claire brougham Ladies 6 goaler Claire Brougham talks England selection, Ladies polo and her introduction to the game
1) Congratulations on your recent selection to play for England. How do you feel it went?
encouraged me to try polo, I loved it after one lesson, and I have never looked back!
CB: The tournament was great, very well organised,
3) Who has been you favourite coach or role model?
and thrilled to have won it. I hadn’t played arena since 2013 so I was very surprised to have been selected.
We had a great team! Lucy Taylor and Saskia Meadows were dream team mates. It was one of my favourite teams I have ever played with. Everyone worked so hard, played their positions and we all had the same ultimate goal of winning, doing whatever it took to do so! The communication in the team was so positive and we all worked really well together.
2) Can you tell us a bit more about yourself. How and when did you first get involved in polo? CB: I am 33, 6 goals ladies - 1 goal mixed and 2
goals arena ,based out of my family farm in Guildford. I started playing polo in pony club for Chiddingfold Farmers at the age of 15. I have ridden all my life and used to event but had had a few nasty falls, and was ready to give up. My parents
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CB: Sunny Hale, was the pioneer of Ladies polo, her passion and commitment to growing women’s polo as a sport has given me so many opportunities to play abroad. Sunny helped create women’s handicaps, women’s polo tours, and she also gave the best advice! I owe a lot to Sunny!
I owe a lot to Ross Ainsely, at 19 I went to New Zealand. I was 0 goals, but had only ever played on made polo ponies. It was a massive shock the system trying to play 0 goals on young horses. Riding young horses taught me how to play any horse, and become a more effective rider. This has made it so much easier to travel as I am less phased by the horses. I would highly recommend any player wanting to improve to go do a season in New Zealand! John Horsewell is an incredible coach, he has an eye for detail and has massively helped improve my technique and skills.
