By Nila Venkat
Member, United States Pony Club
June 15th, 2011
End of May in Northern California, the rains and cold weather seemed like they were here to stay forever. There were constant emails from the organizers about a special pony club meeting where we will be playing polo. None of us knew what to expect. Two days before the meeting, it showered again. So many questions on our minds. Is it going to rain on the day of the clinic? I heard the footing of Polo arena is normally pretty firm. Will the ball even roll in our soft & bouncy jump arena? So many of our horses are young and have never seen a mallet, are they going to spook at the tiny ball that might eat them?
A few of us came to the arena early. Wilbur O’Ferrall, our Polo clinician from the Polo Training Foundation arrived about an hour before the scheduled start time. He scouted out the arenas and unloaded the mallets and balls. He and the clinic organizer chatted for few minutes. We watched from a distance. They were looking at the sky and then at the covered arena and then the open arena. They were deciding where we would play. The sky was beginning to clear and the sun peeked out. They pointed to the open arena and smiled. They are betting on the weather and choosing the open arena. The organizer had a camera hanging from her shoulder. I am sure she had pictures on her mind.
Members of my pony club gathered in the upper arena. We also had a couple of visitors who joined us: an upper level Dressage rider from my previous club and a few adult riders from our barn. Wilbur brought out the foot mallets and taught us a few swings we would use in polo. Then he had us practice the strokes. The mallets were heavy for a few of the youngest members. They would take a swing and then the mallet would take over and take them for a swing. This made for some hilarious goof-off moments. Wilbur would patiently stop by us to correct our strokes.
We later tacked up our horses and introduced them to the mallets and balls. Some of them seemed to recognize these – probably from their earlier careers. Others took some time to determine they were harmless. We mounted our horses and rode around the arena, and hit a few balls that were spread out. Sometimes our ponies kicked the ball before we got to it. We did a few exercises to get our horses used to riding shoulder-to-shoulder with another horse-rider pair.
We declared that we have mastered the different strokes and proceeded to form teams to play a game. By now the sun was completely out. The teams looked sharp in out bright yellow and orange uniforms that Wilbur had brought for us. Unlike the “real” polo, we kept our ponies at walk. They barely broke a sweat. The teams slowly maneuvered around the ball. Wilbur stayed close by to give suggestions on who had a better chance of getting to the ball. He sometimes stopped the game to explain the rules at that point or point out a foul situation, and then we would continue the game. You could hear an occasional “leave it” or “Nearside! Get on the nearside!” , but a lot of laughter.
We came back to the barn with big smiles. The newly minted Polo players munched on their favorite snacks (that varied from English tea sandwiches to potato chips) as they exchanged stories of each pass.
We were an odd group of people. Some were beginner riders and others experienced upper level pony clubbers. Some were serious competitors and others relaxed trail riders. Hey, even our taste in snacks differed so widely. Some would go on to play Polo in college in the very near future – this was a very good introduction of the sport. However, all of us will remember our Polo Clinic for the fun afternoon it was. It gave us an opportunity to be in the arena and play and laugh with other riders.
The riders with whom we used to just exchange a polite “hello” in the barn aisle will now be referred to as “My Polo Teammate”.