Spokane polo

I was Virginia's groom this weekend at the Spokane tournament. It was a great weekend! Met a lot of great people and saw some awesome polo. I warmed up Waco, one of Virg's two horses, on Saturday but that was the only riding I did over the weekend. It was actually really nice just to slow down and enjoy the game. As usual there were some incredible meals and parties in the evenings.

The nine goal polo on Monday was amazing...I've decided that I definitely don't want to play at that level any time soon. Polo at this level is very physical (as in crashing into each other) and I'm not to keen on getting hurt in polo at this point in my pentathlon training. But my how its great to watch! One of the highlights of the weekend was Augustine, one of the Argies that stuck around to play some more polo this summer after the larger group of Argentines went home. At 19 years old, Augustine has servants in his home and several grooms to take care of his polo ponies in Argentina. Well...here he had to stay in a cold, went tent and do his own grooming. But he smiled the whole time, especially when George Dill pulled the tent out of the box and called it Augustine's "Estancia in a box".

Tacoma polo

Spent most of the weekend helping Jason and/or Virginia groom since Jason is down to three horses at the moment. I did get to warm up Jason's Aticus with a little stick and ball though. It felt great, I had some great hit and my riding felt good as well.

The Argentines are in town for a couple weeks, so got to see some really great polo. Marcos runs a polo school down in Argentina that many of the Tacoma players have attended. Marcos brings his family up on vacation each year and this time brought a family friend, Augustine, to play polo with him while the rest of the family toured and shopped in Seattle. On Saturday night we all went to the Roy Saloon for dinner and had a great time dining and dancing to some barely acceptable country music.

Tacoma polo

It was a perfect day for watching polo. The plan was to head on down to the Tacoma Polo Club to watch some good polo now that I've played a little and understand a little more of the game. That's just what I did. I filled my water bottle, grabbed a lawn chair, picked up my Maya Angelo book of poetry, headed out to the practice field and found myself a nice shade tree from which to sit at watch polo. Mount Rainier was off in the distance, it was warm an sunny...just perfect for watching polo. I did just what Virginia told me to do to help get a feel for the game...I started 'announcing' all of the plays to myself. I was actually able to see quite a bit in the four chuckers I watched from my hilltop perch under the tree. In between chuckers I read a little more Maya.

Then...Jason, showed up and once again offered Aticus for me to ride. I was told long ago to always bring my gear just in case. Well...it proved wise advise today. I did a little better tacking up this time, still not perfect by a longshot though. George and Annetta offered to let me borrow George's old helmet too, so with my rollerblading kneepads and helmet, I certianly looked a little more official than when I was just in my English riding boots and jumping helmet.

I headed out to do some stick and ball in between the player's chuckers. With Aticus, its all about staying out of his mouth. This is good for me since I still am trying not to balance off my hands. Everything seemed to go pretty well. I was able to balance well, hit the ball and work well with Aticus. I was invited to play as a 5th player in the next chucker. Although I only hit the twice, I felt like I did a much better job playing my position, especially defensively. I played in the next chucker as well, just after George Dill gave me a few really valuable pointers. Even better!

We washed the horses off, delivered them to their overnight pasture and came back to the clubhouse for some good food and friends.

Sunday morning, we all went to Roy for breakfast at the Roy Saloon. Mmm mmm...Biscuits and Gravy! Then it was back to the club. Play didn't start until 1:00 so since I had to be back up in Seattle at 3:00 for a fundraiser I wasn't able to play in any of the chuckers. I did spend some time in the morning doing some stick and ball with Jason, Randy and Suki though. Jason had some good drills and as usual was very patient in tutoring me.

For not planning on playing polo, I had a great weekend. I learned a lot, met some great new people and had a lot of fun. Thanks again to all those in Tacoma who helped me out.

Yakima polo

Went to Yakima over the weekend for my second try at polo. The venue was the White Swan Polo Club in a beautiful valley just through the Union Gap outside of Yakima. I had planned on participating in an indoor tournament at the Tacoma Club, but because it was canceled I had the opportunity to head over to Yakima. I was looking as much forward to the sunshine as the polo. I got a lift with a buddy, Jason, who played polo at WSU and now lives in Seattle. He's originally from Yakima and is now pretty much the guy in charge of running the club (organizing, keeping the field mowed, etc.). Jason has played all over the States, Canada and in Argentina, so he was a great resource for this rookie both on the ride over and during the weekend.

