October
University Polo Another year, Another intake of polo freshers
Why play arena polo? Club Introduction Rugby Polo Club
Ignacio Llorente How the first pros came about
Adam Buchanan The benefits of pair bonding
Sam Boreham SUPA, The HPA and Polo’s elitist nature
#lalowgoal Online contributors
Looking for Contributors Could you write us an article? Tell us about yourself, your horses, your club, etc and get featured!
This Month… Ignacio Fernández Llorente:How the first Pros came about
Welcome La Low goal is all about trying to help British low goal. We are passionate about the low goal, and want to do our bit to combat the decline in players, clubs and spectators across the country. We feel that, currently, the low goal scene is very isolated, with members solely playing at their member clubs, playing the same few people week in week out. Instead we want to see people traveling from club to club, playing with new and exciting players, and at previously unheard of clubs. We want to establish connections between these low goal people and see clubs sharing players to build a stronger, more vivid low goal scene. To this aim we are implementing a new regular feature, introducing low goal clubs, such as this months club, Rugby Polo Club. We hope that players will see these clubs and be inspired to try them out, visiting a number of them, meeting new people, making new teams and supporting the low goal more widely. Check it out on page 15 and let us know what you think. In other news, La Low Goal will now feature a regular social media page, where anyone can post their polo related pictures and be featured in the magazine. All you have to do is use the hashtag #lalowgoal, when posting your pictures on Facebook and Instagram to get featured. We look forward to seeing what you all have been up to… In the mean time enjoy the issue.
Club Introduction: Rugby Polo Club
Opinion Article: Why play arena polo?
University Polo
Connor Kay (editor)
In this Issue University Polo. Jess Roche tells us about how well university polo is doing.
Sam Boreham talks about SUPA, the HPA and Polo Elitist nature
Adam Buchanan highlights the advantages of pair bonding
#lalowgoal:This months online content
Contents: Â
Page 4
Page 7
Ignacio Llorente
Sam Boreham
How Professional players first came about
Is Polo too elitist?
Page 13 Why Play Arena Polo?
Page 15
Page 19
Rugby Polo Club
Benefits of pair bonding
Adam Buchanan
Page 24 #lalowgoal This months online contributors
HOW PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS FIRST CAME ABOUT? Ignacio Fernández Llorente (POLO IN)
It is not usually easy to find players to form a polo team, it has always been difficult. A beginner to polo is usually surprised when they first meet players who are “professionals", meaning they charge to play. But how did these professional players first emerge? Many years ago when polo was an amateur game, the professionals emerged in an involuntary way. At first there were players who didn’t have enough horses of their own to play, so their companions lent them a horse so they were able to play together. This then meant there were players mounted on horses that were provided by the other players and needed someone to saddle them for each of his games. So the other players then ensured he was also provided with a groom.
Bob Jornayvaz has become a well known patron in the U.S, employing Adolfo Cambiaso full time for the Valiente organisation.
In order to get all the team members to be better players, an effort was made by providing good horses to each of them. Soon players began to be invited on trips, high level players were invited to play prestigious tournaments. The invitation included plane tickets, lodging and expenses in very beautiful places. The host (patron) managed to form his team with a player of a higher level and as a result would do better in the tournament. The patrons and guests players shared a lot of time together and played on the same team for many years. They often became great friends. Originally in the amateur game both host and guest were people who had money, and who of course did not live off the polo. The higher level players would buy horses to sell on to the patrons to ensure they were well mounted and this allowed them to make a profit from the tournaments for the first time. Then, in addition to the purchase of horses, a salary was started per season. It was not the same anymore, there was money involved. It can already be said that there were Patrons (formerly hosts) and Professionals (previously invited guests).
Then the trips became more and more frequent, and the professional received the invitation for the season. That invitation included the professional selling a string of horses to the team captain. When/If the patron changed to a different pro, the new pro discarded the previous horses and sold a new string of horses to the patron. Eventually the employers (patron) began to tire of buying horses, so the agreement changed to not include the sale of horses, the agreement was for money only and the patron had to have their horses. More recently there are other forms of agreements, such as pro’s being paid per game. This has resulted in a situation where a patron plays in a tournament with a pro but in the next tournament this pro may well be a rival.
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Sam Boreham
f i R
? f f a R f-
Wh e re the f u t u re o Eng l i sh f p o l o l ie s?
“ i t ’s n yo u c o
no t abo u t w h e re ome f rom”
On SUPA, the HPA and Polo’s elitist nature
e xc l us i ve sp o rt ?
