalPolo.com.

Projected to livestream between 130-150 games in 2020, the USPA Polo Network will once again showcase all Gauntlet of Polo games at the International Polo Club Palm Beach (Wellington, Florida) on the U.S. Polo Assn. field and over 20 USPA tournaments 6 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

throughout the year, ranging from high-goal, medium-goal, arena, intercollegiate, National Youth Tournament Series and more.

“The USPA is excited to continue partnering with ChukkerTV and its organization to improve the livestreaming production of USPA tournaments across the country,” said Robert Puetz, CEO of the USPA. “Through Global Polo TV, we will better understand our viewers and be able to develop meaningful content on multiple platforms. I would like to personally thank ChukkerTV founders, Melissa and Marc Ganzi, cofounder and president, Mike Ferreira, and the entire ChukkerTV team for their ongoing commitment and passion to this endeavor. We look forward to elevating the livestream experience for USPA members and polo fans for years to come.”

ChukkerTV was the first to introduce state-of-the-art livestreaming for polo in January 2014 at Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida. The provider was well received for its expertise and ability to promote the sport to a wider audience. ChukkerTV played a significant role in implementing instant replay for polo and was the first to bring live and on-demand polo to spectators and fans around the world, helping to expand the sport’s exposure.

“With thousands of games broadcast, millions of hours of polo consumed by a global audience, and of course a partnership with the USPA, what started out as a vision by Melissa Ganzi for the future of the sport has grown into something much larger,” Mike Ferreira said.

“Since partnering with the USPA, we’ve been able to expand on that vision, together as partners we’ve grown worldwide audience participation, sport awareness and started bridging the gap between polo and other mainstream sports. I couldn’t be happier to continue growing this partnership and I really hope our viewers enjoy what we have in store for them.”

In collaboration with USPA Global Licensing and newly-formed subsidiary Global Polo Entertainment, the United States Polo Association launched Global Polo TV in January 2020. A new digital platform available over the internet on the Over The Top platform, Global Polo TV features daily livestreamed games, a weekly polo news show, weekly highlights, and other polo content (Video On Demand) accessible now at GlobalPolo.com and free to all subscribers in 2020. Several different outlets, such as Apple TV, Roku, IOS, and Android will also be available beginning with the Gauntlet of Polo.

“I want to congratulate the USPA and ChukkerTV on their three-year extension,” said David Cummings, president and CEO of Global Polo Entertainment and chairman of the board for USPA Global Licensing Inc. “With some 75-plus games being streamed during the

U S PA B U L L E T I N

Gauntlet of Polo, we at Global Polo Entertainment are especially excited about the launch of Global Polo TV, with weekly tournament highlights in a TV-show format to showcase USPA’s livestreamed content. With the collaboration of ChukkerTV’s technical expertise, USPA’s oversight and GPE’s management, we are confident that we will create a premier destination to watch polo.”

Spring Board of Governors Meeting The USPA Spring Board of Governors Meeting is set for Apr. 16-18 at the Embassy Suites in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Embassy Suites by Hilton West Palm Beach is located at 1601 Belvedere Road. The hotel is conveniently located one mile from the Palm Beach International Airport. USPA Members are invited to attend committee and LLC meetings on Thursday, Apr. 16 and Friday, Apr. 17.

The USPA Spring Board of Governors Meeting provides USPA members with the opportunity to audit committees and become more involved with the governance and future direction of the association. Providing an optimal setting to network with clubs across the country, the spring meeting is a forum for members to share opinions, ask questions and receive advice.

The USPA encourages members to represent the interests of their clubs and meet with circuit governors and USPA staff. To assist with expenses, a travel reimbursement stipend is available to all club delegates and lunch is provided for all members in attendance. In addition to the meetings, events over the weekend include the board of governors polo match and the U.S. Open Polo Championship final. The U.S. Open Polo Championship final will take place at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Apr. 19 at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida.

XII FIP World Polo Championship The USPA, USPA Global Licensing and Empire Polo Club are pleased to host the XII Federation of International Polo World Polo Championship in 2021 with official apparel supplier U.S. Polo Assn. Welcoming the international contest to the United States for the second time in the history of the competition, the 2021 tournament will be held from Oct. 22-31 at Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, featuring eight countries representing the top 2- to 5-goalers from around the world.

As the United States has only raised the trophy once, in 1989, the United States Polo Association is thrilled for the opportunity to welcome the competition back to California for the first time in over two decades. Selecting the best players to represent the American team on an international stage, the strengths of the United States lie in both high-quality

horses and a prime location, featuring world-class fields and facilities. Home of the world-famous Coachella Music Festival and located just two hours from Los Angeles, Empire Polo Club is the ideal venue, attracting global exposure. Seeking to elevate the experience of the FIP World Polo Championship for players, sponsors and spectators, the United States is proud to accept the challenge and prepared to deliver an unrivaled experience.

Featuring more than 200 exceptional horses from the Jornayvaz family’s J5 Equestrian, top-rated polo fields, VIP experiences for both fans and players, and corporate hospitality, the XII FIP World Polo Championship promises to be an unforgettable global event. To qualify to be one of the eight teams selected to advance to the FIP World Polo Championship, the road begins with five zone playoffs and includes more than 19 countries/teams vying for the opportunity. The previous winner (Argentina) and host country (United States) automatically qualify with the remaining six teams competing to qualify by the summer of 2021.

Last hosted by the United States in 1998 at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club in Carpinteria, California, the 2021 tournament will draw the eyes of the global polo community to the California desert’s Coachella Valley with the final of the FIP World Polo Championship to be broadcast on Eurosport. All games will be livestreamed on GlobalPolo.com. For more information and updates please visit uspolo.org/fip-world-championship.

• Published by the United States Polo Association Offices at 9011 Lake Worth Rd., Lake Worth, Florida 33467 • (800) 232-USPA Chairman: Stewart Armstrong President: Tony Coppola Secretary: Charles Smith Treasurer: Steven Rudolph Chief Executive Officer: Robert Puetz

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 7

U S PA B U L L E T I N

The National Intercollegiate Championships take place April 1-4. Shown here are 2019 Sportsmanship Award winners Andrew Scott and Claire English with Mike McCleary, center.

Young Player Opportunity Grant The purpose of the USPA’s YPO grant reimbursement program is to enhance the level of polo regularly available to an individual. The idea is to encourage players to come up with thoughtful and creative plans to improve their playing and horsemanship abilities. YPO applications are available online at uspolo.org. Upcoming application review dates are Mar. 15, May 1 and Aug. 15.

NYTS Time!

The NYTS qualifying season officially begins Mar. 1. USPA members in good standing, born after 1/1/2001 and with a minimum of a minus-1 handicap are eligible to participate. Players may qualify at any tournament. The NYTS Committee is proud to announce there will be four all-girl teams this year at the National Championships to be held in Chicago. For more information on NYTS, please visit the uspolo.org website or contact NYTS@uspolo.org.

National Interscholastic Championships The Open and Girls’ National Interscholastic Championships will take place the week of Mar. 1922 at Brookshire Polo Club in Brookshire, Texas.

Winners from each regional tournament, along with 8 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

possible wildcard selections, will be competing against their peers for a shot at the Interscholastic National Championship. The schedule will be posted to uspolo.org at the end of the regional tournaments.

National Intercollegiate Championships The National Intercollegiate Championships will take place the week of Apr. 1-4 at the Virginia Polo Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Regional champions, along with possible wildcard contenders, will be competing against each other for the top prize in the men’s and women’s divisions. The schedule will be posted on uspolo.org at the end of the regional tournaments. If you are in the area, make sure to stop by and check it out!

Interscholastic Varsity Letters If you are an interscholastic player who competed in the I/I tournament season this year, along with completing 100 hours in the saddle, participating in four I/I games, and are in good academic standing, you are eligible for an Interscholastic Varsity Letter!

For more information on the program and application please go to the Interscholastic Program page on uspolo.org.

•

U S PA B U L L E T I N

Fergus Gould Fine-tuning the standard in umpiring

What is your equestrian background and how did you become involved in polo?

Polo is a family business. Both my grandfathers, father, mother, uncle and brother all played polo professionally. I grew up traveling with my dad while

he was working as a pro. While playing in Australia, my father was offered a job at Ellerston in 1997 and he spent 18 years working for Ellerston Polo Club.

When I graduated from high school, I took what was only supposed to be a year off to play at Cowdray Park Polo Club in England, but it turned into nearly five years. I did attend Massey University of New Zealand for a year to study veterinary science, but that didn’t last long after my experience playing polo.

DAVID LOMINSKA/POLOGRAPHICS.COM

C

oming from The Land Down Under, Fergus Gould has amassed an impressive collection of passport stamps throughout his polo career, traveling and living in countries around the globe while working as a 4-goal professional player and umpire.

Pursuing one opportunity after the next, the third-generation polo player ventured out of his hometown of Goondiwindi, Australia, immediately after high school, unaware the decision to play in England would pave the path to a future in umpiring.

Over the course of his 15-year professional career, Gould has procured numerous titles, including the Australian Open, the Queensland Gold Cup and the Canadian Open. Although the natural transition to umpiring has afforded him a long-lasting career at a high level, it is not without the personal sacrifice of significant time spent away from home, and learning to develop thick skin while remaining level-headed in the heat of many passionate games. Perfecting his eye as an experienced high-goal umpire over the past seven years, Gould has called some of the most prestigious tournaments in the world.

Receiving his first opportunity to play in the United States, Gould was introduced to his sponsor’s niece, Lacey Winterton, the woman who would ultimately become his wife. The pair established roots in La Quinta, California, falling in love with the desert after years of relocating from continent to continent. A talented cricket player growing up, Gould has a variety of interests and talents ranging from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the ukulele.

Gravitating to polo at a young age like their father, Gould’s two sons—5-year-old Ivor and 2-yearold Beau—play peewee polo at Eldorado Polo Club in Indio, California. Distinguishing himself as an outstanding umpire and assuming the title of western regional umpire director in June 2019, Gould is sharing his valuable knowledge to educate and simultaneously raise the bar for the level of professional umpiring in North America.

Professional umpire Fergus Gould

I began playing polo professionally when I was 17, and I always had a fascination with the United States.

When the opportunity arose to come to the U.S., I jumped at it. My first job in the states was for Craig Steinke, my wife’s uncle. I was connected to him through a friend of mine who had played in the states before and I came to work in California.

I stopped playing professionally in 2015 to umpire full-time with the USPA. Before that, I’d been umpiring around the world on my own, particularly in France as well as Malaysia. I umpired many of the FIP World Polo Championship qualifiers in the Dominican Republic and most recently, the finals in Chile and Australia. I also umpired the Snow Polo World Cup in Tianjin, China.

Where have you played during your professional career?

I’ve played all over the world, but predominately POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 9

U S PA B U L L E T I N

Fergus Gould with wife Lacey Winterton and their sons Ivor and Beau

in Australia and New Zealand. We had a family farm in New Zealand where we bred and made a lot of horses that we used when we played tournaments there. I also played in England, the Philippines, Mexico and managed the Thai Polo Club in Thailand for a year. My wife worked as the hospitality manager at the club.

How were you introduced to umpiring?

My first paid umpiring job was in England in 1998. Gillian Johnston’s Coca-Cola polo team was playing that season and I was umpiring high-goal practices in my spare time from my full-time job. As a way to pay for my membership at Cowdray Park Polo Club, I would umpire any games that the polo manager needed and in return was able to play for free.

I started with the umpire program at Eldorado Polo Club in Indio, California, and started traveling to play in the desert in 2006. I was playing and umpiring, specifically a lot of the finals of the skins games. Susan Stovall, club manager of Eldorado Polo Club at the time, went to Polo Club SaintTropez (Gassin, France) to become club manager and brought me over to umpire the 2010 season.

That was when I started spending more months out of the year umpiring professionally than I was playing. I was umpiring in the summer in Europe (six summers in France) and returning to play the winters here in the United States. My son Ivor was born in France while I was working there and Beau was born in the United States.

10 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Describe a day in the life of a high-goal umpire.

Our schedule very much depends on the game times. If I have a morning game, we arrive at the field one hour to 45 mins before it starts to have our pregame meeting. During this time, we discuss anything that has come up since the previous game or things we need to focus on for the upcoming game.

Afternoon games are a little different because there is more time beforehand. Typically I try to make it to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training in the morning and watch any other polo games that are being played. Then, after a light lunch, I would head to the field for the pregame meeting.

After games, we have another quick meeting to debrief. The plays from the games are accessible on our umpire app within 30 minutes after the game ends. Most of the umpires will review all their calls from the day and complete a self-evaluation that evening. There are also formal umpire meetings weekly and, on our down time, a lot of us play golf together since most of us are away from home and it builds camaraderie.

What is the most difficult aspect of umpiring?

From a technical perspective, managing personalities is one of the biggest difficulties that we face as umpires. When you get to the highest level, all the umpires are extremely knowledgeable about the rules and very good at calling the game. The thing that separates the really good umpires from the best is the way that they manage a game, the players, and maintain control while being involved as little as possible. At the end of the day, we want to keep everybody safe, but we want them to play polo.

We understand nobody is there to watch us umpire so we try to facilitate a safe, open game. Obviously, having an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules and the procedures is something that requires time and effort and continuing education to make sure you are current with every aspect of it. We have to be able to access the rules on the spot because we don’t have the luxury of going back after the game to review and determine whether we got the call right or wrong.

Also, considering almost all of the umpires are former professional players, I think the hardest part for them is making the mental switch from a player’s approach to an official’s approach.

What is the most rewarding aspect of umpiring?

For me, it’s definitely the feeling when I have been

involved in a really great polo game, and I know that the team of officials has called a good game and given the players the opportunity to play safe, open polo.

The 2017 Pacific Coast Open final comes to mind when I umpired with Julian Appleby and Kimo Huddleston. The game went into double overtime and the teams played some fantastic polo after a very choppy and physical first half.

What is your favorite hobby outside of polo?

I have a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which is the intermediate adult ranking, and have been practicing the art for 10 years. Jiu-Jitsu is similar to wrestling because when you hit the ground you have to get your opponent to submit. It focuses on grappling with an emphasis on ground fighting.

I started watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship and jiu-jitsu was the martial art that everybody was winning with so I decided to try it out.

Unbeknownst to me, my brother had also begun training around the same time in Australia. Going back in our family history we found out that our great-grandfather was actually a British wrestling champion in 1911. He was supposed to compete in the Olympics in 1912, but he moved to New Zealand instead.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a very mentally-stimulating and physically-demanding sport. It’s one of those sports where you are always learning something new.

It is interesting to me on so many different levels and it keeps you in great shape. They call it human chess—it’s all about setting traps and being a couple of steps ahead of your opponent. I competed in Houston, Texas, last year, but I don’t often have a lot of time to compete.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?

I can play the ukulele and I play a lot of Jack Johnson and Willie Nelson songs. I started playing the ukulele when Lacey and I lived on a 36-foot sailboat for close to a year. I had a steel-string guitar at the time and the strings would rust if I kept the guitar on the boat. We bought a ukulele and I put velcro strips on it and attached it to the ceiling to keep it out of the way. My wife grew up sailing so we both have our American Sailing Association certifications and scuba diving certifications as well.

I’ve also done a bit of street magic, performing for fun. I was really into close-up magic for a long time.

Performing in front of people was one of the things that I did to improve at places like farmer’s markets.

I even performed at a few kid’s birthday parties when

DAVID LOMINSKA/POLOGRAPHICS.COM

U S PA B U L L E T I N

my friends asked me, but magic requires a significant time commitment to upkeep your proficiency.

Fergus Gould, right, showcases his characteristic positive attitude and smile.

What do your new responsibilities as western regional umpire director entail?

In my new role, my focus is going to be on Empire and Eldorado Polo Clubs and training, educating and recruiting umpires from around the world.

Throughout my travels, I’ve already met a lot of them.

I will be focusing on standardizing the way that we train and educate the umpires in the USPA Umpires, LLC. so that they are better able to work with each other. I will be continuing the assessment and improvement of all the umpires and giving them more feedback on areas to improve on.

What is your advice for someone who is interested in learning to umpire?

To be successful as an umpire it is essential to have patience, a willingness to learn and the ability to not take things personally. To enhance your technical ability, it is important to spend time developing a very strong understanding of the rulebook. Building a solid foundation in the rules will give a newer umpire more confidence in dealing with on-field situations and is essential to progressing as an umpire.

If you would like to contact Fergus Gould he can be reached at fgould@uspolo.org.

• POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 11

INSTRUCTORS FORUM

Score more Practice to improve your penalty-shot success

by Cindy Halle

Take a deep breath to settle your nerves and relax your horse. Be organized and focused before you approach the ball. Keep your eye on the ball and shoot straight.

Polo is a game full of variables so always do what you can in the moments that are more controllable.

Hitting good penalty shots is a combination of practice, mental preparation, good habits and more practice. Winning polo games tends to be more satisfying than losing them and to increase your chances of winning games, your team needs to convert a decent percentage of its penalty shots. It is possible to win while still not scoring on all of your penalty shots, but if you are given the golden opportunity to convert a penalty into a goal, it is obviously much better to score, especially in the arena.

The number of goals scored in an arena game is much higher and the penalty shots closer to the goal, so you must make the majority of your Penalty 2s and 3s to win.

Whether you are playing arena or grass polo there are some common sense things that you can do to improve your penaltyshot success, no matter what your handicap rating. Since most of my coaching and teaching has been in the arena version of the game, this article will be slanted towards indoor polo, but the same general concepts can be utilized on the grass as well.

It goes without saying that the most important thing is practice, practice, practice. When you have repeated the action of hitting a penalty shot numerous times your muscle memory will help you when your nerves are rattled during a game. To practice hitting many shots in succession, either set

12 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

up a bunch of balls all next to each other and work from the left to the right or have someone help set up balls so that you can be more efficient with your time and get more shots in during your practice time. In addition to the obvious practicing, these are some key points that may help you score more.

Practicing penalty shots also lets you realize what works best for you. Once you are hitting penalty shots well in practice, identify what specifics you’re doing to achieve that. Then incorporate those specifics into your penalty-shot routine and do the same thing every time. Just like the NBA players all have their individual habits before they shoot a free throw or tennis players before they serve, have your plan and stick to it. Everyone is different.

Some players are more accurate with the shorter penalty shots in the arena (2s and 3s) with a half swing while others prefer a full swing. Some like cantering to the shots while others feel more comfortable walking to their shorter penalty shots.

On the grass you want accuracy, distance and often loft as well, so cantering may be your best option to benefit from the horse’s momentum. Some players like to take a practice swing while approaching the ball while others like to wait and just hit the ball.

Even though you should try to keep your routine, you have some flexibility to adjust it if you are on a hot horse, or you are contending with a deep arena surface or chopped up field, but generally stick to the script. Also, everyone on the team should practice penalty shots even if the plan is to have one player take the shots in the game. You may be called upon in a shootout situation or your teammate may be having an off day, or may be riding a difficult horse that won’t approach the ball straight.

When a penalty has been called, remember the clock has stopped. Take a deep breath to settle your nerves and probably relax your horse a bit. Get yourself organized and focused before you go to that ball. I’m not advocating wasting time and driving the umpires crazy, but remember don’t rush, and instead get yourself together before you approach the ball. If you or one of your teammates is going to tee up the ball, do it quickly and then get prepared to take your shot. Remember to wait until the umpires say play.

INSTRUCTORS FORUM

You may be ready but there may be something else going on that you are unaware of necessitating a moment before “play” is called.

If you are going to canter to the ball you should be on the right lead. Get your horse into a rhythmic canter and maintain the pace. Ideally, you will hit the ball as your horse’s right front hoof hits the ground at the ball. Just as you need to do while hitting the ball during active play, use proper form and really think about keeping your head down. Pick your head up and you will top the ball and/or pick your shoulder up, forcing your shot to go to the left.

Hit late, and you will shank it to the right.

Even if you are walking to the ball, have some energy and an even pace. If your horse speeds up or slows down as you approach the ball it will mess up your timing. It is crucial your horse is absolutely straight as you approach the ball. Often, since players start in a circle to begin their canter, they are still on that right bend as they approach the ball and the horse drifts to the right, too close to the ball. It is imperative you straighten your horse once you approach the ball. In the arena you are allowed two approaches to the ball, so if your horse is jumpy, changes speed or gait or is super crooked on your first approach to the ball, don’t swing at it and utilize the gift of that second chance. Either turn left and make a short approach if you are walking, try again at a canter or call to your teammate and have them take it. (Remember, if you used one approach, your teammate now must hit it on the first approach).

Again, don’t panic or rush—you need to convert these into goals!

Just as you need to do while hitting the ball during active play, use proper form and really think about keeping your head down. Pick your head up and you will top the ball and/or pick your shoulder up, forcing your shot to go to the left. Hit late, and you will shank it to the right. As you approach the ball, if you need to look up to see where the goal is or where defenders are, that’s fine—after that, focus your eyes on the ball only and don’t look up again until after you have hit your shot.

Everyone on your team should know where they should be in each penalty-shot situation, whether you are hitting or defending. Go over all of these scenarios way before game time. If you are lucky enough to play with the same teammates for multiple games, this becomes easier. Once the penalty is called by the umpire, the hitter should prepare for his shot while his teammates go to where they need to be. For 5As and 5Bs, have at least three set plays that all of your teammates are familiar with. Have them named or somehow identified and decide

If circling at a canter to start your approach, be sure to straighten out your horse before swinging.

which one you are going to use as soon as the umpire announces the foul.

Again, be flexible. Let’s say you are in the arena with a center hit awarded to you and you are planning on hitting it up to your teammates on the right. As you are approaching the ball for your hit, you see no one between you and the goal, so you may want to change your plan and just shoot for two.

Whether arena or grass, the hitter should scan the field and adjust the Penalty 5 plan according to your opponent’s defensive set-up.

Also, if you are the designated penalty shooter for your team and are having an off day, don’t be afraid to step aside and ask a teammate to take over your job, even temporarily.

If you miss a shot, don’t let it affect your mindset in a negative way. There are a lot more variables in polo than in basketball and the best NBA players do not score 100% of their penalty shots. We have divots, horses that move at the last minute, weather conditions—all things that may affect your shot so if you miss-hit a clunker, shake it off and focus on the next play. If your teammate is the one who missed the shot, don’t berate him as he is probably berating himself. Instead, move on and encourage him if needed.

Polo is a complicated game but some very common sense things can help improve your penalty shooting and thus improve your chances of winning.

Having your individual routine when hitting, keeping your horse in a steady pace and straight, being organized as well as relaxed and focused will help improve your scoring percentage when you are taking those all-important penalty shots.

• POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 13

ASK AN UMPIRE

Rule 16 Why was time between chukkers reduced?

Horse trainer Catlin Dix

In an effort to open the lines of communication between the playing members and umpires, the Umpires, LLC will feature this Ask an Umpire column each month in this magazine. Players are encouraged to ask anything they want about the rules, umpiring and so forth. The hope is the column will be in every issue of the magazine for years to come, bringing human faces and stories to players and umpires and to chat openly about real polo issues at all levels.

Please direct your questions to Regional Umpire Director Dana Fortugno by email at: dfortugno@uspolo.org. Let’s do it !

Our first question comes from player member Catlin Dix. She is 35 years old and has been playing polo since she was 15. She is a third generation polo player from Spokane, Washington. She is also a fulltime cattle rancher and horse trainer. She sells ranch-raised homebred horses and splits her time between summers in the Pacific Northwest and winters at the Eldorado Polo Club in the California desert. She has played and trained in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Canada, and Mexico. She won the 2018 Sunny Hale Horsemanship Award and more

14 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

than 15 best playing pony awards. Her uncle, Pat Dix, was inducted into the Polo Hall of Fame this year.

Catlin plays at the Spokane Polo Club. This club originated in 1889 and has been at its current location since the mid-1960s, thanks to her grandfather’s involvement. The club is located just minutes from downtown Spokane, next door to the Spokane International Airport. The Spokane Polo Club boasts two full-sized playing fields, a regulationsized arena, and a full mile exercise track and enough on-site stabling for 1,000 horses. Spokane has one of the longest playing seasons available, starting the first of May and finishing up in October. It is also one of the most centrally-located clubs in the Northwest, being within a day’s drive from Calgary, California and Wyoming. The club is also under new, polo player ownership.

Catlin’s question: What is the reason behind the new rule concerning time between periods? It seems as though this could be detrimental as many sponsors and professionals have less recovery time. Also, at a time when the USPA is putting special emphasis on horse care, why are we allowing less time for grooms to warm up fresh horses and care for and cool down hot ones?

Umpire Kimo Huddleston is going to answer Catlin’s question. Kimo umpires all levels of polo but his main focus is high-goal polo during the winter season in Wellington, Florida. Kimo makes his home in San Diego, California, where he lives with his wife, Stephanie, and his three daughters. He was born and raised in the Hawaiian Islands (Kihei, Maui) and has the tattoos to prove it. Kimo was a 6-goal professional polo player and played the majority of his 25-year polo career in Hawaii, Canada, New Zealand and California. Kimo has been umpiring with the USPA for the past five years.

Kimo’s answer: What a great question, Catlin. I can tell you’re a horse lover, just like me. The shorter time between periods is a reaction to all the complaints that the games are taking too long, mainly the high-goal games. That is also why we use radios, to speed up the dormant time during games, so the total game time is less. The USPA has to deal with livestream issues as well. Another theory is that if a game is too long, we

ASK AN UMPIRE

NANO’S POLO MALLETS

Rule 16-Games A game shall be a maximum of 6 regular periods and an unlimited number of overtime periods with intervals of three minutes after each period, except at half time in games of four or more regular periods and before the first overtime period in the event of a tie, in which cases the intervals shall be five minutes.

An additional five-minute interval shall be allowed after each completion of the same number of overtime periods as the number of periods before the first fiveminute interval. In games with an upper handicap limit below 8 goals, the Umpire(s) may allow more time for the foregoing intervals between periods or the interval before a shootout. In games consisting of an uneven number of regular periods, the half time shall come at the end of the middle period. Any game shall be played to its conclusion unless suspended and abandoned as provided in Rule 22.g.

will lose the interest of the spectators. These issues Kimo Huddleston are high-goal issues for the most part, and the high-goal teams have the staff to be able to change horses in three minutes, which is not always the case for lower-level polo.

The good news is that in under 8-goal polo, the rule gives umpires the discretion to allow more time between periods as these issues are not so evident at the lower levels. The umpire can simply allow more time and wait or meet with the Host Tournament Committee and pick a time limit that suits the specific tournament and use that number instead.

I hope that helps you understand why the rules committee adopted shorter time limits.

Always remember that you have the power of the vote and if you don’t like what is happening, talk to your local USPA governor and use your vote to put governors in the USPA who agree with your point of view. Aloha, Kimo •

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E Q U I N E AT H L E T E

Junk in the trunk A polo pony’s hind end is an important consideration

By Steve Kraus

WHEN assessing prospects to either buy or train for

1

A base-narrow horse (X-axis) has the least desirable conformation and should be passed over for polo.

16 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

the sport of polo, there are many things to observe.

Often the focus is on the front end of the horse, but this can be a mistake, especially if problems of the hind end go unnoticed. This happens for several reasons.

First, it is just natural and safe to approach a horse from the front. We tend to want to make eye contact and just meet face to face. Customarily, most horse people want to check out the front end for proper alignment and stance. This is all good, however, the dealbreaker for any performance horse, is the hind end.

The posture and stance of the hind end is where the horse mechanically transmits most of its power to the ground. With a faulty hind end, a horse is going to be handicapped and will develop soundness problems.

Without proper hind engagement, a horse places excessive strain on the front end and loins. Improper hind-end conformation often necessitates hock injections and other special treatments in an attempt to maintain soundness. The real cost of the faulty hind end is subpar performance.

For performance purposes, the horse should be working in a “rear-wheel-drive� mode. Some call this self-carriage, light on the forehand or coming through from behind. A good polo prospect has natural selfcarriage. Developing self-carriage is accomplished if the horse has the proper conformation. However, lacking the right conformational attributes, the hind end will develop soreness in specific places, when forcing a horse to work off the rear. Just using a harsh bit to force the horse to load its hindquarters does not produce longterm satisfaction. Horses with hind conformational faults will prefer to work on the forehand because they cannot properly load their hind end. If you ever ride a horse that does not use the hind end properly, you will feel that you are being jammed into the front end.

No horse is perfect, so conformational defects need to be considered in a spectrum to gain perspective.

Mild defects are quite normal and common. This is acceptable and proper shoeing with attention to hoof alignment under the load above and shoe fit is all that is necessary. Moderate defects become borderline for polo. These are the horses that proactive shoeing and attention to detail may keep an athlete in the game.

E Q U I N E AT H L E T E

Shoeing for polo horses tends to be uniform. Here is where a little creative thinking or non-standard shoeing is helpful. It is always best to recognize potential problems and work with them before they cause trouble, rather than try to fix it after they are sidelining the horse. The concept here is to shoe the horse, not just the foot.

Horses with severe conformational defects are not suitable for polo. There is always that super athlete with crooked legs that appears and plays legendary polo. That horse may do well for a time, but cannot escape the damage from the laws of physics. The damage often is to articular surfaces of joints. A horse with a good hind end that has a marginal front end is preferable to the opposite of that. A proper hind end saves the front end on any horse.

As head of farrier services at the Cornell University Veterinary College, Equine Hospital, I see horses coming in for front-end lameness. Many either have faulty hind ends or have improper shoeing back there. Many go through extensive diagnostic procedures without anything showing up for the front lameness. Then the lameness can be considered to be of a mechanical nature. Many cases are resolved when the proper geometric shoeing attention is applied to the hind end, which relieves the strain on the front end.

To understand what to look for when assessing hind-end conformation, know how to look at it.

Although grabbing the tail of a strange horse is not recommended, the tail is in the way of seeing what needs to be evaluated. A guideline to help visualization is thinking in terms of the X-, Y-, and Z-axis views.

Drop visual plumb lines from critical places on the horse’s body. For the hind end, the point of the hip seen from the side is the Z-axis view. Where that plumb line falls in relation to the hoof placement under the body, is important. Looking from directly behind the horse, the view is the X-axis. Here the plumb line begins at the center of buttocks, runs down to the hocks, and finishes at the ground. This determines if the horse is base wide, or base narrow. The Yaxis can be seen only if you are either looking straight up the leg as if the horse is on a glass table or straight down from above. The Y-axis describes bone alignment and rotation of the leg.

The results of deviations in the three axes have profound effects on the hoof, and joints above it.

Think of the hoof as an airplane that can have pitch, roll and yaw. When the horse loads each hoof unevenly due to conformational defects, the forces transmitted up the leg can not be dissipated properly. Considering that playing polo is at a gallop and these forces are intense, they will damage cartilage. Wolf’s law says that bone remodels to ground reaction force, hence

Standing under/sickle hocks (Z-axis). This type of conformation takes the horse’s thrusting ability away and should be a deal-breaker for polo.

2

uneven forces also produce bone pathology.

Now, let us talk about what to look for. From directly behind the horse, with the tail either tied up or held out of the way, we can see several things on the X-axis. Cannon bones need to be parallel. Foot placement under the hips can either be directly underneath, which is desirable, base narrow (inside hip plumb line (Figure 1), or base wide (outside hip plumb line).The least desirable is base narrow and should be a deal-breaker. This defect rocks the hips sideways upon loading, creating arthritis on the hock joint. The hoof also crushes laterally and flares medially. Base narrow horses do not engage their hind end. Usually their hocks are pointing away from each other and lack flexion.

Slightly base wide gives the horse a stable hind end as long as the cannon bones are parallel. Too far base wide makes the cannon bones not parallel, known as cow hocks. This uneven X - and Y-axis alignment also creates arthritis in the lateral hock. The excessive toe out stance also will cause quarter cracks in the hoof.

The side view, Z-axis, also needs the tail out of the (continued on page 38) POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 17

POLO SCENE

N E W S • NO T E S • T R E N D S • Q U O T E S

WEEK OF HEAD WONDER Polo part of Winter Subhead at Tantora festival

AMAALA topped a four-team lineup to win the first Desert Polo Championship in AlUla, at Saudi

Right: George SpencerChurchill, Nacho Figueras and Prince Carl of OettingenWallerstein won the first Desert Polo Challenge.

Below: Juan Martin Nero, Pablo Mac Donough, Pelon Stirling and Adolfo Cambiaso take a ride at the ancient site of Hegra.

18 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Arabia’s Unesco World Heritage Site. The event was part of the Winter at Tantora festival in Northwest Saudi Arabia, a place of extraordinary natural beauty and cultural heritage, showcasing worldclass cultural, musical and sporting events. The festival runs for 12 weeks from Dec. 19 to Mar. 7. The polo event was played from Jan. 17-18.

