Discover the Brandywine Polo Club Cindy Walker
A PLACE FOR FAMILY FUN FOR 70 YEARS!
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QUESTRIAN FANS IN CHESTER COUNTY EAGERLY
anticipate the month of May and the start of the steeplechase season. Winterthur’s Point-to-Point is followed on successive weekends by Willowdale and Radnor Hunt steeplechase races culminating in 11 days of the Devon Horse Show rounding out the month. But sadly, for 2020 all four major events have been cancelled because of COVID-19 concerns. So we suggest this is the year to satisfy your equestrian yearnings by discovering what’s happening at the Brandywine Polo Club. Marking their 70th anniversary, our wellregarded regional polo club offers the tradition and thrills of this exciting game in a long season that may be extended into October. (The schedule for 2020 will, of course, be adjusted as necessary to keep everyone safe and healthy. Check the website for updates.) WHY POLO? Polo is a passion. With players ranging from Winston Churchill and British royals to Argentine heartthrob Nacho 28
County Lines | May 2020 | CountyLinesMagazine.com
Figuera and ltalented local players, the sport of kings has earned a special mystique. Current Brandywine Polo Club president Dixon Stroud caught the bug after the late George “Frolic” Weymouth sent him to take a lesson at the polo fields in Toughkenamon. “That’s all it took. Just once and I was hooked,” says Stroud. “I even got a polo pony as a wedding gift.” Stroud has worked 30 years to elevate the level of polo at the club to draw more fans and add excitement. Now, many years after that first lesson, this former Maryland Hunt Cup winner and polo-convert is preparing to turn over the reins to the next generation, including his son-in-law, Michael Bucklin, a more recent polo fan. Growing up on the coast of Maine, Bucklin describes himself as more at home on the water. “I got started riding polo ponies during visits to Dixon’s farm,” says Bucklin. “That, plus personal polo tutorials, did the trick.” He, too, is hooked. “It’s addicting. The animals, the speed down the field, then the quick turn,” says Bucklin. And it didn’t hurt that he could play polo down the road from home. From
