KIM ROSS
Handicap: B
The Keeper family immigrated to Alberta in 1896. Thomas grew up in Calgary, AB, and had lots of horse riding experience living on the ranch as a child. Later, his family moved to Vancouver, BC. He is the founder of Tink Real Estate International. Thomas has a wife, Maggie and two children Sophie and Nathan and all of them love spending time at the CPC in the summers.
THOMAS KEEPER
Handicap: B Born in Calgary, Kim Ross was raised mostly in Edmonton, AB, and North Vancouver, BC. She has been a horse nut for as long as she can remember – a fact that confused her very suburban city family and proof that the love of horses is a disease that does not discriminate. She received a BComm. from the University of Alberta and spent the next 15 years or so working for agencies and as a consultant in Marketing & Communications. Meanwhile, she was riding and showing American Saddlebreds, rode for the Canadian team in the Saddleseat Equitation World Championships, welcomed two daughters, and moonlighted some Interior Design work for friends and family. When her girls got older, she decided she wanted to start a full-fledged interior design company. She went back to school at the Interior Design Institute and now runs Kim Ross Interiors & Design. Trying polo was on my bucket list forever. In 2014 the universe intervened and I was seated next to a woman at a business function who was about to go to the Desert to “try polo.” Some space had just come up in the house where she was staying and she invited me to come. A month later I went to Kyle and Megan’s school at El Dorado Polo Club with seven women I barely knew. We played polo for three days and I was hooked! I sold my show horse a few months later and I’ve never looked back. Those women and I are now very close and we go on various polo riding adventures around the world every few years.
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Last season (2017) I was awarded MVP - Club League from Calgary Polo Club and Most Improved Player from Polo Canada. As a relative new comer to polo, there are games/days when I am just happy I stay upright, so getting a bit of recognition that you are heading in the right direction is fantastic.
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I am left-handed, so I think that developing my eye-hand coordination with my non-dominant hand has been the biggest source of frustration. But there are a never ending list of challenges, which is one of the reasons this sport becomes so addicting.
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Big Love was my first polo pony, so she has my heart. She will do anything I ask and forgive me for all my mistakes. She’s not the fastest, nor the handiest out there – but she gives everything she’s got. A horse like her is priceless for a new polo player. 16 www.calgarypoloclub.com
Maggie Keeper
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Polo is a sport that I can enjoy for the rest of my life – that was a big draw. Gordon, a friend of mine, introduced me to the game.
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Taking a horse off the track and training it to play polo in one season.
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Hitting the ball! Trixie, a nine-year-old race horse from Kentucky.