The matches were played in a specially build desert arena, cradled in a circle of sandstone outcrops that are home to archeological treasures, natural beauty and magnificent monuments that span millennia. AlUla is on the incense route between Southern Arabia and Egypt.

On the first day, Amaala (HSH Prince Carl of Oettingen-Wallerstein, George Spencer-Churchill, Nacho Figueras) topped Richard Mille (HRH Prince Sultan Alfaisal, Amr Zedan, Pablo Mac Donough), 7-2, thanks to five goals from Figueras. AlUla (HRH Prince Abbas bin Ali Bin Nayef, Mohammad Al Habtoor, Adolfo Cambiaso) edged Al Nahla Bentley (Sheikha Alya Al Maktoum, Saad Audeh, Pelon Stirling), 4-2.

Cambiaso, who arrived a few days early, and his Argentine Open teammates, including Juan Martin Nero who broke his leg in the Open final, enjoyed a leisurely ride around the ancient site of Hegra. The site dates back to the 1st Century AD and includes 131 rock-cut monumental tombs, with elaborately ornamented facades of the Nabateam Kingdom.

“This location is simply breathtaking. Polo has taken me all over the world but this is the first time I’ve been given the opportunity to play at a world heritage site,” Cambiaso said.

“This is an important event in Saudi Arabia’s sporting history and I hope that young people in Saudi Arabian will take a look at AlUla Desert Polo and want to get involved in the sport.”

In the final, Figueras led Amaala to a 7-3 victory over AlUla, 7-3. The

POLO SCENE

DOWN THE LINE David Walton and Quique.

Offspring continue to compete in the sport, make history

W

HEN DAVID WALTON swung his leg over a cute chesnut named Quique, history was likely made. The 10-yearold Walton, a fourth generation polo player, was riding a fourth generation polo pony. Even more, David’s greatgrandfather owned and played Quique’s great-grandfather.

David is the son of polo players Tessa Callaghan Lord and Delmer Walton, a 3-goaler. Del’s parents, former 8goaler and Hall of Famer Rob Walton and Robin Carroll Bostwick, have both played, and his grandparents on both sides, Dr. Robert Walton and Hall of Famer and former 8goaler Delmer Carroll, played.

Quique is a 7-year-old gelding owned by Chase Butler.

Quique was bred, foaled (2013) and trained at David’s family farm in South Carolina. Quique is out of Carolina (bred, foaled in 2007 and trained at the Walton farm) by Time (a homebred polo stallion owned by Robin Carroll Bostwick). Carolina is out of Alicia (a polo mare owned by Charlie Bostwick) by off-the-track Throughbred Salt Lake Express. Alicia was out of Dolly (owned and played by Heath Manning) by the Hall-of-Fame horse Magazin (owned, trained and played by Del Carroll).

Quique was gelded two years ago, but was bred prior to that and has foals on the ground so the lineage is likely to continue.

consolation had Al Nahla Bentley get the best of Richard Mille, 4-2. Al Nahla Bentley was led by three goals from HRH Maktoum who earned MVP honors.

Figueras said, “It’s an amazing place with an amazing history, an amazing heritage and an amazing first tournament for the Saudi Polo Federation. I’m very honored to be here and delighted we were able to win.”

Saudi Polo Federation Chairman Amr F. Zedan, who played on Richard Mille, said, “I see this event as a launching pad for the future. We have big plans for polo in Saudi Arabia that include the establishment of development programs and the construction of facilties to assist in building a polo infrastructure in The Kingdom.”

Pelon Stirling and Pablo Mac Donough play in the speciallymade arena surrounded by archeological treasures.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 19

POLO SCENE

KIDS PLAY Eldorado junior polo off to great start Photos by Kerri Kerley

ELDORADO POLO CLUB in Indio, California, has been offering a strong junior program for kids of all ages for years and that continues today. Some of the former participants have grown up and now have children of their own who participate.

The season got off to a good start with almost two dozen kids coming out on the weekends for practices in walk-trot, intermediate and advance divisions. Almost as a cute and talented as the kids are the ponies carrying them around.

20 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

POLO SCENE

YEAR IN REVIEW Members get together for annual meeting

MEMBERS OF Tinicum Park Polo Club in Erwinna, Pennsylvania, got together in late January to review the 2019 season, plan for the up-coming season and congratulate club award winners.

Overall, the 2019 season was a success for the largest club in the Eastern circuit.

Weather was mostly favorable, attendance was high and there was plenty of fun polo throughout the season, including a first-ever beach polo match. This season, the club’s goals are to improve the main field and have better umpiring.

A full schedule is planned, beginning in May and playing through the beach polo match in early October.

Additionally, with 30 people in attendance, member awards were given out.

Recipients included Billy Linfoot Most Improved Player Johanna Pederson; Victoria and Dave Halliday’s Polo Pony of the Year Muneca; Clint Nangle Equine Welfare Award winner Rebecca Link, VMD; Owen O’Hanlon Groom Award winner Sierra Welt; and Youth Award winners Daniel Arnold, Owen Halliday, Abdullah Chaudhry and Brook Burk.

The club recently leased an indoor arena facility in Allentown, New Jersey, so it can offer indoor chukkers throughout the winter. It can also offer polo lessons year-round.

Cheryl Arnold, Pete D’Costa, Henry Ighling, Victoria Halliday, Gary Hulton, Val Washington, Hesham El-Gharby, Jim Koslovski and Barclay Knapp

GET MOBILE! Empire Polo Club launches new mobile app

E

MPIRE POLO CLUB in Indio, California, recently launched a new mobile app for polo players, spectators and customers. The app, designed by Digital West Media, Inc. using a third party mobile app product, includes game schedules, general information about polo events, live music schedules and links for the Date Shed, Tack Room Tavern and Polo Pizza Co. The “Deals and Coupons’ section has deals at Polo Pizza Co., The Tack Room Tavern and at the Empire Polo Club Sunday Polo Gift Shop.

The app is available on the Google Play App and Apple App stores.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 21

P O L O D E V E L O P M E N T, L L C

Desert qualifier NYTS season kicks off in California

By Hayley Heatley • Photos by Kerri Kerley

Bush League’s Jazmin Trotz, Micaela Saracco, Quinn Kyle and Teo Von Wernich took first place.

Eldorado Polo Club kicked off the National Youth Tournament Series qualifying season with five competitive teams. Held in conjunction with the Joe Barry Memorial junior tournament, the NYTS qualifier was played over the course of two days. Bush League teammates Quinn Kyle, Jazmin Trotz, Micaela Saracco and Teo Von Wernich dominated, emerging undefeated.

During the tournament, eight all-stars were recognized, including Micaela Saracco, Teo Von Wernich, Bayne Bossom, Grant Palmer, Riley Jordan, Grace Parker, Lars Neumann and Piers Bossom.

Speedy, played by Nick Fernandez, won Best Playing Pony.

Players from clubs throughout California traveled to the desert to join in on the fun. Lakeside, Poway , Empire, Santa Barbara and Central Coast Polo Clubs were represented at the tournament. Many participating players came through the Eldorado junior program. Each Saturday and Sunday, players aged 3-18 are divided up for coaching chukkers and

1st place: Bush League’s Quinn Kyle, Jazmin Trotz, Micaela Saracco, Teo Von Wernich 2nd place: Boss Polo’s Bayne Bossom, Grace Gonzalez, Nick Fernandez, Rose Gonzalez 3rd place: Seattle Polo’s Colby Smith, Piers Bossom, Grace Parker, Morgan Manos 4th place: Antelope’s Grant Palmer, Lars Neumann, Taylor Olcott, Jasmine Lu, Emily Andre 5th place: Lakeside’s Riley Jordan, Ethan Bankhead, Sydney Morris, Ajay Moturi

Bayne Bossom and Micaela Saracco

22 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

P O L O D E V E L O P M E N T, L L C

drills. Local professionals spend time with the older players, coaching them through plays and helping advance their field awareness. Younger players spend time working on riding and hitting skills. They are eager to advance, taking great pride in the day they are asked to play in the next division. Designed for the most advanced youth players, being eligible to participate in the NYTS tournament is an accomplishment.

“I was delighted to see five teams of young players competing,” said Circuit Governor Daniel Walker.

“Their passion and excitement to compete is a privilege to witness. Win or not, there was a big smile from all concerned.”

Hosting an NYTS qualifier is a great way for clubs to incorporate local youth players with invited players from surrounding areas. All-stars are recognized at each qualifier and are selected based on horsemanship, sportsmanship, playing ability at current handicap and ability to play as a member of a team. All-stars are eligible to be selected for their respective zone team. Over the past five years, an average of 35 qualifiers were held throughout the season. The level of play at the qualifiers continues

to improve as players participate in both indoor and outdoor polo throughout the year. Over half of all NYTS participants also compete in the intercollegiate/interscholastic program.

•

Nick Fernandez with his Best Playing Pony Speedy.

OAK BROOK POLO

NYTS Championships Chicago, Illinois Sept 10-13

The NYTS Committee is pleased to announce four all-girls teams will be selected in addition to the four open teams for the NYTS National Championship held at the historic Oak Brook Polo Club. The female demographic holds a significant space in the NYTS program with 49% of NYTS players being female.

One of the oldest polo clubs in the country, the historic Oak Brook Polo Club was founded in 1922 by legendary businessman Paul Butler. This American polo treasure was once the sport’s epicenter for elite professional polo in the United States. It was home to the U.S. Open Polo Championship for 24 straight seasons as well as other prestigious international and national polo tournaments. For decades the club was a popular Sunday tradition and social scene known for entertaining Hollywood celebrities, dignitaries, royalty and Chicago’s distinguished polo fans.

Today, the club plays on the Prince of Wales field, which is adjacent to the Butler National Golf Course and The Drake Hotel. Located 17 miles from Chicago’s Loop, the club hosts a number of Sunday polo matches and continues to attract thousands of fascinated spectators who marvel at the athleticism and majesty of this timeless sport.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 23

I N T E R C O L L E G I AT E / I N T E R S C H O L A S T I C

Building careers

ROBERT KELLER

I/I program kickstarts couple’s polo life

Nate and Liv Berube

For some college polo players, once graduation hits and the real world takes over, polo can take a backseat. Others will live and breathe polo doing whatever, wherever they can to stay involved. I/I alums and husband and wife, Nate and Liv Berube share their road from I/I polo to making a career out of the sport.

24 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Getting Started As many I/I players do, first generation polo player Liv (Stringer) Berube got her start in polo by being introduced to it through the I/I program. She started under the direction of Trevor and Kelly Wells on the first-ever Baltimore interscholastic team. The bug bit and Liv spent her summers grooming and playing at the Maryland Polo Club, working for the Colhoun family. Nate grew up in New Hampshire and learned how to play at Seacoast Polo Club in Dover. He would go on to start an interscholastic team there, with his Dad joining in on the fun.

When choosing colleges, polo played a big factor for both of them. Liv chose Colorado State University for the hands-on polo club and Equine Science programs.

“CSU was a particularly great place to develop horsemanship as we did not have a coach or staff caring for our horses. As a team, we had to work to provide quality care to our string with the help of the fantastic veterinary teaching hospital,” Liv said.

Nate focused on the University of Connecticut for its polo program and the offering of a plant science degree that he pursued.

I/I Polo—The Journey When asked to recall a favorite memory in I/I, both Liv and Nate responded with the team bonding and extensive road trips each of their teams took; but even more importantly, those little life lessons that come along the way.

Liv recalled, “I made it to the Intercollegiate National Championships three times, and never won. I think that taught me to appreciate the journey, and not be so fixated on the destination.”

Nate credits I/I with forming lasting friendships and connections in the polo world that are still strong today.

“I made great connections that have lasted—I met my wife through I/I, have stayed close to my college teammates, and we are lucky to live in Aiken [South Carolina] where so many former I/I players are also based. It’s a great support system in a sport that has its highs and lows.”

I N T E R C O L L E G I AT E / I N T E R S C H O L A S T I C

MIKE RYAN

Polo—Full Time For many, taking the leap into a polo career full time can be daunting. Liv and Nate took their own

Liv follows Nate during the Feldman Cup, an arena tournament for I/I alumni.

paths to get where they are now. Nate worked for former 10-goaler Mike Azzaro for two years where he learned how to create a successful program for his horses and work as a professional. Nate and Liv are now owners and operators of Berube Polo in Aiken.

Their operation includes coaching, training, sales, green horses, tournament play, breeding and, in the summer months, they operate a polo school out of Maryland Polo Club, near Liv’s hometown.

Nate (mounted, right) and Liv (standing) work with students at their farm in Aiken.

Full Circle—I/I Give Back Beyond building their farm and business, Liv and Nate also keep their hand in the I/I program. They coach the Virginia Tech college team and are a horse supplier to local-, regional- and national-level I/I events. Throughout the year, they mentor I/I players in their programs, offering internships and job opportunities. Its not an easy path, but they will assure you it is rewarding.

Nate explained, “We found our success in increments. One job led to a better one, [and] the sale of a horse allowed us to buy the next better one.

Nothing came fast.”

• POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 25

Desert Oasis Empire expands with two new polo venues

By Kristine Bonner and Lynn Bremner

26 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Empire is known for its impressive and elegant statuary.

In the middle of the desert lies a timeless oasis.

Deep blue tropical waters fill a graceful, lush lagoon bordered by sandy beaches. At the center of this tranquil expanse an exotic island beckons, while in the distance a peninsula frames the scene, its storm-bent palm trees casting cooling shadows on the shores.

You could be forgiven for thinking you’re dreaming, but you’re not. You have arrived at Alex Haagen III’s newest inspiration, Empire Grand Oasis, located just 10 minutes southeast of Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.

Empire Grand Oasis, a tropical jewel, is adorned by a grass polo field positioned alongside, providing polo players with their own unique polo paradise. Plans are in the works for three more grass fields, all to be installed within the next 12 months. No other polo venue in the country will have grounds as beautiful as Empire Grand Oasis. The venue will be used for concerts, weddings, corporate events, polo matches and parties.

All of Haagen’s properties, including Empire Polo Club, are distinguished by extensive gardens, accented by impressive and elegant statuary and enlivened by luminous fountains. Empire Grand Oasis, however, takes these design concepts and intensifies them all into a new level of artistry.

On-site stabling and acres of pasture land at Calhoun Ranch are ideal for players competing at Empire Polo Club.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 27

Three more polo fields are planned for Empire Grand Oasis this year.

A regulation-size polo field is next to Empire Grand Oasis’ tropical lagoon and Estate House.

28 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Views of the surrounding desert mountains seem surreal as you explore the enchanting polo grounds, then traverse the shores of the tropical lagoon. Refreshing fountains, well-placed statuary and lush gardens add detail and luxury to this exclusive polo venue.

The sandy beach of the lagoon is spotted with shady palapas and palm trees. An island with a grass palapa and palm trees is within easy reach across the fresh water lagoon. Guests will enjoy lounging on the sandy beach or paddling around in a canoe.

At the north end of the lagoon, an authentic tiki bar sits on a peninsula with views of the mountains and the expansive Estate House to the south. A cascading waterfall just beyond the peninsula adds to the tropical ambience with its mesmerizing sound. Under the palapa roof of the tiki bar and on the adjacent lawn area, luau parties, tropical-themed luncheons or romantic evening cocktail parties can take advantage of the lush, exotic atmosphere—truly an oasis in the desert.

Less than a mile from Empire Polo Club lies Calhoun Ranch, another new polo facility in the neighborhood. Built in 2018 by Haagen, it features a tranquil lake surrounded by the area’s iconic palm trees. The wide-ranging property includes a grass polo

Extensive landscaping, statuary and fountains can be seen at Empire Grand Oasis.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 29

Calhoun Ranch’s regulation-size arena compliment’s Empires vast outdoor fields.

The club’s three-acre rose garden features 8,000 rose bushes.

30 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

field and a large stick-and-ball field. Calhoun Ranch also has the benefit of a regulation indoor polo arena.

On-site stabling, an exercise track and acres of pasture make this a convenient base of operations for teams competing at Empire Polo Club.

Empire Polo Club, owned by the Haagen family, was established in 1987. The club’s winter season begins with pre-season games in December. The main polo season starts in early January and continues through the end of March, offering players 1-, 4- and 8-goal leagues.

In 2010, Haagen told Polo Players’ Edition, “From the beginning, I wanted to build a polo club that would expand competition and become the place to play. But that’s not enough. I also wanted to create a comfortable place for friends and family to gather. You can’t have one without the other.”

