Blog : Equus Education

Professional Riding: Polo

July 13, 2007 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

Different types of the sport:
Arena and outdoor polo. Read about the history of polo at http://www.hpa-polo.co.uk/about/history_polo.asp.

Horses needed – number:
As a beginner, 1-2 horses should do suffice to practice on and play matches. This can increase to 4 as your level progresses and even stables of 10+.

Costs involved:
Horse care, tack, polo equipment – helmet, boots kneeguards and mallets, shoeing regularly, vet bills, rugs, feeding and stabling. Game entries, tuition.

Rules of game:
Arena polo is made up of 4 chukkas (each 7 minutes in length) with teams swapping horses and goal ends at the end of each chukka. Indoor is played with 3 players per team on a field 300 x 150 feet.

Outdoor polo is played on a field of 160 x 300 yards – 10 times the size of an official arena. There are four players to each team and goal ends are changed each time a team scores a goal. There are six chukkas in outdoor polo. More horses are needed for outdoor as it is a faster, more demanding and longer played game.

Links to associations:
http://www.aapolo.com/ – Argentina Polo Association
http://www.us-polo.org/ – United States Polo Association
http://www.hpa-polo.co.uk/ – The governing body of polo in the UK, Ire and other countries worldwide.
http://www.sapolo.org.za/ – South African Polo
http://www.australianpolo.com.au/ – Australian Polo Association
http://www.fippolo.com/ – Federation of International Polo
http://www.polo.org.nz/ – New Zealand Polo Association

The game is fast paced and no doubt requires a decent amount of time and money to invest in horses! The financial rewards may not be the amount invested into polo, but many would argue the thrill of the game is award enough.

“A polo handicap is a persons ticket to the world.” – Sir Winston Churchill

tag: argentina, australia, south africa, UK, america, polo

The Joys the Wild Coast has to Offer.

June 22, 2007 by Christine Meunier 1 Comment

Well, I’ve less than a week left in South Africa and I’ve had an absolute ball. The current group of work riders plus one staff and the proprietor of Wild Coast Horse Trails have just been out on a trail for five days. The trip in a nutshell? We rode from Kei Mouth to Trennery’s to Wavecrest, along the Eastern Coast of South Africa.

Consequently, you see a lot of sand and surf! Two nights are spent at each place in gorgeous rooms on the beach. The trail involved around 3-5 hours in the saddle each day, long canters up hills and across the beach; a gorgeous gallop and lots of breath taking scenery – a ship wreck, sand dunes, rocks, hills and beach, cliffs and valleys and South African culture.

Before the trail I had the time to ride 15 of the horses here – up roads working on fitness; on trails round the 400 hectare property and at the beach and school horses in flat and jumping – what a great riding experience!

I also got to work with a foal that was born the night I arrived, work with weanlings, yearlings and stallions; free lunge endurance horses and learn Join Up and start two 3 year old mares under saddle. Oh, and I’ve raided an impressive horse library here, making note of a half-dozen must haves for my collection and have read five books while here – relaxing!

Yesterday we got to go to the Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve and saw warthog, giraffes, a rhino, many types of antelope, lions, ostriches, wildebeast, kingfisher, elephants and finished up playing with cheetah and lion cubs – just gorgeous. Photos to follow when I get home!

For the horse riding enthusiast, you can’t pass this working/riding holiday up!

“Good horses make short miles.”

tag: horse books, join up, endurance riding, south africa

Ask and You Will Receive

June 12, 2007 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

One of the horse’s I’ve ridden and watched closely while here in South Africa is a piebald mare rising four years old, who was backed (put under saddle) last November. Partly her temperament and breeding can be attributed to this responsive young animal. The other instigator? The backing method here is along the lines of Monty Robert’s classic ‘Join Up’.

I was curious to hear this as for my next adventure, I want to be just above Australia; helping out at Tiwi College and helping with 2,000 or so wild horses on the islands. The man I know linked in with the Tiwi College plans has informed me they use the Monty Roberts’ method for young people from broken homes so suddenly this way of doing things has my attention twofold.

I commented how I was disappointed that I couldn’t see this process carried out before I went home from South Africa and suddenly the proprietor was on the phone to friends and days later, we had two mares about 3 years of age, barely handled to practice Join Up with.

Four days into the process (working with each mare for about an hour each day) and we have been on the chestnut mare twice, having her happily walk and trot around under saddle with a rider in the saddle. The bay mare we started under saddle today and she took things well.

It has been amazing to see all the signs these gorgeous animals give off in regards to body language and submission. Sometimes it’s very subtle, other times it’s as if their whole body is shouting, “please, let me be friends. I’d rather be with you than away.”

Now both have been amazingly quiet in accepting the saddle, but just so you know – it took hours to get a head collar on both mares and a long time to get them into a lunging ring to be able to start the process. Oh, and the bay mare loves to bite – anything within her reach and the ears go flat back and the teeth are bared – she is obviously the dominant one of the pair. And go figure, only by asking have we been able to get a saddle on her so quickly. Amazing.

“It is easier to attach reins to a freight train and practice pulling to a halt than it is to slow down some of our horses.”

tag: join up, south africa, training

Professional Riding: Polo

The Joys the Wild Coast has to Offer.

Ask and You Will Receive

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