U S PA B U L L E T I N
David Ragland Growing the Great Plains Circuit
R
MICHELLE LAVASQUE
emaining patient, yet Oklahoma. I went back for a consistent in his efforts, second time and after that I was USPA Great Plains Circuit hooked. And as they say, the rest Governor David Ragland has was history! made a substantial impact on the I didn’t know how to play the growth of polo in America’s game when I first started riding, heartland. Donning his signature but I’d played sports most of my cowboy hat, just one of the many life so I was confident that I hats Ragland wears as club could learn. Dale Smicklas’ president and manager of OKC father advised me not to pick up Polo Club, he continues to a mallet for a year and to buy an cultivate his ongoing love affair older made polo horse and learn with polo alongside his wife Judy. to ride. The following summer, I Although himself not an went back down to Broad Acres Intercollegiate/Interscholastic Polo Club and learned how to David Ragland alumni (his son Jeremy played I/I play the game of polo. I became a polo), Ragland passionately member of the club and invests his time into the rising generation of polo eventually club president. talent as the beloved coach and advisor for the After Bob Moore died in 1998, the players who Oklahoma State University Polo Club. Traveling all were playing at and around Broad Acres Polo Club over the world at the height of his 2-goal outdoor dispersed to different parts of the country. The career, Ragland truly embodied Winston Moore family closed the club a couple years later Churchill’s spirit of polo as a passport to the world. and for the next 15 years there wasn’t much polo Currently in his second term as circuit governor, being played in the Great Plains Circuit. In the previously serving from 1987 to 1991 in the region winter, I would travel to play in the California formerly known as the Northwest Circuit, Ragland desert and in the summer I’d go to Jackson Hole, has dedicated the past five years to stimulating Wyoming. After a while, traveling became so interest and participation across each of his involved and since I had property in Oklahoma circuit’s clubs. Earning a marketing degree from City that I purchased in 2008, I decided to start my the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Ragland own OKC Polo Club in Jones, Oklahoma. began employment at Duncan Equipment What have you learned in your time as the club Company in 1967, developing his career with the manager of OKC Polo Club? thriving industrial truck distributor for 43 years. A polo manager has to be able to wear dozens of Beginning his polo journey later in life, Ragland hats and juggle polo balls (and beer bottles!) all at recognized an opportunity in his circuit for the same time. One thing you have to do as a polo resurgence, transforming his property into a fullmanager is learn to delegate and there are so many fledged polo facility. Sitting on the board of important factors to consider, including the various USPA committees since the mid-1980s, grooms, horses and weather to name a few. A goal Ragland is a wealth of valuable knowledge, fueled I have is for the club to become financially sound by a genuine desire to see as many as possible enjoy enough to hire a club manager. the sport of polo.
What is your equestrian background and how did you become involved in polo??
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
In 1982, I had just turned 40 years old and I had never ridden a horse. A friend of mine invited me to ride some of his horses at Bob Moore’s Broad Acres Polo Club [now defunct] in Norman,
I lived on Oahu and Kauai in Hawaii for a year (1964) right after finishing undergrad. I worked and took some graduate courses through the University of Hawaii. It is a beautiful place, but POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N 9