The addition of Calhoun Ranch and Empire Grand Oasis have increased Empire Polo Club’s total acres to 468, with stabling and ample turnout for up to 713 horses. Once the three new grass fields planned for Empire Grand Oasis are completed, Empire will have a total of 16 high-quality regulation polo fields. In addition, the club is one of two polo facilities in the world with a fully lit grass polo field for night play.

Between the three facilities, there are three exercise tracks and two indoor arenas.

There is also dining and entertainment options available on the club grounds. The Tack Room Tavern is

a favorite watering hole and dining destination for locals and visitors. It offers live music on the weekends and Karaoke during the week. Sharing an outdoor patio with the Tack Room Tavern is the Polo Pizza Company, offering hand-tossed, gourmet pizzas and a full bar.

Empire Polo Club is world-renowned as a concert venue for the Coachella Art & Music Festival, which sees close to 100,000 people a day over six days, according to Goldenvoice. Last year, the event sold out within six hours of tickets going on sale.

The club will soon gain similar recognition with polo players and fans from around the world. The Federation of International Polo recently selected Empire Polo Club as the host club for the XII FIP World Polo Championship. Polo players from eight countries will make the journey to Indio to participate in the tournament.

“I’m excited to have the FIP World Championship take place at Empire Polo Club,” said Haagen. “Our club is a world-class polo and event facility with the capacity to handle an event of this magnitude. Our event staff has extensive experience with event set-up and management, making Empire Polo Club the perfect location for the FIP World Championship,” added Haagen.

The club will host the event jointly with the USPA and USPA Global Licensing from Oct. 22-31, 2021. It will be just the second time in history the competition has been held in the U.S. Players, rated from 2 to 5 goals on teams rated 10 to 14 goals, will be mounted on hundreds of horses from the Jornayvaz family’s J5 Equestrian organization.

“When it comes to horses, J5 Equestrian is the top organization in America and one of the most important in the world,” said USPA CEO Robert Puetz.

“USPA has committed to partner with J5 to provide over 200 horses and we are ecstatic that they are able to support this significant international event ... It will be a highly-competitive tournament on an international stage.”

Haagen’s polo venues offer players and teams a firstclass luxury polo experience at a fraction of the cost of other polo clubs in the country. The economical cost of living, hay and stabling in the California desert, combined with the temperate climate and striking surroundings, creates an attractive package for teams looking for a winter polo destination.

For more information about Empire Polo Club visit: empirepolo.com.

•

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 31

Daring Doc

Madison Richardson thrives on adventure

By Gwen Rizzo

Despite a busy medical practice, Richardson, left, reached a 3-goal rating. Here he is challenging Mike Conant in Santa Barbara.

32 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

To say Dr. Madison Richardson is a thrill seeker would be an understatement. From flying acrobatic airplanes and racing cars to running with the bulls in Spain, Richardson has done it all. That love of adventure eventually led him to the sport of polo, something that continues to capture his attention after some 40 years.

Richardson grew up on his family’s working cattle ranch outside Houston, Texas, that once belonged to Gen. Sam Houston. It is where Richardson developed a love a horses.

“There was just something comforting about them to me when I was young,” Richardson explained. “Riding wasn’t a luxury sort of thing.

We had all kinds of horses. My grandfather gave me the gentlest one to ride. I could crawl underneath it and it wouldn’t do anything. Then when I was about 10 or 11, I’d try [to ride] the two year olds.

I’d swing up on their backs with no saddle, no bridle and just [ride] them until they threw me off.”

But it wasn’t just horses that peeked Richardson’s interest. “On our ranch, if it had fur, I rode it. I didn’t care if it was a goat, sheep or calf ... I’d go in, get astride them and run around the pen until they bucked me off ...” he said. “My grandfather would look at me and say if I can get you to 16 you might have a chance.”

The family eventually moved to California when he was a teen. He heard about riding and polo at Will Rogers State Park so he would go there to watch. Later, while he was attending Howard University in Washington D.C. he would go watch polo at the National Mall on Sunday afternoons.

“I looked at those guys and they were like demigods to me. ... I would say, oh my God, what do you have to do to be able to play polo like this,” Richardson explained.

At the time, he was playing football, fencing and doing other sports in school but something about polo resonated with him. “I said, oh no, I am going to find a way to do this,” said Richardson.

But first, he had to finish his education, following in his father’s and uncles’ footsteps as doctors. Richardson said he had no interest in anything else, because he had lived his life to get to that point. Totally focused, he says he studied eight hours every night and 13 hours on the weekends.

Richardson also served in the Army, taking care of soldiers during the Vietnam War. He says he enjoyed taking care of the helicopter pilots most of all because they, too, were risk-takers.

“They were the greatest, most fun and interesting soldiers. They’d leave Fort Rucker in

Alabama to go to Vietnam and 50% of them knew they were going to die,” he said. “They lived like that. I got to be such good friends with those kind of devil-may-care, live-now, big spirited people who were in the war and thought they were going to die.

Every single day was a big deal, with camaraderie, loyalty and all the things you see in warriors.”

He eventually went back to California to open a practice. He had three offices and was working really hard but he had a couple of jumping horses and made time to ride at a nearby riding club. One day, a computer salesman came into the office and learned Richardson rode.

“He asked if I ever thought about polo, and I said yeah, I did, but it hadn’t worked out. He said, he had just the thing for me and was going to take

Richardson ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain in 1995.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 33

Hall-of-Famer James Rice and Richardson share a laugh. Rice worked for him for several years.

Richardson with Nelson Mandela

me up to the club on the top of the hill Thursday night,” Richardson said.

Richardson decided to take the guy up on his offer. That is when he met Bill Carter, who was at the Will Rogers Polo Club.

Richardson remembers, “He showed me how to wrap that mallet around my hand and I said, my life is going to be like this, Oh my God.”

34 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Despite how busy he was with his day job, he always made time to practice polo every Tuesday and Thursday night. He admits the sacrifice and commitment necessary to play the sport are what appealed to him.

Within the first year of playing polo, Richardson made a trip to Argentina to be where the best players in the world came from. It was there that he met the 10-goal great Juan Carlos Harriot, whom he calls a superhero. He also met and played with 10-goaler Eduardo Moore.

“We’d play 12 to 18 chukkers every day. He’d tell me everything about the horses, the bits and everything I needed to know,” said Richardson.

“He showed me how to manage polo horses. He taught me a lot and it made it a lot easier later on.”

He continued to immerse himself in the sport as much as he could. “I started watching all the games from Palm Beach. Rolex A&K and all the big teams were playing down there,” Richardson said.

“I’d go to bed every single night watching those games over and over. I’d say, this makes sense to me. I don’t know what everybody else is doing but this is going to be my life.”

Richardson lived in an historic neighborhood in central Los Angeles called Hancock Park. Back in the 80s, for Father’s Day, his family had a wooden horse built next to the pool in the backyard.

Despite often working late, Richardson would come home and hit about 300 balls a night.

“I’d be knocking balls around and you’d hear somebody say, ‘Doc, go to bed!’ They even ran an article about me and my polo pit in the local newspaper,” he said. “It was a pretty serious disease!”

The more involved Richardson got in the sport, the more playing opportunities were presented. He admits he never said no to a playing opportunity, no matter where it was.

At that time, polo at the L.A. Equestrian Center got really big. “My horses were the first polo ponies in the arena before the pro league started. Joe Henderson cut his teeth there; Goodspeed, the Waltons and Memo [Gracida], everybody was in there, not to mention all the celebrities,” Richardson recalls.

Eventually, Richardson would go to Texas to buy horses, both at Houston Polo Club and through the polo horse sales they used to have.

“I saw the Busch boys come up in their great big truck. It was a pretty heady time, a little different than now,” Richardson said. “I got to be real good friends with Tommy [Wayman] and Joe Barry. I got to buy a lot of horses from them.”

At one time Richardson had 34 horses, three that he used for fox hunting and the rest polo ponies. He played all year long for years. The dedication helped him reach a 3-goal handicap.

Richardson explained, “I had a string in the desert and a string to play at Santa Barbara. I’d play in Santa Barbara from April to the end of October, then I’d play indoors in November. We’d have the Sherman Cup and a few other indoor tournaments, and then the first of the year, I’d play

passions and the same kind of spirit.”

He got to be good friends with Producer Michael Butler, whose family started Oak Brook Polo. Through Butler, he met Maj. Ronald Ferguson, at the time, polo manager for Prince Charles.

“Michael Butler would call me and say, ‘listen, Ronnie’s bringing a team to California and he’d like to play in the desert, then in Santa Barbara at the equestrian center. See what you can set up.’

at Eldorado until April 15, then I’d start the process all over again.”

Polo led to some wonderful friendships for Richardson, and allowed him to travel to many interesting places around the world.

“When people talk about polo being a passport to the world, it is that and more,” Richardson explained. “It is just amazing the opportunities it has afforded me, and more importantly, the opportunity to meet people that share similar

They would go to Jamaica, then come here and I would organize games for them,” Richardson explained. “Then the Junior League in Scottsdale [Arizona] would host a fundraiser. It would be an American team versus a British team so I’d take my horses over there. ... Ronnie would come every other year, or sometimes every year. He and I got to be really good friends.”

Through the celebrity polo matches, he also got to be good friends with actress Stephanie Powers.

Richardson with actors Stephanie Powers and Sylvester Stallone

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 35

HRH Prince Charles and Richardson meet at England’s Cowdray Park Polo Club in 1992.

“I was on my way to visit her in Kenya one year and Ronnie said, ‘Listen why don’t you stop through London on your way.’ When I got there, I was staying at Ascot, and he would let me ride in Windsor Great Park. It was wonderful, what an incredible thrill that was,” Richardson said. “One day he called and asked if I’d like to meet the prince. So, we went to Sussex and for two days, it was just five us there, including Jorie Butler Kent, Geoffrey Kent and Cody Forsyth.

“The prince pulled up in his new Aston Martin DB9 with a secret service guy, MI5, I guess, sitting next to him. ... The prince came over and introduced himself. ... His dog was there with him and he said, ‘come on, let’s go for a walk.’ And so we walked all around the field, just talking. He was playing with his dog and just making small talk.

That went on for an hour or so, and then again the next day, the same thing. That was really fun actually.

36 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

“When I turned 50, Prince Charles wrote me a letter congratulating me, saying Happy Birthday and how he remembered seeing me.”

Over the years, Richardson also got to know Vikram Singh, a friendship that has lasted 30 years. He had gone to India with a team made up of Bil Walton, Eric Friden and Big Boy Sheik.

This led to the first of many trips to India. He has been to various places in the area, seeing everything from the Taj Mahal to the Khyber Pass and Punjab. And Singh would bring an Indian team to Michael Dailey’s club in Hawaii every year.

“Michael Butler said, ‘I’m going to Michael Dailey’s place. Vikram and the Indian team are going to be there.’ So, I said why not. I went over there that September and God, did we have a great time. It was just amazing,” he remembers. “Then Michael said, ‘there’s a festival in India in March for two weeks. You’re coming.’ So we went over there and played in Mumbai and with the snake charmers.

“We were on TV every day. [Singh] has a place in Punjab. His family owned a huge village and he has a 400-room house there—almost like the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur—where we stayed,” he remembers.

“It was amazing. They were some of the most accommodating, wonderful people in the world.

There is nothing they won’t do for you.”

When the Indian team comes to California, like it did a couple of years ago, Richardson always hosts a big party for them at one of the big Indian restaurants.

In 1995, Richardson decided to check another box on his bucket list with a trip to run with the bulls in Spain. He tried it twice but admits he wasn’t as reckless as some people.

“I got ahead of them and after getting to the next-to-the-last turn, there was a guy hanging on to a fence so I pulled up on the fence next to him and watched the bulls go by. They were about 20 yards behind me but that was pretty close,” he said. “It is like polo. It never will be entirely safe, but you can make the odds a little safer ...”

He continued to play for another 10 years or so, but gave up the sport when he was 62. Today, he still rides on occasion and has five horses, which he keeps for his children and grandchildren to enjoy.

He also uses them on Saturdays for a program he is involved with designed for inner-city kids called Operation Progress, run by the police department.

It exposes kids to equestrian lifestyles and the discipline they get out of it that will transfer to other aspects of their lives.

As a board-certified head and neck surgeon,

Richardson has had his share of excitement in his career as well. Originally, he was going to be a heart surgeon but, after interning at Walter Reed Hospital during the Vietnam War, he changed course.

“We’d have 100 new boys coming there every day, just shot to hell. I was the only surgical intern, which means I never got home. I was in blood all day and night,” he said. “I rotated through the ear, nose and throat, head and neck surgery department and the guys there were just a cut above. ... They were brilliant. I just felt at home with them. The work was so meticulous. ... It just appealed to me.

“I like difficult things reserved for people who really have to apply themselves, discipline themselves, school themselves and immerse themselves in a particular discipline. ... [like] polo.”

He was a deputy sheriff for 25 years, involved with search and rescue. He also was called in to save the life of a young truck driver, Reginald Denny, badly beaten during a riot in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King.

Richardson was hosting polo players from India in 1992 when he got a call from a friend, asking if he seen the riots on TV. “About a half hour later, Les Geiger, who was a neurosurgeon, called me from the hospital. He said, ‘Madison, I need your help. There’s a truck driver here that is seriously injured.’

“I took the guests from India back to Santa Monica and got on the freeway. There were fires burning everywhere. I drove through the fires on my way to the hospital and when I got there, it was a tricky time. It was tense and there were curfews. ... We had 140 different news outlets there every day ... I knew one thing for sure ... if he had died from those injuries, which he really could have and probably should have, considering what they hit him with and the damage to his brain and face, my name was going to be associated with failure and death.

“I was well trained in cancer and reconstructive surgery, war surgery, and it all seemed to coalesce to that point and time,” Richardson said.

Between work and polo, he somehow found time to stay involved in community programs as well. He held board positions with the Urban League, the LA Opera and the Medical Society, in addition to being appointed to the state medical board for many years.

His involvement in a variety of different areas,

offered Richardson the opportunity to meet a variety of interesting political figures, including Nelson Mandela, President Obama, Vice President Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan, Warren Christopher and James Baker.

“I love history and then to see people making history ... to be able to see people who are historically important is one of the greatest treasures of the world,” Richardson explained.

He also met a variety of people from sports figures to musicians and actors, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Martina Navratilova, Sly Stallone, Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie, to name just a few.

Muhammad Ali, a former neighbor, is his daughter’s godfather. Still, he admits, he enjoyed meeting Juan Carlos Harriot more than most celebrities he has met.

Some of Richardson’s other heroes, such as Winston Churchill and Thucydides, were not only wonderful people of their times but good authors as well.

“All of these historical people have left behind something they have written about. That is a high art form, maybe the highest because I have a respect for the written word,” Richardson said.

When a particular subject peaks Richardson’s interest, he says the first thing he does is get books about it. Though, he says when he started polo 40 years ago, it was frustrating that you couldn’t go to the library and find a book on polo.

“I don’t want to read it on the internet, I want that physical book in front of me. It’s an old fashion way of learning, but it’s my commitment to the written word. That is where knowledge comes from,” Richardson explained.

Now 75, he continues to practice medicine but his risk-taking activities have slowed. He still keeps active, shooting sporting clays competitively, fishing and traveling. He collects wine, polo memorabilia and books and has a deep interest in history. He is also working on his memoir.

He stays involved in the sport, serving on the board of the National Museum of Polo and as a box holder at Santa Barbara Polo Club.

•

Richardson with polo great Juan Carlos Harriot, whom Richardson calls a superhero.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 37

E Q U I N E AT H L E T E

(continued from page 17) Camped-out horses (Zaxis) have improper muscle development of the hind end as well as gluteal and back strains.

This is another dealbreaker for polo.

A horse that is windswept, looks to have two left feet. The horse will track unevenly and have trouble turning to the right.

3

4A

38 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

way. If the hip to ground plumb line falls behind the foot, the horse is standing under and is usually sickle hocked. (Figure 2) This causes the plantar ligament strain called a “curb.” This conformation defect takes the horse’s thrusting ability away. Another deal-breaker.

The hooves of the standing-under horse develop a negative plantar angle of the coffin bone, which ideally should be a positive 4 to 6 degrees. Back and stifle problems are the result of negative plantar angles.