My name is Sam Boreham and I have been playing polo for 11 years. It started with my Dad for whom horses have always been a passion. He was an amateur jockey in his youth and still rides several lots up the gallops every weekend at the impressive age of 62. It was therefore his wish that I would share his equine interests from an early age. Unfortunately for him, however, I was far too busy playing football and getting into trouble to mess around with something I considered a girl’s hobby. One day I reluctantly gave in, but being barked at by some miserable old riding teacher whilst I was sat on a small pony that said ‘No’ even more than me at the time, meant I was quick to quash any further attempts to get me in the saddle. Joining secondary school it looked like my Dad’s dream was over, I was playing football in and out of school as well as tennis, rugby and squash. However unbeknown to me, I was about to be ‘hooked’ into the sport we all love and live for. In
2006 my next door neighbour and good friend Josh (@justtonkin) won the Millfield Cup (School Summer National Championships) with two brothers Harry & James White, current 2 goal and ex England players. This was the first time a state school had won the competition and went down as the 99th biggest achievement in the world that year. There were even plans to make it into a film where my friend was cast as a pizza boy grafting through nights to scrape together the cash to practice... a little unsurprisingly the film was never made! I am very proud of where my polo originated. St. Bartholomew’s in Newbury remains the only state school to play polo and continues to enter teams in the SUPA (Schools and Universities Polo Association) Winter and Summer nationals each year, trained by Sean Wilson-Smith of Hampshire Polo School. My friend bought me my first hand mallet and finally convinced me to join a taster session. That was it, I was addicted. Polo required all the
ingredients of a truly absorbing game; speed, skill, intelligence, precision and strength to name a few. My friend and I spent countless hours bombing around country lanes on bikes with hand mallets, honing our skills to attempt at the next training session (which I would strongly recommend to any young polo player, a great way to improve hand-eye coordination – although ride off’s can get a bit painful)! A startled villager once offered us a spare paddock in which to practice out of fear for his front windscreen, having just had a polo ball hurtle round a corner towards him, closely followed by the two of us chasing after it. We politely declined, it was more fun our way; however we did agree to use arena balls in future (breaking the local primary school window may have had something to do with that)! I continued to train week in week out and was introduced to Pony Club polo a couple of years in, only increasing my passion for the sport. Some of my best moments were had at Pony Club polo, a great organisation that I would highly recommend
and from which some of England’s top current players originate from. In 2013 it was my final year of school and my last chance to win a School’s national championships. In my time playing polo for school we were certainly not welcomed with any warmth by other schools. In fact a lot of them openly voiced their distaste with us being allowed into an ‘exclusive sport’; so much so that one year a 4-2 victory in our favour magically transformed into a 3-3 draw and another year I overheard an angry father telling his son he had let him down losing to “riff-raff”. This only made me more determined to win and show them
An angry father telling his son he had let him down losing to “riff-raff”
it’s not about where you come from, something the HPA might want to pick up on if they are to stop the continually declining membership numbers. We won the arena national championships that year and were crowned the best school in the country. This was a big highlight for me as I was awarded MVP of the tournament and I was offered a scholarship from the school on the other side of the infamous score change from the previous year, one that I politely declined. Following this I enjoyed some successful years, I went on to win the Pony Club polo championships for the next three years as well as starting club polo and getting handicapped. I spent the following three years playing with the University of Nottingham Polo, joining back up with the SUPA circuit. This was a lot of fun and again I would highly recommend this to any polo player thinking about attending university. My final year was a particular highlight, we joined up with fan’s favourite Grant Collett at Offchurch Bury Polo Club, a 3 goal Zambian Professional with a ‘big’ personality! He is an excellent coach who transformed myself and my team. We went unbeaten that year and were crowned Winter and Summer national champions of the highest category and Regional Champions. Largely because of this, I was selected to represent the England SUPA team in the USA, where we were narrowly beaten 15-13, and again in Dublin where I captained England to victories over Ireland and Scotland in the Tri Nations. I now play club polo with my school and university coaches, both of whom are largely responsible for everything I have managed to achieve in polo. I have just returned from a second stint in Pilar, Argentina, the Mecca of polo. This was a truly fantastic experience, where I was lucky enough to play
up to 15 goal polo with some greatest in the game. SUPA is a fantastic organisation that has helped me to play the amount of polo I have and has given me great opportunities through the years. They were constantly pushing our state school to continue playing by supplying them with grants enabling us to enter tournaments. In my opinion this is where the future of English polo lies. From St. Bartholomew’s alone there are nearly 20 people who are still involved in polo, whether that a registered HPA member or down the SUPA route. The fact is there are talented athletes in schools around the country with all the attributes necessary to make successful polo players, however the current set up doesn’t encourage or even advertise the existence of this great sport to these schools. If it wasn’t for the two White brothers pushing polo at my school I would never have started. I believe I may be the only 1 goal player in the country without my own horses. I have to rely heavily on support from my Dad who has been brilliant in allowing me to continue playing the sport I love. People often turn their noses up at this fact, which leaves me asking what the difference is between owning your own ponies and playing the same ponies week in week out which just happen to be owned by someone else? There needs to be more recognition of talent and less recognition of wealth and connections. Sadly, it is attitudes and ‘Polotics’ like this that may eventually have me swapping from ponies back to bikes for good. Real changes in the training, education, marketing and accessibility of polo are what is needed for growth of the sport in England, not changes in everyone’s handicaps.