We left early Saturday morning. The trip over to Yakima, through the Cascade Mountains and then through eastern Washington, reminded me a lot of landscapes in Germany, Nebraska and New Mexico. It was just nice getting back into wide open spaces. We picked up Jason's truck and trailer at his parent's place in Yakima, retrieved his horses from the pasture at his family's auction yard and then, after grabbing some beer at Costco and other grub for dinner and breakfast on Sunday, headed for for the polo field. The hope was to be groomed, tacked and ready to play by 2:00pm. Well, the Kentucky Derby got a little in the way...but in a good way. We jumped across the road to the ranch house to have mint julips and watch the derby. Jason had to pop back out to the field early to mow the field (he had to use his truck to pull the mower blades since the tractor was out of commission).

I helped Virginia and Laura (my riding coach) groom their horses and then helped Jason with his since I would be using one of his horses for the weekend. I got the tail wrap down pretty well, but the rest of the tack still escapes me. There's a lot of leather on the polo bridles. Didn't even try the leg wraps as its pretty important to do them correctly and I didn't want to screw them up. Jason let me ride "Aticus" (sp?). Poor Aticus, he really put up with a lot from me. He definitely wins the "putting up with a newbie award". I went to do some stick and ball at the end of the field with Laura to get the feel for the game again and quickly figured out that Aticus didn't like any pressure on his mouth...any pressure including stopping and turning. Laura confirmed it since she had ridden him in the past. I got back into the polo thing pretty quickly and even hit the ball three times in a row once...at the canter!

Soon it was time to play my chucker. Whoa! It was a lot faster than when I played indoor in Tacoma. I felt a lot better riding this time, but correct playing position and overall strategy were still way beyond me. I had some problems staying light on Aticus' mouth but seemed to get better as the chucker went on. It was the stopping that was difficult for me. I just need to get a lot more riding under my belt. I had a couple - exactly two - good shots and almost scored a goal once. To be honest, I was just glad to stay on the horse and have a lot of good people around to give me pointers...Jason, Gratia, Rick, Jana (sp?), Bill, George, Randy, Virgina, Laura, Zubair, Wendy, Nick, Stacy, Steve and Allan. After the horses were groomed and tucked away in their corals over at the ranch, the evening festivities began. Fresh salmon on the BBQ, George's 'special' zinfandel wine, dogs, good jokes and lots of good people. Then off to our tents to turn in. It was great camping under the clear sky in Yakima.

Red dog slept just outside the flap of my one-man tent all night, protecting me from the wilds of a Yakima polo field.

Sunday morning, we had a breakfast fit for Prince Charles himself. Everyone had brought steak for dinner the night before, but since the salmon took the spotlight we had no choice but to cook up a king-size breakfast. Jason is an incredible cook. I think I had the best BBQ steak I've ever eaten that morning. Randy fried up our Costco hashbrowns and made some amazing scrambled eggs. Laura topped it off with some delicious pancakes.

After getting the horses we learned that Heather, who had been hit on her ankle by a ball, and Zubair wouldn't be joining us. My one-chucker Sunday turned into a four chucker fiesta. Jason asked George Dill if I could use a couple of his horses for two of the chuckers and George obliged.

I rode Aticus the first chucker and had the same problems before. Aticus had to put up with my riding abilities again, but did a great job doing so. I tried my best to stay out of his mouth. I was concentrating a lot more on playing my position, the one position, better. I held back a lot more and let my team mates do their thing and pass forward the ball when appropriate. I had several chances at the ball and hit about two of the ten that I could have. Jason, Bill and Allan were once again really helpful...and patient.

The second chucker I rode George's horse "Proxy". Proxy could turn and stop on a dime so I ended up working more at my riding, balance particularly, more than anything. I ended up with my arms around Proxy's neck many times but I managed to stay on. Proxy new the game well and was usually turning into the play long before I would have known what to do. My balance issues on Proxy certainly humbled me quite a bit on my riding, showing that riding different horses will really be key in my pentathlon training.

Next it was back to Aticus. I think Aticus was getting pretty tired of my strong hold on his mouth. Several times, he would stop turn his head around to the left and just stare at me. Poor guy. I reached out with my left foot and stroked his nose in apology, gave him a pat on the shoulder and reassured him that his time with me was almost over. I tried to not put any pressure on his mouth for the rest of the chucker, relying just on neck reining, verbal and leg aids. We actually finished off petty well, but I'm sure he was glad when I finally jumped off and started untacking him.