Another Z-axis defect that will not be seen with the tail obscuring the hocks is “camped out behind.” (Figure 3) Here, the plumb line starts at the back of the buttocks and drops in front of the hocks and hits too far forward of the hooves. These horses are afflicted with improper muscle development of the hind end and do have gluteal and back strains. Another dealbreaker.

Another defect of the hind end is the “windswept” hind end. Here one hock is normal, slightly pointing toward the opposite one, which happens to be pointing straight back. For reasons unknown, the straight hock is usually on the right side. (Figure 4) This defect causes the horse to track unevenly, but more importantly, this horse will have trouble turning to the right.

Finally, the “post-legged” horse is another one to avoid. Viewing this horse from the side (Z-axis), there is little angulation of the stifle, hock, and fetlock joints. Although these horses may have explosive

4B

E Q U I N E AT H L E T E

Steve Kraus, an American Farriers Association Certified Journeyman Farrier, has been head of Farrier Services and a Sr. lecturer of large animal surgery at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, and the instructor of the Farrier School there since 2010. Prior to that, he had over 40 years in his own farrier business in Central New York, shoeing many breeds of horses, participating in diverse disciplines. He started his career in 1965, learning to shoe summer camp horses. While attending Cornell University College of Agriculture, he shod horses part time to support himself, eventually earning a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science in 1971. In his career, he has shod horses used for dressage, jumping, endurance racing, polo, 3-day eventing, driving, flat and harness racing, and draft horses. He is known for troubleshooting lame, injured and underperforming horses. In 1976, he was the first farrier consultant to be hired by the Mustad horse nail company. He redesigned their U.S. nail line, created the combo series, and initiated Mustad’s clinician and sponsorship programs. He has lectured to farriers, veterinarians and horse owners all over the U.S., Canada, South America and Europe. He has been a featured speaker at the International Hoof Care Summit, Laminitis Conference, Equine Affaire and the American Farriers Association Convention. Steve has written many articles published in the American Farriers Journal, The Horse Journal and The Professional Farrier. As a horse owner, he trains and plays his own string of polo horses and trains beginning polo players at Cornell University. He is a past president of the Western New York Farriers Association and a former American Farriers Association board of director of Region 5. In 2016, he was inducted into the International Farriers Hall of Fame. In 2018, he was the first farrier inducted into the Cornell Veterinary Honor Society known as Phi Zeta Alpha.

thrust, they are very susceptible to ring bone and fractures at the ends of long bones. Often these horses are also base narrow, so this is another deal-breaker.

For non-polo-playing horses, farriers have options to manage conformational defects. Usually this includes modifications on horseshoes that place metal where the foot is not, but should be. Farriers use bar shoes and special frog support pads to manage conformational defects in dressage horses, hunters and other show horses. Horseshoe modifications like extended heels, trailers and lateral extension shoes are protruding beyond the foot. These extensions may help manage the load but can easily be ripped off in the close contact of polo. They can also injure other horses.

When shoeing polo horses your best option for either end is a proper geometric trim. This is accomplished with heel location on the foot at the widest, highest part of the frog, not run forward or stacked up. Toes should not be dubbed off or shoes set back as is customarily done. Horses need their toes to propel forward and they need their heels to support the bony column. Jacked-up heels may relieve strain on the deep flexor tendon but cause injuries on the superficial flexor tendon and suspensory ligament, which are very common.

If you ever get a chance to look at a line of quality, high-goal polo horses tied to a trailer, you will see correctness and uniformity. The defects described above will be absent. The bottom line is that there is no substitute for a geometrically-correct hind end on a polo horse (Figure 5). It does not matter what color the horse is or how nice the ears stand up, if the hind end is incorrect, that should be a deal-breaker. •

5A

5B

Proper geometry produces efficient movement and longterm soundness.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 39

POLO AROUND THE GLOBE

Snow ponies Action heats up in Kitzbühel and St. Moritz

Kitzbühel The World Polo League team, making its debut in the 18th Bendura Bank Snow Polo World Cup Kitzbühel, took the title in the eight-team event played over three days. The event is organized by Tito Gaudenzi.

Steam rises from one of the 120 polo ponies used in the Snow Polo World Cup Kitzbühel.

40 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Played in the heart of the Austrian Alps, 120 ponies were brought in for the tournament. The team presentations were made at night in front of Hotel Zur Tenne in Kitzbühel’s village.

The tournament began on Jan. 17 with the soldout VIP tent filled with polo fans, new and old.

POLO AROUND THE GLOBE

Guests enjoyed delicious bites and refreshing cocktails. The first match saw Corum (Phillip Sommer, Patrick Maleitzke, Juan Ruiz-Guiñazú) down Bernd Gruber (Helmet Wieser, Pato Bolanterio, Santiago Marambio), 10½-5, thanks to a strong effort from Maleitzke. GP Mobility (Henrique Schalldach, Marcus Schalldach, Guillermo Lins) defeated Laurent-Perrier (Sebastican Schneberger, Phillip de Groot, Valentin Novillo Astrada), with two of the three players on last year’s winning Ciroc team, 8½-5, in the second match. Up next, Martin Jaurengui led Intocast (Matthias Normann, Micky Duggan, Martin Juaregui) to a 7½-5 victory over Bendura Bank (Melissa Ganzi, Alejandro Novillo Astrada, Tito

Gaudenzi). The last match of the day saw WPL (Nic Roldan, Marc Ganzi, Juan Bautista Peluso) take a 86½ win over Engel & Völkers (Ana Escobedo, Segundo Darritchon, Jonny Good).

With almost 4 inches of snow overnight and more falling throughout the second day, Engel & Volkers downed Bendura Bank, 11-5. Action continued with Bernd Gruber edging Laurent-Perrier; WPL got the best of Intocast, 7-5½; and GP Mobility edged Corum, 8-6.

Action on the final day benefited from a fresh layer of snow and bright sun. The first match, for seventh place, had Bendura Bank come from behind in the last chukker to defeat LaurentPerrier, 8-6½. The second match, for fifth place

The Austrian Alps serve as a backdrop to the Snow Polo World Cup Kitzbühel.

The field-side VIP tent was sold out.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 41

POLO AROUND THE GLOBE

honors and the La Martina Cup title, had Intocast slip Corum, 6-5. The third-place match saw Engle & Völkers get the best of Bernd Gruber, 8-6.

The fieldside VIP tent was again filled to capacity, giving spectators a comfortable spot to enjoy the match, the fantastic cars on display, delicious local fare, refreshing cocktails and displays of fine jewelry and clothing. The tent included both dining areas and comfortable sitting areas to view the action.

There were also outside viewing areas for those that preferred to get up close to the action.

The much-anticipated final pitted WPL against GP Mobility, which began with a two-goal handicap.

Marc Ganzi and Nic Roldan quickly overcame the handicap. GP Mobility was forced to play defense for

Above: WPL met GP Mobility in the final.

Above, right: WPL’s Nic Roldan, Marc Ganzi and Juan Bautista Peluso won the event. Below: The team presentations, held in front of Hotel Zur Tenne, drew a large crowd.

42 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

the majority of the first half, but fought back to stay hot on WPL’s heels, 7-6, at the end of the second.

GP Mobility evened the score early in the third, but a goal by Peluso put WPL back on top. Roldan wowed the crowds in the fourth, bouncing the ball on the end of his stick before necking it to goal. GP Mobility rallied, but no matter how successful they were, WPL seemed to be one step ahead of them.

Roldan bounced another ball out of the air and into the goal to ensure the victory.

Lins received the Fair Play Award and Marcus Schalldach was MVP. A chestnut horse, played by Roldan, was Best Playing Pony.

The weekend included several social events including a players’ gala.

POLO AROUND THE GLOBE

St. Moritz

St. Moritz is known as the birthplace of snow polo and is the highest-rated snow polo event in the world.

The field measures 200 x 100, allowing for four players per team rather than the usual three in other snow polo events. Four teams played in this year’s event, played over three days.

The first match of the final day was played between Badrutt’s Palace and Maserati, vying for the third place La Martina trophy. Melissa Ganzi made history last year as the first female player to win the title. This year was another first for Ganzi as she joined her husband, Marc, as the first husband-andwife duo to play in St. Moritz.

The Ganzis, joined by 8-goalers Nic Roldan and Alejandro Novillo Astrada on Badrutt’s Palace Hotel,

FOTO SWISS

St. Moritz is known as the ‘Top of the World’ and sitting in the packed grandstands for the final of the 36th Snow Polo World Cup St. Moritz on Jan. 26, it truly felt like there was no place better to be anywhere on the globe. Record crowds descended upon the iconic frozen lake, set in the beautiful, sunbathed setting of the Engadin Valley, to watch the snow polo giants do battle. The sunshine was super hot, the champagne ice chilled, the setting unbeatable and the polo truly world-class.

The entire event, and all of its 2600 tons of infrastructure, is located on the frozen lake. The ice build up was late this season, but thickened quickly to a safe 20-plus inches and in time for the event.

FOTO SWISS

St. Moritz’s Nacho Gonzalez, Max Charlton, Robert Strom and Valery Mishchenko won in St. Moritz.

Horses were bundled up as they made their way to the polo field.

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FOTO SWISS

The snow polo event and all the infrastructure is held on a frozen lake.

faced Maserati’s Kutlay Yaprak, Valentin Novillo Astrada, Adrian Laplacette Jr. and Fabio Meier.

Maserati scored from the first throw in, making the most of its 2½-goal handicap. Badrutt’s came back with two goals of its own to end the chukker, 3½-2. Maserati outscored Badrutt’s 2-1 in the second to end the half ahead, 5½-3.

The third chukker was a defensive battle, ending scoreless. Meier added another for Maserati early in the last chukker, but Alejandro Novillo Astrada shot

44 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

back with two. With just a minute on the clock, Badrutt’s was awarded a penalty, but it was unable to convert it, leaving Maserati on top, 7½-5.

It was the second win for Maserati as it took the 4½-3 win over Badrutt’s the previous day.

The final pitted Azerbaijan-Land of Fire’s Elcin Jamalli, Pato Bolanterio, Agustin Kronhaus and Santiago Marambio and St. Moritz’s Zhanna Bandurko/Valery Mishchenko, Robert Strom, Max Charlton and Nacho Gonzalez. It was a rematch of

POLO AROUND THE GLOBE

FOTO SWISS

Record crowds came to watch.

difficult to direct the ball, the team missed two opportunities to score. Both teams managed to connect before the chukker ended with St. Moritz hold the 3-1½ lead. Strom extended the St. Moritz lead in the fourth chukker, ensuring the victory.

Fabio Meier was named Best Playing Patron; Max Charlton was MVP; while Casanova, played by Nacho Gonzalez, received the Best Playing Pony blanket. Casanova’s grooms also received 200 Swiss Francs.

• FOTO SWISS

FOTO SWISS

the previous day when St. Moritz edged Azerbaijan, 6-5½. Both teams earned their way to the final after big wins in Day 1 action. Azerbaijan topped Badrutt’s, 8-4, while St. Moritz defeated Maserati by a wide 6-2½.

Azerbaijan began with a half-goal handicap but was unable to add to it in the first half, while Mishchenko tallied back-to-back goals for St. Moritz.

Azerbaijan changed its game plan for the second half, but with the wind picking up, making it

Even the dogs look cool in St. Moritz.

MVP Max Charlton handles a bouncing ball under pressure from Agustin Kronhaus, left, in the final.

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POLO REPORT DISPATCHES FROM THE WORLD OF POLO CALIFORNIA

KERRI KERLEY

ANTELOPE DEFENDS JASON MEMORIAL TITLE

Antelope’s Riley Jordan sticks tight to Twin Palms’ Juan Curbelo.

F

or the second year in a row, Geoff Palmer’s Antelope won the 8-goal USPA Mack and Madelyn Jason Memorial at Eldorado Polo Club in Indio, California, on Jan. 12, an absolutely perfect day in sunny California.

Lining up against the Chris Maloney-backed Twin Palms, the Pronghorns won 12-8.

With Geoff Palmer and Chris Maloney unable to play, both rosters were somewhat different than normal.

Antelope included Grant Palmer, San-

46 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

tiago Trotz, Marcos Llambias and Riley Jordan, while Twin Palms had Graham Bray, Juan Curbelo, Mia Bray and Ryan Kerley.

Scoring in the first chukker was split as Trotz counted a Penalty 4 and Curbelo countered with a Penalty 2.

Curbelo gave Twin Palms its only lead in the early second with another No. 2, but Antelope responded with Palmer sinking a 40-yard free shot, Trotz with another No. 4 and a field goal, and Llambias with a field goal of

his own, taking a 5-2 lead after two.

Jordan scored in the third to increase the lead, however Twin Palms stepped it up as Curbelo and Kerley scored field goals to narrow the gap, 64, going to the half.

Twin Palms continued to press in the fourth as Mia Bray and Curbelo scored field goals to none for Antelope to even it up going to the penultimate stanza at 6-6.

If Antelope appeared to be staggering in the fourth, that changed in the

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Lynn Jason Cobb presents Jason Memorial trophies to Antelope’s Grant Palmer, Marcos Llambias, Santiago Trotz and Riley Jordan.

fifth as Trotz counted his third Penalty 4 and Llambias scored his third and fourth goals from the field to lead 9-6.

Twin Palms needed to score first in the sixth period and it did as Curbelo counted another Penalty 2 to come within two. That difference was shortlived however as Antelope scored three times—Jordan with his second and Llambias with his fourth and fifth—and the lead was now five goals with little time left. Twin Palms scored a final goal with just seconds on the clock and it was over. Antelope had won the Jason Memorial.

With Lyn Jason Cobb and many family members on hand to present the awards, MVP honors went to Llambias with Palmer being acknowledged as the Sponsor MVP. Best Playing Pony blankets were placed on Paz, owned and played by Trotz, and Ata, owned by Geoff Palmer and played by Grant Palmer.

Maloney was back in the saddle when 8-goal action continued with the USPA Coachella Valley Officers Cup, Jan. 18-26. By playing an aggressive and quick style of polo, Twin Palms defeated Klentner/Sapa/FMB Too (Henry Walker, Igor Seyranov, Jesse Bray and Tony Uretz, sub for injured Justin Klentner), 14-9, in the final.

While playing pretty much even in the first half, Twin Palms steadily controlled the second three periods by

Twin Palms’ Ryan Kerley, Graham Bray, Juan Curbelo and Chris Maloney won the Coachella Valley Officers Cup.

outscoring KSF by four goals and went on to claim the victory.

The first chukker was played even with three goals to each team. Graham Bray opened the scoring but KSF’s Seyranov scored two quick goals to grab the lead back, 2-1. Walker then gave KSF a lead of three but Curbelo and Bray evened the count after one.

Play in the second was limited to Penalty 3s from Curbelo and Bray.

Walker gave KSF the lead in the early third but it was short lived as Curbelo counted a Penalty 3, then a 4.

At the half, Maloney and Co. led 6-5.

The fourth saw Twin Palms gain a 9-7 advantage as Curbelo scored a Penalty 2 and a field goal added to a field goal from Kerley. The replies from KSF came from Bray with a pair.

Twin Palms then led by four as Curbelo counted two more. Walker, with his third, gave KSF some hope, but he then had to leave the game with a broken hand and any KSF aspirations were now in jeopardy. Jose Rodriguez filled in for the injured Walker but Curbelo’s fifth foul conversion destroyed any KSF aspirations as Twin Palms led 12-8.

Bray opened the final chukker with a field goal, but Curbelo replied with a pair to ensure the 14-9 victory.

Twin Palms earned the coveted Richard Roenisch bronzes and bottles of Don Julio Blanc.

With 11 goals on the afternoon, Curbelo was MVP and Fletcher, owned and played by Graham Bray, wore the Best Playing Pony blanket .

Antelope made it to its second final, this time in the 8-goal Carlton and Keleen Beal Memorial tournament. It faced FMB (Danny Walker, Matthew Walker, Leigh Brecheen, Tim Rudy). FMB began with a one-goal handicap and never trailed, pulling out an 11-8 victory.

Danny Walker scored a Penalty 3 and Matt Walker sunk a Penalty 4 in the first, while Antelope was held to a single field goal from Trotz. Unchallenged field goals by Llambias and Grant Palmer evened the score, 3-3, going into the third. Goals by Rudy and Dan Walker extended the FMB lead to 5-3 at the half.

Rudy and Llambias traded goals, and Grant Palmer sunk a Penalty 3 to bring Antelope within one, 6-5. Antelope tied the score twice in the fifth with goals from Llambias and Grant Palmer, but Matt Walker scored from the field and Dan Walker converted a Penalty 3 to keep FMB on top, 8-7.

