Playing Polo

by Steven Mills

Segundo Ortiz and the Game of Kings

WHEN ASKED HOW BEST to describe the sport of polo. professional polo player Segundo Ortiz says, “It’s like hockey, but on horseback.” As a young boy growing up in Argentina, Segundo, a thirdgeneration “Gaucho” from Argentina, was afraid of horses. Things changed when his father, a member of the Argentine Cavalry, gave him his first pony at the age of 4 to ride to school. “My father told me I can either learn to ride the pony to school or I would have to walk every day. So, I learned how to ride the pony,” he says with a laugh.

At the age of 18, Segundo began playing polo professionally and, shortly after, moved to America to live with his older brother, who was already there managing a polo club. The move to America set him on a path that has given him opportunities to travel around the world playing a sport he loves.

A young Segundo on his first pony, Empanada, with his half-brother, Roberto. Opposite: East Coast Open 1988 at the Myopia Polo Club, theoldest active polo club in America.

Segundo’s big break came when polo veteran Bob Daniels, owner of the famed team Pony Express, took him under his wing and gave him the chance of a lifetime. When he began working for Pony Express, Segundo was the youngest and most inexperienced player on the team. He says, “Bob saw something in me, the way I treated horses, and gave me an opportunity. The best advice he gave me was to never give up, no matter what, and, if you want to win, you have to play hard.”

All of Segundo’s hard work paid off during a trip to New York for a tournament. One of the players decided not to play because of weather conditions, giving Segundo a chance to play with 7-goal players. “That was my big break,” he says. “I was only a 3-goal player at the time, and I was also the youngest player competing in the tournament.” Segundo and the Pony Express team went on to win numerous other tournaments after that, including the 1988 East Coast Open, considered the most prestigious championship game played in America at that time. “I played for Pony Express the longest, then the Busch family and the son of the Dominican Republic’s president. That year playing for Pony Express was the best year. All of the players on the team meshed well and played great together.”

Segundo and Kim enjoying a moment together before a game at New Orleans Polo Club.

In 2001, Segundo made a trip from his home base in South Florida to Folsom, Louisiana, to play on a friend’s team in the Harvest Cup Polo Classic at Summergrove Farms. Following their team’s win at the Harvest Cup that year, Segundo’s performance landed him a spot playing for Folsom local John Melton, previous owner of Summergrove Farm. While playing for John, Segundo was first introduced to his wife, Kim McGrath, whom he married in 2017.

Kim, an accomplished hunter/jumper rider and trainer from New Orleans, began playing polo in 2010 when a friend invited her to play in a women’s tournament in Folsom. She says, “I was kind of getting burned out with the hunter and jumper world. I still loved horses and wanted to do something that involved them, so I tried polo. That game sealed the deal for me. I started out by renting polo ponies, and now I have seven of my own.”

Even with a lifetime of experience riding horses, Kim admits that the transition from hunter and jumpers to polo “was difficult at first, but that’s also what intrigued me. Hunters and jumpers are an individual sport. It’s you and your horse. What makes polo exciting is that it’s a team sport. Variables change. You can play well, but your teammate doesn’t play as well. I had to depend and count on other players, because you can’t do everything on your own in polo. It took me a long time to figure out that everyone has to play their individual position, but now I love it.”

Today, Kim and Segundo operate So Polo from their farm in Folsom, where they focus on training the next generation of polo enthusiasts, as well as developing and selling young polo ponies to high-goal players around the country. Segundo says, “It takes a long time to make a good polo pony, but that’s what I like to do now.” Several of their polo ponies are currently playing in high-goal tournaments and have gone on to win Best Playing Pony with high-goal players Santi Torres and Marcos Alberti.

Segundo out with his ponies for their daily exercise.

The famed “Pony Express” team victorious in the East Coast Open

For anyone looking to start playing polo, the husband-andwife team agree that “Experience is the only thing that gives you the ability to adapt and foresee what other players are going to do. We can try to strategize before every game, but you can’t decide how to play until you’re out there on the field and see how the other team is playing. You have to learn how to adapt.” While the variables of the game are always changing, Kim and Segundo’s love for horses has remained constant and continues to bond them to the fascinating world of polo.

The New Orleans Polo Club

Folsom, Louisiana, is home to a large community of horse enthusiasts, making it only natural that it also has a thriving polo club, the New Orleans Polo Club. Founded in 1985, the only polo club in Louisiana is a diverse group of men and women, ages twelve to eighty, who play at a variety of different levels.

Referred to as the “Sport of Kings,” polo has maintained a relatively exclusive following around the world. In America, the sport has roughly 4,000 players and is usually touted as a game played by the wealthy and elite because of the costs associated with purchasing and maintaining a string of polo ponies. The

Game face! Riding in a New Orleans Polo Club tournament.

New Orleans Polo Club is focused on changing that image by making it easier and more cost-friendly for beginners to learn how to play the sport. New members interested in learning to play are connected to instructors who have horses for rent to those first starting out.

The polo fields in Folsom are some of the nicest in the country, hosting competitors from around the United States, as well as internationally, to play in tournaments each season. Tournaments take place weekly during the spring and fall seasons, from March to June and September to November. Practices are held on Wednesdays, with tournament matches on Saturday and Sunday.

Kim on the winning Inside Northside Team in the last Harvest Cup Polo Classic in 2019.

The club’s primary playing field is located at Summergrove Farms in Folsom, owned by former club president David Fennelly and his partner, Carlos Sanchez. Together, the pair have been the biggest champions of polo in the area, donating their fields for various benefits, such as the annual Harvest Cup Polo Classic that is put on by the Junior League of Greater Covington. The club also plays at several other fields, including current club president Dr. Sebastian Koga’s Carpathia Farm located on Million Dollar Road and the Rice family’s Innisfree Farm on Highway 40.

Longtime manager of the New Orleans Polo Club Doug Parsons took up the sport 30 years ago without having any previous knowledge of riding horses. “Polo is a lifetime sport. There’s a place for everyone to start, but if you already know how to ride horses, it’s going to be a lot easier to learn how to play,” says Doug. “Each player owns their own horses once they start competing, but most borrow or rent from someone in the club at first. The hardest horse to buy is the first one.”

Segundo with his prized homebred pony, Rulo, winner of numerous Best Playing Pony awards.

The polo that is played in the Folsom area is considered “low-goal” polo, which refers to the ratings given to players based on their skill level. Doug reassures that “it’s going to be a safe environment for people of all levels, and you don’t need to have a bunch of horses to start. It can be competitive, but it’s fun. The only thing that helps is if you have a little bit of riding knowledge.”

For more information, please visit neworleanspoloclub.com

The Game

Said to be the world’s oldest recorded team sport, polo is a very strategic, high-contact sport that is competed on horseback. The game, played by two teams with four players each, is made up of chukkers (periods) that last 7 minutes, with 4-minute breaks in between chukkers and a 10-minute half. A ball is thrown in mid-field, and the players try to get the ball into the goal using a wooden mallet, often reaching speeds upwards of 35mph. Players have a string of polo ponies ready to go for every game, often swapping out their mount several times during a single chukker after a hard gallop down the field.

Harvest Cup Polo Classic, Sunday, April 24, 2022 Summergrove Farms. For tickets and information go to www.jlgc.net/harvest-cup-polo-classic

Teams are formed based on player handicaps ranging from -2 to 10, with a 10-goal player being the best. The only 10-goal players in the world are in Argentina and Uruguay. Argentina is known to have the fastest polo in the world and is the only country with a true “open” because they don’t have a limit on handicaps. In America, the combined handicaps of all the players cannot exceed 23, whereas in Argentina you can go up to 40.