Sunrise in Pampa
For the past three years Team USPA has sent players to Argentina to be mentored by 7 goal professional Gaston Lauhlé. 24 year old Todd Thurston and 21 year old Russell Stimmel were selected this year for this opportunity. Over the next 10 weeks they will be sharing their experiences right here at PoloZone.com.
Since our last blog we have been quite busy down here in the Pampa. On the weekend of the January 17th, we played our first practices at the club. Russell played with Pepe Heguy, and I played with Ruso Heguy. Playing with such legends was an honor, and they were very helpful guiding us through our practices. Last week, we got back to riding our three respective young horses. Both Russell and I are quite pleased with how the young ones are going. They seem to improve each time we ride them. Our playing string got a short rest after the hard weekend practices, but we got back to riding them on Tuesday to prepare them for practice at the club on Wednesday and Thursday. We have been getting an unusually large amount of rain for this time of year in La Pampa. When we arrived to the club on Wednesday, it was as if we were at a new club. The fields had turned from brown and dusty to lush and green with perfect footing. Unfortunately, not many people showed up to practice on Wednesday or Thursday so we resorted to playing two on two. It was good for us to get more ball time and as Gato told us, “We had to work to be more crafty with ball control and placement.” The horses are fit now and are going really well.
Over the weekend, Russell and I were invited to play the Heguy family Tournament at Pepe’s. We split a man and each brought our top three horses. We played with Tomas Heguy, Hernan (last name unknown), and Francisco Elizalde; an accomplished 7-goaler who recently played the 26 goal in the U.S. with Lechuza Caracas. I played the first half and Russell played the second half. Having our top three horses was very beneficial and gave both of us some newfound confidence playing. We lost our first game by two goals. After we played, Pepe had a huge asado where we were able to mix with all the players of this historic tournament.
Sunday we made some switches in positions and it made all the difference. After a tied first half, (and thanks to some great goals by Russell, including a deep neck shot from 150 yards out) we squeaked out a victory by two. It was an amazing experience and both Russell and I left with a lot of confidence in terms of how we are progressing and playing argentine-style polo.