Matt Walker’s hat trick in the final chukker, while Antelope was held to one from Grant Palmer, ensured the win.

Walker was MVP and Dan Walker’s Garrapinada, was Best Playing Pony.

In the 12-goal section of the tour-

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Karlene Beal Garber presents awards to FMB’s Dan Walker, Tim Rudy, Matt Walker and Leigh Brecheen.

nament, Cotterel Farms (Jenny Luttrell-Benardoni, Francisco Benardoni, Julian Mannix, Santiago Von Wernich) fell to Highwood (Ron Mathison, Marcelo Abbiati, Jared Sheldon, Francisco Rodriguez Mera), 12-8.

Highwood started quickly as the always rapid Sheldon picked up the ball and ran easily to score in the very early going. Cotterel came back just as fast and Von Wernich converted a Penalty 4 to tie the count. Rodriguez Mera responded with a free-shot from 30 yards and the first chukker ended with Highwood on top 2-1.

The second period was all Highwood as Sheldon scored four times, including a Penalty 2, added to one from Rodriguez Mera, while Cotterel was silenced for a 7-1 Highwood lead.

In the third period the Highwood advantage became seven as Sheldon scored his second open goal. Mannix responded with a field goal and Von Wernich sunk a Penalty 2 to get back in the game, 8-3.

Mannix (Penalty 4) and Von Wernich scored the first two goals of the fourth to cut their deficit to three.

That was as close as they would get as Sheldon took flight with another from the field and Rodriquez Mera counted another Penalty 2 to give Highwood a 10-5 lead.

Sheldon scored a lone goal in the fifth, his eighth, with no reply from

48 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

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Karlene Beal Garber presents trophies to Highwood’s Ron Mathison, Francisco Rodriguez Mera, Jared Sheldon and Marcelo Abbiati.

Cotterel and another early in the sixth. Cotterel rallied with Von Wernich adding a pair added to one from Luttrell-Benardoni but time ran out with Highwood ahead.

With nine goals, Sheldon was MVP and Felina, owned and played by Rodriguez Mera, was Best Playing Pony.

Polo Hall of Famer Karlene Beal Garber, daughter of Carlton and Keleen Beal, presented the Beal Championship belt buckles to the winners in each division.

In the club’s 4-goal events, Necktie led the 29th World Gym final, sponsored by the Michael Uretz family.

Necktie (John Welsh, Lee Robinson, Peter Blake, Mitch Horne) defeated La Fortuna (Elise Bigelow, Carlos Rivas, Caroline Anier, Luis Saracco), 8-5.

The game was quick and fast at the onset with Saracco trading goals with Welsh in the first. The two traded goals again in the second. Blake was running to goal when he collided with Saracco, falling with his horse. Necktie was awarded a Penalty 1 and Saracco was given a yellow card, with umpires placing the ball at the 60-yard line for Necktie. Horne did not waste the opportunity, giving his team a 4-2 advantage. Unfazed, La Fortuna came right back thanks to a goal from Anier and a Penalty 2 from Saracco, closing the half tied, 4-4.

Blake, no worse for wear, came back stronger in the second half, counting back-to-back goals, while La Fortuna was silenced. Saracco fought back in the final chukker to bring the team within one, 6-5, but a Penalty 2 from Horne put Necktie ahead by two.

With time winding down, Horne got free, putting the final nail in La Fortuna’s coffin, 8-5.

Horne was named MVP and Anier’s Miss Kitty was Best Playing Pony.

The next 4-goal, the USPA Coachella Valley Officer’s Cup, saw two different teams battle in the final on Jan. 26. Exit Consulting Group (Lamar Rutherford, Mia Bray, Jessica Bailey, Rodrigo Salinas) defeated Bearsden (Carol Farnsworth, Hope Kerley, Cody Woodfin, Ignacio Saenz) to win 6-4.

The early first chukker was dominated by Bearsden as Saenz, with help from Woodfin, scored twice (one Penalty 2). However, Exit wasn’t about to leave as Salinas quickly counted a field goal and Rutherford, with a nice run from almost 100 yards, evened the count at two going to the second.

The second period was somewhat choppy at times with neither team able to capitalize on the few opportunities available. Bray, however, made no mistakes as she scored the only goal of the second and Exit led for the first time going to the halftime, 3-3.

The third frame was much the same as the second with most scoring chances not taken advantage of. However, Salinas scored his second of the game and the Exit lead was now 4-2.

Going into the final chukker with the lead and sensing victory, Exit didn’t back off and pushed hard.

The reward was another counter from Salinas and Bray grabbed her second to widen the gap. Saenz was able to score a field goal and a Penalty 3 for Bearsden but that would be it and Exit became the champion.

The winners received Richard Roenisch bronzes and bottles of Don Julio Blanc.

Bray was honored as MVP and Tomasa, played by Salinas in the third, was chosen as Best Playing Pony.

La Fortuna made it to its second final of the season, this time against Exit Consulting, and made the most of it. La Fortuna came into the Beal Memorial with a small line-up change.

TJ Elordi took Carlos Rivas’ place, while Exit Consulting replaced Mia Bray and Jessica Bailey with Ashton Wolf and Greg Hanson.

La Fortuna began with a half-goal handicap, which it maintained after the first chukker, 2½-2. It increased

Exit Consulting’s Lamar Rutherford, Mia Bray, Rodrigo Salinas and Jessica Bailey won the Coachella Valley Officers Cup. KERRI KERLEY

Mike and Claudia Uretz present Necktie’s Lee Robinson, Peter Blake, Mitch Horne and John Welsh the World Gym trophy.

KERRI KERLEY

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La Fortuna’s Luis Saracco, Carline Anier, TJ Elordi and Elise Bigelo receive awards from Karlene Beal Garber.

the lead in the second to end the half 5½-4 and maintained the difference through the second half to take the win. Saracco led the winners with seven goals, including six penalty conversions. Wolf led Exit with five goals.

Saracco was MVP and his mare Rumba was Best Playing Pony.

—Tony Gregg

EMPIRE PREVAILS IN SPORTSMANSHIP CUP The home team took the title in the 8goal USPA Sportsmanship Cup at Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, Jan. 26.

Empire (Rob Scapa, Robert Payne II, Rob Payne III, Russell Stimmel) met GSB Law (Leigh Brecheen, Jimmy Wright, Tim Rudy, Erin Briton/Jemma Contreras) in the final. GSB Law began with a 2-goal handicap but Empire had no trouble overcoming it and then some, ending the first with Empire ahead 4-2. Rudy scored the only goal of the second to bring GSB Law within one, 43. A hat trick by Wright in the third briefly put the team on top, but Robert Payne II and Stimmel fought back to level the score, 6-6, at the half.

Brecheen and Wright added goals in the fourth but a goal by Stimmel kept it close. Empire kept the momentum into the fifth with Robert Payne II and Stimmel combining for three goals while GSB Law was stopped in its tracks. The teams traded goals in the final period, keeping Empire ahead, 12-10, for the close win.

Jimmy Wright was named MVP and Robert Payne III’s Renata was Best Playing Pony.

In the 4-goal division, Lockton (Tim Kelly, Audrey Persano, Chino Payan, Luis Saracco) doubled up Archangel/Granite Bay (Eric Hammond, German Coppell, Ashton Wolf, Alonso Andrade), 10-5, for the Sports-

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JIM BREMNER/POLOBARN.COM

JIM BREMNER/POLOBARN

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manship Cup title.

The teams traded penalty conversions in the first--a Saracco Penalty 2 and an Andrade Penalty 4—to keep the game level.

Saracco and Andrade matched goals again in the second.

The third belonged to Lockton as goals by Persano and Saracco went unanswered, 4-2. Saracco and Andrade traded penalties again in the fourth, but Saracco also split the uprights with field goals to put Lockton ahead, 7-3, at the end of the fifth. Archangel/Granite Bay fought back in the fifth with Andrade finding the mark with a Penalty 3 and 4, but Lockton’s Persano, Payan and Saracco hit the target to take the win.

Audrey Persano was MVP and Luis Saracco’s Diva was Best Playing Pony.

Empire picked up its second win, this time in the President’s Cup on Feb. 9. Five teams played in the tournament, but it was Evergreen (Tom Sprung, Carlos Galindo Sr., Juan Jo Gonzalez, Carlitos Galindo) who met Empire in the final.

Carlos Galindo Sr. put Evergreen on the board with a Penalty 2 conversion,

50 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

Lockton’s Tim Kelly, Audrey Persano, Luis Saracco and Chino Payan won the 4-goal Sportsmanship Cup.

JIM BREMNER/POLOBARN.COM

Empire’s Rob Payne II, Russell Stimmel, Rob Payne III and Rob Scapa won the 8-goal Sportsmanship and Presidents Cups.

Hanalei Bay’s Alejandro Gonzalez, Taylor Freeman, Ryan Kerley and Krista Bonaguidi won the National Amateur Cup.

but goals by Scapa, Rob Payne and Robert Payne gave Empire the 3-1 lead.

The teams traded goals in the second chukker but Empire outscored Evergreen, 4-1, in the third to jump out front, 9-4, at the half.

The Galindos each scored in the fourth, while holding Empire to one from Scapa. Stimmel traded penalty conversions with Carlos Galindo Sr. in the fifth, but another goal from Rob Payne III put Empire ahead, 13-8.

Galindo Sr. and Gonzalez worked hard to close the gap but Empire held on for the 14-11 win.

Robert Payne II was MVP and Carlos Galindo Sr.’s Quidget was Best Playing Pony.

Another five teams played for the 4-goal Amateur Cup. The final pitted Zaheidi Chogan (Sy Zaheidi, Meghan Gracida, Dayelle Fargey, Francisco Guinazu) against Hanalei Bay (Krista Bonaguidi, Ryan Kerley, Alejandro Gonzalez, Taylor Freeman).

Zaheidi Chogan began with a half-goal handicap, a difference it held onto through the first seven minutes after the teams matched goals, 2-2. Guinazu put Zaheidi Chogan ahead early in the second, but a pair of goals by Gonzalez gave Hanalei a halfgoal lead. In a scoring frenzied third, the teams knocked in four goals each to end the half with Hanalei narrowly ahead, 8-7½. Zaheidi added four more in the fourth while Hanalei was held to one. Hanalei rallied in the fifth with four of its own while silencing Zaheidi Chogan to take the win, 13-11½. Gonzalez led Hanalei Bay with nine goals, including five penalty shots.

Francisco Guinazu was MVP and Alejandro Gonzalez’s Sunny D was Best Playing Pony.

The second round had La Indiana edging Aliano/ Horseware, 12-11; Palm Beach Equine beating Coca Cola, 15-10; Patagones defeating Pilot, 1110; and Stable Door getting the best of Daily Racing Form, 11-9.

Coca Cola Patagones’ Santiago Toccalino, Santi Wulff, Benjamin Avendano picked up its first and Joaquin Avendano won the 18-goal Ylvisaker Cup. win, 9-8, in overtime over Aliano/Horseware, while La FLORIDA Indiana took its third win, this time over Palm Beach Equine, 11-10. Pilot fell to Stable Door, 12-10, and Patagones edged Daily Racing Form, 10Patagones edged La Indiana to take 9, however Patagones forfeited after an the title in the 18-goal Ylvisaker Cup ineligible substitution. final at International Polo Club in In the semifinals, Patagones downed Wellington, Florida, Feb. 2. Eight teams divided into two brackets competed in the event named after Bill Ylvisaker whose vision brought polo to the former swampland in Wellington.

The tournament began on Jan. 15 with La Indiana (Michael Bickford, Santiago Gomez Romero, Facundo Obregon, Jeff Hall) defeating Coca Cola (Gillian Johnston, Sugar Erskine, Miguel Astrada, Will Johnston), 13-10.

First-round play continued with Aliano Realty/Horseware (Nick Aliano, Joaquin Panelo, Nino Obregon, Hugo Lloret) defeating Palm Beach Equine (Gonzalo Ferrari, Lucas Diaz Alberdi, Gringo Colombres, Scott Swerdlin), 127; Patagones (Joaquin Avendano, Benjamin Avendano, Santiago Wulff, Tomas Garcia del Rio) defeating Stable Door (Henry Porter, Robert Orthwein, Santino Magrini, Matias Magrini), 12-6; and Pilot (Gonzalo de la Fuente, Lucas Escobar, Alfonso Pieres, Gonzalo Pieres) defeating Daily Racing Form (Jim Zenni, Costi Caset, Agustin Obregon, Jared Zenni), 12-8.

PATAGONES TRIUMPHS IN YLVISAKER CUP

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Coca Cola, 13-8, while La Indiana ousted Stable Door, 11-7. That set up the final between Patagones and La Indiana.

The final was riddled with fouls, with 10 of the 17 goals scored from the penalty line. Joaquin Avendano put Patagones on the board early in the first and a Penalty 4 conversion from Santiago Toccalino increased the lead to 2-0.

Santiago Gomez Romero put La Indiana on the board late in the first and Jeff Hall followed with a goal in the second to level the score. Santiago Wulff broke the tie and a Penalty 5A conversion by Toccalino put Patagones back in the driver’s seat, 4-2. Neither team could reach the goal in the third, ending the half with Patagones still ahead.

Wulff increased the lead early in the fourth, but a Penalty 2 by Facundo Obregon got La Indiana back in the game. Benjamin Avendano found the mark later in the chukker to double up

Patagones’ Joaquin Avendano calls for the back shot from Santi Wulff.

ALEX PACHECO

ALEX PACHECO

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Banks Mill’s Hope Arellano, Aidan Meeker, Keko Magrini and Lucas Arellano won the 6 goal. With them is Robert Orthwein.

La Indiana’s score, 6-3. The teams traded open-goal penalties in the fifth to go to the final chukker with Patagones leading, 8-5. A Penalty 2 conversion by Toccalino early in the sixth kept Patagones comfortably ahead before Romero answered with a field goal, and a pair of Penalty 3 conversions by Obregon brought La Indiana within one, 9-8, but time ran out with Patagones on top.

Wulff was named MVP and Benjamin Avendano’s Conejo was Best Playing Pony.

Newport’s Nick Manifold, Michel Dorignac, Lucas Escobar and Milo Dorignac won the Limited Edition 12-goal Series.

Aidan Meeker takes control of the ball, assisted by Keko Magrini, who holds off an opponent in the final of the Shady Lady 6 goal.

BANKS MILL TAKES SHADY LADY 6 GOAL Banks Mill sunk Kyne Property Group, 6½-2, to win the Shady Lady 6 Goal at Port Mayaca Polo Club in Okeechobee, Florida, on Feb. 1.

Four teams played off over two weeks to determine a winner. On the way to the final, Banks Mill defeated Speedwell, 7½-5, and Copperline Farm, 7½-3.

Kyne Property Group downed Copperline Farm, 6-3½, and Speedwell, 8-4.

Speedwell got the best of Copperline Farm, 8-2½.

In the final, Banks Mill began with a half-goal handicap and went on to score the first two goals. Kyne Property regrouped and matched Banks Mill’s next two goals, ending the half, 4½-2.

With rain on the way, Banks Mill scored

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two more goals before the game had to be called before the last chukker. Kyne Property conceded the game to Banks Mill. Aidan Meeker was MVP.

NEWPORT CONQUERS LIMITED EDITION 12-GOAL Defending champion Newport held off Beverly Equestrian to win the January Limited Edition 12-Goal Series final Jan. 26 at Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida.

Newport (Milo Dorignac, Lucas Escobar, Michel Dorignac, Nick Manifold) defeated tournament favorite and previously unbeaten Beverly Equestri-

an (Bill Ballhaus, Hilario Figueras, Poroto Cambiaso, Tolito Fernandez Ocampo), 10-9.

Manifold, playing well above his 3goal rating, scored a team-high five goals and was named MVP. Creciente, played by Cambiaso, was Best Playing Pony.

The victory avenged an early season 12-8 loss to Beverly Equestrian. Newport finished 3-1. The team dedicated the win to patron Gene Goldstein, who injured his back in a practice before the first league game and was unable to play.

Milo Dorignac was his replacement.

Newport controlled the momentum in the first half, jumping out to a 3-1

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lead after the first chukker. With goals from Fernandez and Cambiaso, Beverly Equestrian narrowed the gap and trailed by one, 4-3, going into the third chukker. Newport regained its two-goal cushion with two penalty conversions from Michel Dorignac to lead 6-4 at the half.