The final chucker I rode Goerge's "Sara" (sp?). I felt really bad because George thought I was done riding and had untacked her. A quick response though and George and Laura helped get all the tack back on. George re-wrapped the tail, Laura through on the saddle. Laura and George were even patient enough to instruct me on how to put on the leg wraps correctly. George said she might be a little tired since she was doubling and she thought she was done for the day. George held here while I jumped on and I was off. I put my leg on to go forward...and she was READY TO GO! Didn't seem tired at all and was set for the final chucker of the day. Sara knew the game well and once again was responding to the play sooner than I could. I felt pretty confident on Sara, just had to get used to the swivel stirrups that she had. I lost my footing many times, but Sara didn't stop a beat. I even tried to ride off Nick, one of the best players out there. Nick had been a great teacher all weekend and I think he was being nice to let me ride him off so easily, but I did it and learned a great defensive skill.

Breakdown was pretty leisurely. It had been a long day for all the players and it was a beautiful spring afternoon. I helped George, Laura, Virginia and Jason breakdown. Right as everyone was starting to pull out a former player pulled onto the field, Colby was the last name, with cold champagne. Mr. Colby and his wife were wonderful people and we talked about the days when the club sponsored the Heritage tournament and Nordstrom sponsored the event. Nick, Gratia, Jason came over and we talked about the polo played over the weekend. It was a great close to the weekend.

I feel so lucky to be able to learn the sport from such a great group of people. They were all so helpful and patient with someone that was quite a novice (I didn't even get my tack right the first time I tried it). The phrase "good people" just kept running through my mind. A big thank you to everyone at White Swan Polo Club for putting up with me. I look forward to returning the favor or passing along what they taught me to another novice someday.

A little more polo

It was another Waco night. Had the usual problems at the walk and trot...a bumpy ride. We had a little difficulty getting up to canter, my balance was a little off again, but once we figured that out, it was smooth sailing. Jason, a polo player that recently moved to Seattle from Yakima, stopped in just in time to watch Virginia and I pick up the foot mallets for some polo work. Jason corrected my mallet grip and gave me some pointers on balance as well. A little improvement at the trot, but my attempts at hitting the ball (or orange cone in this case) at the canter were pretty poor. I was always late with my stroke. But it was fun and once again, polo help to correct some issues I had in riding...namely being comfortable with the trot/canter transitions. I don't think I'll ever be a polo star, but it sure is fun and has been valuable in my overall riding.

Polo anyone?

I had a pretty successful training night. I rode Eli, the talkative horse in the barn that wants to be a chef or an astronomer. Eli is much more sensitive to commands than Pet, so I was able to really focus on my aid signals being correct. Laura had 4 poles on the ground as obstacles and we did quite a bit of going over these at the trot. Eli was doing a pretty good job of avoiding these, but with a little practice and assertion, we cleared this up. We again went canter each tme coming out of the obstacles. I seemed to get started well on these but wasn't closing my legs enough to keep him at the canter. Got this corrected too by the end of the night.

The fun tonight really started after the lesson. Virginia showed up to have Laura work on her near shot in polo. Virginia has 'opportunities' as far as getting more out of the tack to get these shots. This is harder than it seems since you really are leaning way over the side of the horse to do this. I watched for a while as she and Joan, another rider in the barn, did some drills to work on this. They were using foot mallets rather than full length ones to really force them to get out of their tack. Then...Laura suggested I try it out. The challenge in polo is that you have the reigns in one hand and a big mallet in the other. Thus, balance is really important and all the security I have during lessons as far as being well balanced were no longer there. So, I noticed that since I had some new things to focus on I wasn't able to over focus on the things that seem to keep troubling me in lessons: my feet being correct in the stirrup, looking ahead where I'm going rather than looking down and just paying too much attention to my balance (which usually manefested itself in that I am too tight and dependant in my tack). With polo, especially when I'm at the canter you have to do all these things, correctly, or you'll end up on the ground pretty quickly. So I think polo will be a great cross training for my jumping. I'll definitely become more confident in the saddle and in doing so be able to be more aggressive, which will be important in the pentathlon. Plus, polo is so much fun. I noticed my horse had much more energy and enthusiasm when playing polo. My guess is that it is because the horse now is as engaged in the sport as the rider. In lessons, the horse is simply doing what it is told to do, in polo it is as involved in the sport as you are...it knows that its after the ball too and is as competitive with other horses as you are with other players. I could learn to like this polo thing.