The teams played evenly in a wild second half, tying 6-6 after the fourth and 8-8 after the fifth. Despite technicals on Manifold and Dorignac, Newport regained its composure to take a 10-8 lead with goals from Michel Dorignac and Manifold with three minutes left to play.

Figueras converted a 30-yard penalty with 2:06 left to trail by one but it was the closest Beverly Equestrian got.

Manifold came up with the throw-in and, after two missed scoring opportunities, Newport regained possession in the final seconds.

In the January 6-goal Metropolitan Cup final, Bushwood (Nick McClelland, Mike Davis, Santos Merlos, Kris Kampsen) came back in the second half to defeat Altair Polo (Ashley Busch, Leo Mandelbaum, Brandon Phillips, Kylie Sheehan), 7-5½.

Mike Davis was MVP after rallying his team. Perez, 9, played by Phillips and bred by Los Machitos, was Best Playing Pony.

After a scoreless opening chukker

SD Farms’ Hope Arellano, Peco Polledo, Lucas Arellano and Sayyu Dantata Jr. won the 8-goal Aspen Valley Cup.

with Altair Polo holding a .5 lead on handicap, Phillip’s two goals, including a Penalty 4 conversion, gave his team a 2-1½ lead at the half.

Bushwood started reeling in Altair Polo at the 3:02 mark when Kampsen banked a goal off the goal post to trail 3½-3 and then blocked Phillips’ Penalty 4 attempt in the air. Davis scored at 1:49 to give Bushwood the lead for the first time, 4-3½. Merlos added another goal for a 5-3½ lead at the end of the third chukker. The teams played evenly in the fourth and final chukker, 2-2, with Bushwood keeping the lead.

Action continued with SD Farms rallying late in the sixth chukker to capture the Aspen Valley Cup on Jan. Sayyu Dantata Jr. scored a game-high six goals and was MVP. Here he is pursued by Juan Monteverde.

31. SD Farms (Hope Arellano, Sayyu Dantata Jr., Peco Polledo, Lucas Arellano) defeated Mashomack (Josephine Hermans, Santos Bollini, Juanse Olivera, Juan Monteverde), 11-10.

Dantata Jr., 18, was named MVP after scoring a game-high six goals, including four in the final chukker in his debut at Grand Champions. Hippy Chic, a chestnut mare owned and played by Hope Arellano in the second chukker, was Best Playing Pony.

Arellano got the opportunity to play with her brother Lucas, 20, who subbed for Dantata Sr. With Mashomack leading 9-8 early in the sixth chukker, Dantata Jr. scored the tying goal with 3:23 left in CHUKKERTV

Bushwood’s Kris Kampsen, Santos Merlos, MVP Mike Davis and Nick McClelland won the Metropolitan Cup.

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POLO REPORT

Valiente’s Gonzalo Ferrari, Bob Jornayvaz, Poroto Cambiaso and Adolfo Cambiaso won the Sterling Cup.

the game. Arellano then connected on a pass with Dantata to give SD Farms its first lead (10-9) since the fourth chukker.

Dantata scored an insurance run off a breakaway to make it 11-9 with 2:01 left. Bollini scored the final goal with six seconds left.

Grand Champions offers polo at every level, including high-goal. In the 20-goal Sterling Cup final, Valiente (Bob Jornayvaz, Gonzalo Ferrari, Poroto Cambiaso, Adolfo Cambiaso) led from start to finish to defeat Santa Clara (Henry Porter, Matias Magrini, Nachi du Plessis, Luis Escobar), 12-9, in front of a good local crowd.

Valiente finished the six-team tournament undefeated, 3-0, and Santa Clara was 2-1. Adolfo Cambiaso was MVP after scoring a game-high five goals and frustrated Santa Clara on both ends of the field for most of the game. Moonshine, a pony played by 14year-old Poroto Cambiaso in the fifth chukker, was Best Playing Pony.

Valiente opened the game with a 20 lead on handicap and built a 5-1 lead in the first chukker. The teams played a 1-1 second chukker and Valiente outscored Santa Clara, 2-1, in the third for a 7-4 halftime lead. Valiente maintained its scoring momentum in the second half, leading 9-4 after the fourth and 11-7 after the fifth.

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Toro, played by Sportsmanship Award winner Ariel Mancebo and owned by Horsegate Polo, was Best Playing Pony.

Working with a different lineup that featured Matias Magrini and Henry Porter replacing Robi Bilbao and Nico Escobar, Santa Clara could never find its momentum or chemistry early in the game and was playing catchup in the second half.

In the fifth chukker, Santa Clara outscored Valiente, 3-2, and trailed 117 going into the final chukker. Santa Clara came within two goals, 11-9, when Escobar hit a tail shot to Magrini who connected with Du Plessis for the score with 4:37 left. But it was the closest Santa Clara would come.

--Sharon Robb SOUTHWEST

TEXAS ARENA LEAGUE KICKS OFF IN JANUARY The first leg of the Texas Arena League officially kicked off Jan. 24-26 at Two Wishes Ranch (part of the Central Texas Polo Association) in Lockhart, Texas.

The event included a record 23 teams competing in three different handicap divisions. It was also the largest player attended even in the nation.

Friday night’s C-Flight was made up of players new to the game and tournament polo. Polo Girls (Caroline Woodman, Katerina Kortova, Kitana St’Cyr)

played against CTPA (Jose Velez, Aislinn Smith, Savaar Khan) with the game ending in a tie.

On Saturday, the 0- to 3-goal USPA Adm. Nimitz military tournament commenced its single elimination format with 10 teams competing. The winners advanced to continue in the Nimitz at Legend’s Horse Ranch/East Texas Polo Club in Kaufman, Texas, Feb. 7-9. Here are the results: Legend’s Horse Ranch (Katie Anderson, Megan Rahlfs, Nacho Estrada) defeated Waterski America (Trenton Werntz, Ismael Vazquez, Chris Jones, David Werntz); Polo InterActive (Jose Velez, Wyatt Myr, James Glew) defeated Horsegate (Ariel Mancebo, John Womble, Caroline Woodman); ERP (Meghan Berry, Ernesto Natividad, Javier Peralta) defeated Texas Military Polo Club (Karl Hilberg, Gal Shweiki, Jack Crea); Notorious P.O.N.Y. (Zoe Lehmer, Jessica Mignone, Javier Insua) defeated Bar-Spur Co. (Ryan Owen, Mark Osburn, Brady Williams); Elite Motion and Performance (Stephanie Massey Colburn, Dani Gibson, Drew Richardson) defeated OKC CCC Ranch (Kelly Coldiron, Rob Phipps, Oscar Bermudez Jr.).

On Sunday, the 3- to 6-goal USPA Gen. Puller military tournament started it’s first leg of single-elimination play with 11 teams competing. Winners

P O L O

R E P O R T

Megan Rahlfs was Galvin Agency/ American National MVP.

Ryan Owen was the Lockhart Post-Register Fan Favorite Award winner.

Agustin Arrayago was Galvin Agency/ American National MVP.

Karl Hilberg was the Catena Sportsmanship Award winner.

Kelly Coldiron was the Catena Sportsmanship Award winner.

Meghan Berry was Galvin Agency/ American National MVP.

advance to Legend’s to continue in the Puller. Here are the results: Dallas Polo Club (Wendy Stover, Mike Farah, Will Walton) defeated ERP (Meghan Berry, Ernesto Natividad, Loreto Natividad); Legend’s Horse Ranch (Kim Buttram, Nacho Estrada, August Scherer) defeated OKC CCC Ranch (Kelly Coldiron, Roxy Keyfauver, Oscar Bermudez Jr.); Williams Polo (Mark Osburn, Brady Williams, Wyatt Myr) defeated Waterski America (Chris Jones, Cody Goetz, Rob Phipps); Elite Motion and Performance Pixies (Amanda Massey, Dani Gibson, Stephanie Massey Colburn) defeated Texas Military Polo Club (Jack Crea, Gal Shweiki, Trey Crea, Karl Hilberg); Horsegate (John Womble, Carlos Ramirez, Ariel

Mancebo) defeated JD Polo (Tres de la Paz, Nadir Khan, Javier Insua), which beat Gulf Coast Fence (Drew Richardson, Zain Saud, Agustin Arrayago).

Teams that were knocked out of the Nimitz and Puller, along with new teams joining the Texas Arena League at Legend’s, will begin additional singleelimination tournaments, including the 0- to 3-goal USPA Arena Amateur Cup and the 3- to 6-goal USPA Sherman Memorial.

At each match, awards were given for MVP, Sportsmanship and Best Playing Pony. Here are the winners: Galvin Agency/American National Oscar Bermudez Jr. was Catena Sportsmanship Award winner.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 55

POLO REPORT

Participants in the USPA Congressional Cup at Costa Careyes Polo Club in Mexico. Monterey’s Isaac Sepulveda, Sofia Landa, Valerio Aguilar and Francisco Aguilar (grey shirts) won the event.

MVP went to Mark Osburn, Meghan Berry, Javier Insua, Megan Rahlfs, Stephanie Massey Colburn (in both Nimitz and Puller), Wyatt Myr, Will Walton, Agustin Arrayago, and August Scherer.

Catena Sportsmanship awards went to Ismael Vazquez, John Womble, Oscar Bermudez Jr., Jessica Mignone, Karl Hilberg, Meghan Berry, Kelly Coldiron, Dani Gibson, Cody Goetz and Ariel Mancebo.

Nutrena Best Playing Pony went to Amarillo (Mark Osburn), Kika (played

by Megan Rahlfs, owned by Nacho Estrada), Sonita (Brady Williams), Pistola (played by Stephanie Massey Colburn. owned by the Gibson Family), Toro (played by Ariel Mancebo, owned by Horsegate, in the Nimitz and Puller), Wild aka Dunkin Donuts (Wendy Stover), Frijolita (played by August Scherer, owned by Nacho Estrada), Chiquita (Ernesto Natividad), and Nugget (played by Trey Crea, owned by Ursula Pari).

The Lockhart Post-Register Fan Favorite for January at Two Wishes, an award voted on by spectators, was Ryan Owen from the Bar-Spur team.

Texas Arena League is four events

56 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

played at three location and works on a points system. Teams and players get points for win, loss and tie for each match. The teams with the most points at the end of the four events will be named Texas Arena League Champions and take home the coveted belt buckle trophies. In addition to team points, individuals and horses gain points toward End-of-League Awards or are voted on by players in both the 0- to 3- and 3- to 6-goal divisions, including Galvin Agency MVP, Catena Sportsmanship, Nutrena Best Playing Pony, Jackrabbit Tack High-Point Individual, Casablanca High-Point Overall, Superior Equine Massage Therapy Best String, Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program Best Playing Thoroughbred, Royal B Threads Best Team Player, Pro Chukker Player’s Choice Competitor, Elite Motion and Performance Most Improved, Murrellphoto.com Best Presented, Jackrabbit Tack Horsemanship award, CCC Ranch team award, HighPoint I/I Alumni, and High-Point Military Connection. Every player receives a fantastic U.S. Polo Assn. vest, and teams in C Flight and the 6- to 10-goal receive trophies at each location.

A big Texas Arena League shout-out

to Wilson Riddle, Cody Goetz, John Womble, Jeremie Smith, Caroline Woodman, Ariel Rodriguez, Robin Sanchez and Karl Hilberg, who went above and beyond to make the CTPA/Two Wishes event so successful.

Also, big thank you to the Reeves Family for hosting, and USPA Polo Development Initiative program for partially funding the new arena lights.

INTERNATIONAL

MONTEREY TRIUMPHS IN CONGRESSIONAL CUP The Monterey team settled at the top of a seven-team lineup to win the 6- to 8-goal USPA Congressional Cup/Copa de Careyes event at Costa Careyes Polo Club in Careyes, Mexico, in late December.

The Teams, made up of 28 players from nine countries, were divided into two brackets. Over 75 horses were shipped in from all over Mexico, added to the horses available at the club from Giorgio Brignone, Alberto Ardissone and George Sandhu. Umpires, LLC.’s George Olivas and local professional

P O L O

Kacy, Chrissy, Katie and Sydney Falk won the 9th annual Giuliana Cup.

Tomas Elliot officiated the games.

The tournament proved to be a family affair as brothers Mariano and Carlitos Gracida played with Brian Boyd and Cable Magness for La Karina; brothers Vale and Pancho Aguilar played with husband and wife duo, Isaac Sepulveda and Sofia Landa on Monterey; Will, Chris and Josh Falk played with Columbian 5-goaler Fico Uribe on Cabinet Connection; and brothers Milo and Alberico Ardissone played with Peruvian Guillermo Li and local Benito Hernandez on crowd favorite Agua Alta.

Other teams had Gary Magness join up with Nico Milan, Mariano Fassetta and Juan Cruz Marcos on Mangorace; Giancarlo Brignone joined Memo Jimenez, Diego Gonzalez and Santiago Stirling on Guadalajara; and Anabelle Gundlach made her Careyes debut with Brandon Phillips, Roberto Gonzalez and Hongkonger Phillippe de Caraman on Postage Stamp Farm.

Throughout the week, chukkers were played every morning before the tournament games and parties were held each night.

The final, determined by won-loss record, pitted Monterrey against Agua Alta. Play was up and down the field, with the lead changing five times before Monterrey edged Agua Alta, 7-6, in the last minute. Li was high scorer with four goals in a losing effort. Sepulveda and Vale Aguilar led the victors with three goals each. The teams voted on MVP

R E P O R T

La Karina’s Benito Hernandez, Tomas Elliot, Kevin Schmeits and Brian Boyd won the Chinese New Year tournament

honors, which went to Sofia Landa (Amateur MVP) and Pancho Aguilar (Pro MVP). Sepulveda’s Whisky was chosen Best Playing Pony and went home with a bag of carrots.

The fun continued into the New Year with the annual Giuliana Cup. The women’s tournament saw defending champions Chrissy and Katie Falk and their daughters Kacy and Sydney take on Toronto’s Angela Colterjohn and Andrina Calder, along with Mackenzie Martin from Portland, Oregon, and Rebecca Foltz from Seattle, Washington.

The Falks, mounted on their own horses and having played together before, had the advantage as they galloped past Toronto in both matches.

Sydney Falk, who scored eight goals over two days, was MVP. Calder and Martin were high-scorers for the Toronto team. A celebratory beach party was held at Playa Rosa after the matches.

The club annually holds its Chinese New Year tournament and this year honored the Year of the Rat. This event saw four teams competing, including La Karina (Brian Boyd, Kevin Schmeits, Benito Hernandez, Tomas Elliot), Mangorace (Gary Magness, Nico Millan, Mariano Fassetta, Katie Falk), Cabinet Connection (Chris Falk, Will Falk, David Butler, Raul Ramirez) and Guadalajara (Memo Jimenez, Manuel Matos, Martin Vidrio, Deigo Velarde).

A tournament draw was held at La

Gitana, hosted by Brian Boyd and the La Karina team. The first game saw Mangorace close the door on Cabinet Connection in a fast, close match. The score changed several times, but Cabinet Connection led most of the game, that is until the last chukker when Milan and Fassetta combined for three goals for the Mangorace win.

The next game had Guadalajara begin with a 1½-goal handicap as it took on La Karina. Despite Guadalajara’s best efforts, strong performances by Boyd (four goals) and Hernandez (five goals) led to its downfall. Matos led Guadalajara with three goals.

In the final, defending champion Mangorace took on La Karina. Neither team could break through the opponent’s defense in the first chukker. Mangorace took at 2-1 lead after the second, but Hernandez tied the match with the only goal of the third. Fassetta broke the tie in the fourth chukker for Mangorace, but La Karina’s Hernandez, Schmeits and Elliot responded to elevate the team to 5-3. In the final chukker, Elliot outscored Fassetta, 2-1, to ensure the victory, 7-4.

In the subsidiary, Guadalajara edged Cabinet Connection, 6-5.

A group, led by Chris Falk, Brian Boyd and Gary and Sarah Magness, recently signed a three-year lease for the club property. They plan to improve the field and purchase new equipment.

Horses will still be available for lease. •

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 57

CALENDAR

March JA N UA RY 2 4 - M A RC H 2 9 Arena Adm. Chester Nimitz (3) Gen. Lewis B. Puller (3-6) Texas Military, Poteet, TX F E B RUA RY 6 - M A RC H 1 Discover Palm Beaches Challenge (8) IPC, Wellington, FL F E B RUA RY 7 - M A RC H 2 9 Sherman Memorial (3-6) Arena Sportsmanship Cup (0-3) Arena Congressional Cup (3-6) Arena Amateur Cup (0-3) East Texas, Kaufman, TX

F E B RUA RY 2 2 - M A R C H 2 2 USPA Gold Cup (22) IPC, Wellington, FL

M A RC H 1 - 15 USPA Masters Cup (6) Hobe Sound, Hobe Sound, FL MARCH 1-28 Top Pony 12-Goal Series Grand Champions, Wellington, FL MARCH 1-29 Madelon Bourdieu Memorial Limited Edition 8-Goal Series Grand Champions, Wellington, FL M A RC H 3 - 18 George S. Patton Jr. (0-4) Hobe Sound, Hobe Sound, FL MARCH 4-22 Palm Beach Open (26) WPL, Wellington, FL MARCH 4-28 PBC Sports Commission Cup (4) IPC, Wellington, FL

F E B RUA RY 2 8 - M A RC H 1 SE Interscholastic Girls’ Regional SE Interscholastic Open Regional New Bridge, Aiken, SC Western Interscholastic Open Regional Empire, Indio, CA Central Interscholastic Open Regional Central Interscholastic Girls’ Regional Brookshire, Brookshire, TX NE Interscholastic Open Regional Yale, Bethany, CT F E B RUA RY 2 8 - M A RC H 8 March League (6, 12) USPA 2 Goal Eldorado, Indio, CA F E B RUA RY 2 8 - M A RC H 15 USPA Congressional Cup (8) Empire, Indio, CA F E B RUA RY 2 9 - M A RC H 15 USPA Congressional Cup (4) Empire, Indio, CA M A R C H 1 - 14 Sportsmanship Cup (4-6) Sarasota, Sarasota, FL

MARCH 5-7 Tabebuia Cup (WCT) Port Mayaca, Port Mayaca, FL MARCH 5-28 The Woodcock (6) Live Oak Challenge (10) USPA Heritage Cup (18) Port Mayaca, Port Mayaca, FL MARCH 5-29 Tackeria Challenge (8) IPC, Wellington, FL MARCH 6-8 Intercollegiate Men’s Regional Intercollegiate Women’s Regional Brookshire, Brookshire, TX Central Coast, Los Osos, CA Virginia Pol, Charlottesville, VA M A R C H 6 - 17 Inter-Circuit Championship (8-12) Sarasota, Sarasota, FL

M A R C H 6 - 21 U.S. Open Women’s Polo Champ.

IPC, Wellington, FL

MARCH 7 Molly’s House Charity Benefit Port Mayaca, Okeechobee, FL Fish Fry & Polo Dallas, Red Oak, TX M A RC H 13 - 15 Intercollegiate Regional Cornell, Ithaca, NY M A RC H 13 - 2 2 USPA Rossmore Cup Skins (12) Eldorado, Indio, CA M A RC H 13 - 2 9 Arena Challenge Cup (0-3) Arena Masters Cup (3-6) Midland, Midland, TX M A R C H 14 - 1 5 Cactus Cup Arizona, Scottsdale, AZ M A R C H 14 - 2 2 USPA Governors Cup (6) Amateur Cup (2) Eldorado, Indio, CA M A RC H 15 - 2 2 Governors Cup (0-6) Vero Beach, Vero Beach, FL M A RC H 15 - 2 9 USPA Gen. S. Brown (4-8) Hobe Sound, Hobe Sound, FL

M A RC H 18 - 2 2 Interscholastic Championships Brookshire, Brookshire, TX

MARCH 20 End of Season Bash/Grooms Race Eldorado, Indio, CA MARCH 20-29 $Champions Cup$ (8) Empire, Indio, CA M A R C H 2 0 - 31 Commander in Chief Cup (10-12) Sarasota, Sarasota, FL M A R C H 21 - 2 9 $Lions Cup$ (4) Empire, Indio, CA

58 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

CALENDAR

April

M A R C H 21 - A P R I L 19 U.S. Open Polo Championship (22) IPC, Wellington, FL

MARCH 25-29 Women’s Challenge (14-16) The Villages, The Villages, FL MARCH 28 NYTS Hobe Sound, Hobe Sound, FL Pacers & Polo Aiken, Aiken, SC MARCH 28-29 Garden Party Polo New Orleans, Folsom, LA M A RC H 2 8 - A P R I L 18 Triple Crown of Polo (26) WPL, Wellington, FL MARCH 29- APRIL 5 Van Conover Cup Houston, Houston, TX

MARCH 30- APRIL 5 National Intercollegiate Championship Virginia Polo, Charlottesville, VA

APRIL 3-5 Linfoot Clinic Port Mayaca, Okeechobee, FL

A P R I L 17 - 1 8 Congressional Cup (0-4) San Antonio, San Antonio, TX

A P R I L 3 - 18 USPA George S. Patton (0-4) Season Finale (6-8) Hobe Sound, Hobe Sound, FL

A P R I L 18 Fiesta Kings Cup benefit San Antonio, San Antonio, TX

APRIL 4 NYTS Port Mayaca, Okeechobee, FL APRIL 4-5 Spring Classic New Orleans, Folsom, LA A P R I L 4 - 11 Constitution Cup (6-8) Costa Careyes, Jalisco, Mexico A P R I L 4 - 19 Las Acacias (4-8) Grand Champions, Wellington, FL APRIL 6-12 National Mixed Doubles Championship WPL, Wellington, FL APRIL 9-12 WPL Beach Polo Miami Beach, Miami, FL A P R I L 9 - 19 Pro Am Invitational Aiken, Aiken, SC

A P R I L 1 8 - 19 Las Vegas Polo Classic Star Nursery Field, Las Vegas, NV Southern Hotel Cup New Orleans, Folsom, LA A P R I L 19 St. Regis Classic Houston, Houston, TX A P R I L 19 - 3 0 Roseview Farm Invitational (4-6) Hobe Sound, Hobe Sound, FL APRIL 22-MAY 3 Jake Kneece Memorial Aiken, Aiken, SC A P R I L 2 2 - M AY 10 Spring Classic (8) New Bridge, New Bridge, SC APRIL 24-26 NYTS Aiken, Aiken, SC Arena Amateur Cup (0-3) Westchester, Portsmouth, RI

M A R C H 31 - A P R I L 4 WCT Finals Grand Champions, Wellington, FL

A P R I L 11 22nd Spring Fling Cup Dallas, Red Oak, TX

APRIL 25-26 USPA Mardi Gras Cup (2) New Orleans, Folsom, LA

A P R I L 1 - 11 The Spring Fling (6) The Black Olive (10) Shady Lady (6) Port Mayaca, Port Mayaca, FL

A P R I L 11 - 1 2 Casa Grande Cup (2-4) Arizona, Scottsdale, AZ

APRIL 26 Cowboy Cup Houston, Houston, TX

A P R I L 1 - 17 Stefano Laviano Cup (4) IPC, Wellington, FL APRIL 2-5 Gay Polo League International, Wellington, FL A P R I L 2 - 18 Horseware Challenge (8) IPC, Wellington, FL

Easter Matches New Orleans, Folsom, LA APRIL 12 Blue Bonnet Cup Houston, Houston, TX

A P R I L 16 - 1 8 USPA Board of Governors Meeting Embassy Suites by Hilton West Palm Beach, Florida

A P R I L 2 9 - M A Y 17 Pete Bostwick Memorial (12) New Bridge, New Bridge, SC A P R I L 3 0 - M A Y 19 Players Cup (0-4) Officers Cup (4-8) Houston, Houston, TX Note: All dates are subject to change. “USPA” refers to tournaments sponsored or sanctioned by the United States Polo Association.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 59

Y E S T E RY E A R S

W. Averell Harriman An influential statesmen and a great polo player

By Joshua Casper

W. Averell Harriman had just been elected the governor of New York in 1954, the pinnacle of a distinguished career as both magnate and statesman, when he spoke to the New York Times about his life as a sportsman.

“I’d say playing in the series was my top thrill.”

Harriman was referring to winning his only International, the 1928 Cup of the Americas, against the Argentines, led by 10-goal stalwart Lewis Lacey. It almost never happened.

W. Averell Harriman

60 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

If one opens the official cup program Steve Sanford is listed alongside Tommy Hitchcock, Malcom Stevenson and Winston Guest as the American four. The great Hitchcock, given the reins as captain for the first time was not about to lose.

Sanford and Harriman had vied for No. 1 all season.

Sanford, a good player, was averse to the Argentines’ physical style of play. Harriman, then a 7-goaler, was not. Hitchcock made a last-minute change. Harriman was in.

Harriman stymied the legendary Lacey playing, as the Times described, a hard-riding brilliant No. 1, and led the Americans with 12 goals in the three matches, including five in the last match. There might not have been a third game at all had Harriman not scored the winning goal in the final chukker of the first match in front of 40,000 spectators at the legendary Meadow Brook club.

“Actually, getting goals is not the basic thrill in polo,” Harriman told The Times when asked of the goal. “It’s developing plays. The thrill of that series was having Lewis Lacey in my pocket ... The thrill was to find that I could cover him, turn inside him.

I’d go through like a bat out of hell.”

He wasn’t called “the Crocodile” for nothing.

Wrote the New Yorker, a must-read for polo enthusiasts of the day, “W. Averell Harriman … who won the opening game for the United States Polo team takes his polo very seriously. He is a great stickler for details … Polo, however, never interferes with his banking business which comes first … He is slim, inclined to stoop slightly, hardly looks the athlete even in uniform. His game belies his appearance.”

Harriman reached an impressive 8-goal handicap, yet polo would become just a footnote on his epitaph.

Harriman embodied poloists as well as men of success in the highest echelons of society. Best known as one of the preeminent diplomats of the 20th century, he first made his mark in high finance, partnering to found, what is still one of the largest privately owned banks in the country, Wall Street giant Brown Brothers Harriman, with his brother Ronald.

Harriman took up polo in 1920, just as the sport was entering its American renaissance. The 20s were

Y E S T E RY E A R S

Mrs. Hitchcock with 1928 International champions Winston Guest, W.A. Harriman, Earle Hopping and Tommy Hitchcock Jr.

considered the Golden Age of polo. The talent pool was deep, full of fast ponies mounted by men who were virtuosos with the mallet.

Known for exceptional mounts, the Harriman brothers bred their own horses at Arden Farm. Their original partner was George Herbert Walker, the maternal grandfather of President George H.W. Bush. Their top horse, Chance Play, sired by the same horse as the great Man o’ War, won the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 1927. In fact, Averell first took up polo because harness racing aggravated his asthma.

“Neither of us were natural athletes when we were young: he was tall and lean, and I was short and fat, and both of us were awkward,” Ronald told Sports Illustrated, “But he made himself into an athlete. He was an absolutely first-class polo player … he’s a very shy man and always has been ... But he makes himself.”

USPA Chairman Louis Stoddard, who played No. 1 in the 1921 Westchester Cup, ranked Averell Harriman among the best No. 1s ever, noting he and 10-goal lefty J. Watson Webb best understood the conception of the position.

His first major title came in 1924, when his Orange County team first upset U.S. Open and Junior Champions, the undefeated Midwick, 12-8, in the Monty Waterbury Cup semifinals, then stymied the indomitable Hitchcock, who was playing back for

Shelburne, to win the first of two Waterbury Cup titles.

The eventual Hall of Famer won his first Open Championship with Orange County in 1925 by holding a Meadow Brook team, led by Hitchcock and back Dev Milburn—possibly the two greatest players

Orange County, 1925 U.S. Open winners, included J. Cheever Cowdin, Malcolm Stevenson, J. Watson Webb and W. Averell Harriman.

POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 61

Y E S T E RY E A R S

The president’s advisory council at the Department of Commerce included W. Averell Harriman, Daniel Roper, Willard L. Thorp and Richard C. Patterson.

ever, scoreless in the last chukker to win by a slim margin, 11-9. Meadow Brook, which included Webb and Stevenson, was later referred to as the Big Four when they defeated England in the 1927 International matches.

Harriman’s Sands Point team won the Open Championship in 1927, a fitting tribute to the country club that he founded that same year, presiding over details big and small. As president, he developed a first-class club whose member list rivaled even that of Meadow Brook. Unlike Meadow Brook and most exclusive clubs of the day, Sands Point was not restricted. Irving Berlin and Bernard Baruch were among the charter members along with polo greats like Tommy Hitchcock and Universal Studios Chairman John Cheever Cowdin, with whom Harriman won both of his U.S. Open Championships.

Though polo hasn’t been played at Sands Point

62 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

since the Second World War, it is now one of the golfing gems of Long Island. The annual club tournament is named the Harriman Bowl in his honor.

“Averell was a forward thinker; he was prescient at times,” notes current Sands Point President Joseph Cortese. “We continue that tradition to this day … many clubs cater to certain ethnic types. We’ve always gone out of our way to make sure we are diverse, so we carry on that tradition in current standing and are very proud of it.”

Averell competed with his nephews Elbridge T. Gerry and Robert Gerry Jr., under the banner of the Gerrys’ homestead Aknusti, to win the 1933 Junior Championship at Sands Point.

“I can remember in short pants, aged 6, going to Meadow Brook with my mother;” recalls Robert Gerry III, “It was a big deal, even for a 6-year-old.

You’d get 10, 15,000 people …”

Y E S T E RY E A R S

Lord Beaverbrook and Harriman were dispatched to negotiate the terms of the LendLease agreement with the Soviet Union.

As Harriman’s proteges, Ebby and Bobby Gerry became 9- and 8-goal players respectively and together won multiple championships, including the 1940 U.S. Open. Like their uncle, they also shared a passion for indoor polo and were often joined on the pitch by their younger twin brothers Ed and Henry.

“Polo was the most important thing sports-wise to them,” said Elbridge Gerry Jr. “Our family is very

Harriman in 1913 while coach of the Yale crew team.

strongly family-related, doing things together as a family. Having three brothers, no sisters they were all quite close on the polo field and off the polo field.”

Harriman once told the Times, “I taught my nephews to play ... and when they began to horse me around, I decided it was time to quit.”

Along with the saddle, Harriman also handed over the proverbial reins of Brown Brother Harriman to his brother Ronald and Ebby Sr. Born into a Republican family, the New Deal Democrat left the boardroom behind for public service. Though he served one term as governor and twice ran for president, his true legacy is as a diplomat and trusted advisor to every democrat since President Roosevelt to occupy the Oval Office during the last century.

After being sent by FDR as an envoy to help facilitate his Lend-Lease policy with Russia and Great Britain, Harriman was appointed ambassador to the USSR, about which he had intimate knowledge. The first time he visited Russia with his father, the president of Union Pacific Railroad, Czar Nicholas II was still in power. His last visit came when Ronald Reagan was president.

As the ambassador to the Court of St. James, he was among those charged with implementing the Marshall Plan. President Truman called on Harriman’s business acumen to serve as secretary of commerce. In fact, though he lost both his bids for the democratic nomination, he was Harry Truman’s chosen successor for president.

Known as one of the vaunted wise men featured in Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas’ book by the same name, his other great sporting thrill was coaching the Yale freshman crew team to victory over the varsity team. Later, in his senior year, Harriman was appointed head coached of the varsity row team. The POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 63

Y E S T E RY E A R S

Edward Stettinius, Maj. Gen. Kuter, Adm. E.J. King, Gen. George C. Marshall, Averell Harriman, Adm. William Leahy and President Roosevelt

same year, he appointed a talented rower by the name of Dean Acheson to coach the freshman team.

Acheson went on to become Truman’s Secretary of State.

Harriman’s contribution to polo has been Averell Harriman and Manuel Andrade race down field at Meadow Brook in the early 1930s.

64 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N

honored annually since 1985 with the Harriman Cup. The oldest collegiate benefit match in the U.S. between Yale and Virginia alumni will be played this year at Myopia Polo Club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, on Oct. 4 to support their respective programs and foster the growth of I/I polo. The Harriman Cup Award was also created to honor those in the horsing world who embody the former governor’s dedication to public service.

“Averell Harriman represents the old style of polo, polo played at a high level in the days of amateurism,” said co-chair and UVA alum Nick Barry, himself a participant “The Harriman Cup celebrates that. We wanted to focus on the qualities that Averell Harriman embodied, selfless devotion as a statesman.”

“It’s totally different. Somebody could not rise to the position and play polo the way he did. The demands today, the pressures today, they are totally different,” said Ebby Jr.. “People like my father, Tommy Hitchcock … Averell Harriman, they could do that, but it just wouldn’t work today. It’s a different temperament today.”

“It was just something they did,” Robert III so aptly put it. “They went to work; they played polo.” •