Why
T
he summer season is over. Long gone, it
appears, are the days of 30+ degree heat, the smell of freshly cut grass and regular grass polo fixtures. Many have turned their ponies away for another, long, dark winter‌ But dotted across the country, at certain clubs, the real hardcore players are just gearing up for the arena season. There will be mud, it will be cold, but its also going to be fantastic fun, as well as improving everyones game for the 2019 summer season, however far off that may appear right now.
“There will be mud, it will be cold, but its also going to be fantastic fun�
Arena polo is played with one fewer team member on each side. This reflects the smaller size of the pitches and the twistier, turnier nature of the game. The lower number of players on each side not only means each player has a greater role to play in their team, but also increases the intensity and involvement each player is subject to. This not only makes the game more exciting for the players, but also trains their minds to react faster and become more decisive on the ball. The ball is constantly bouncing off players, the walls and peoples mallets. This makes the game more unpredictable and helps players learn to react. Due to the smaller pitch size everyone is naturally closer to the ball, and thus the player with the ball has to act fast, and not be hesitant with their moves in order to keep possession of the ball. These moves are also extremely useful when transferred to the grass pitch, helping you outwit you opponent and keep control over the ball, even when being hassled by another player. Moves such as turning, both offside and nearside, stopping on the ball and avoiding hooks are easily transferable and will help you climb the
Photos bt Bob Hopkins
y Play Arena Polo?
handicap ladder outdoors. The ball control skills you learn are also invaluable, as due to the low walls and a ball whose direction is easily influenced by the wind, passing is difficult in the arena. Smaller shots are then encouraged, forcing a player to develop good hand-eye coordination and control when tapping the ball. It also teaches you to be hardy, as your never going to complain about playing in a slight mizzle when you've been subject to firmly minus based temperatures and snowdrifts in the corners.  
In conclusion Arena Polo is not only great fun, but also allows you to better your skills for the upcoming summer season and play much higher level polo, as often the far reduced pool of available players can see you finding yourself playing with and against much higher level players. So get your ponies ready, grab your skins (you’re going to be needing them) and get down to your nearest club. The Arena season has already begun.
Club Introduction: Rugby Polo Club Our History
Arena Fixtures 2018/2019 - T-Bone Tournament
Rugby Polo Club opened in 1893 by the three Miller brothers, George, Ted and Charles. The club became one of the most prestigious clubs in the country let alone being the oldest. Spring Hill Farm where the grounds are situated in Rugby became the home of polo for HRH the Prince of Wales, HRH The King of Spain, the Duke of York, the Aga Khan, Kashmir and Sir Winston Churchill. In 1900 the club had over 200 playing members and was holding tournaments still played for outside the club today.
5th November
- WPPG Cup (2-6, -2-2) 10th-11th November
- University Challenge - T-Bone Tournament 3rd December
- Midlands Polo Festival (Schools, Universities, 4 goal, 8 goal, 15 goal) 8th - 9th December
- New Years Cup (0-4, -3-0) 5th-6th January
The Warwickshire Cup, originally given to Rugby Polo Club by the people of Leamington spa, is one of the most sought after high goal trophies today. Since 1961 it has been held at Cirencester Park Polo Club after the Hurlingham Polo Association (The HPA), who had been looking after the trophy since the war, allowed Cirencester the use of the Warwickshire Cup in one of there tournaments. It is currently still on loan to Cirencester. In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, the club closed. Rugby Polo Club tried to re-open in 1947 but to no avail. Nearly sixty years on the Baker brothers David and Philip, re-opened the club on the original purpose built pitches bringing the sport back to Rugby.
- T-Bone Tournament 7th January
- Comical Cup (Open) 2nd February
- T-Bone Tournament 4th February
- University Nationals 7th-10th February
- SUPA Schools Tournament 3rd March
- T-Bone Tournament 11th March
- Sworders Trophy (4-8, -2-2) 23rd-24th March
- T-Bone Tournament 1st April
- Final Arena Challenge (2-6, -3-0) 13th-14th April
What is a T-Bone Tournament? Monthly Monday Tournament during the winter season. T-Bone is a Mini, competitive, two chukka tournaments designed for those with one horse. After each team fights it out to win the T-bone trophy, everyone sits down for food and drink into the evening.
Our Facilities Indoor Facilities Rugby Polo Club boasts three arenas, an outdoor (100 x 45m), an indoor (80 x 40m) and a warm up arena, all interconnected. All the arenas are floodlit and have the latest Andrew Bowen waxed surfaces. Floor to ceiling glass windows provide fantastic viewing onto all arenas from both the Chukka bar and the Forge restaurant. The winter season has never been more comfortable.
Outdoor Facilities Rugby Polo Club’s excellent summer facilities include; three full size, fully boarded, purpose build polo grounds and a stick and ball area, each with pitch side pony lines, wash down and lorry park.
Polo And Tack Shop Rugby Polo Club offers onsite polo and tack shops, Willoughby Park Polo Gear (WPPG) and Harley Equestrian. WPPG has now been successfully trading for 14 years and is a main supplier of competitively priced, premium quality polo and polocrosse gear for both the horse and rider. Our retail shop continues to open on all event days. WPPG is a family business where we are all actively involved in the game. We look forward to assisting you with your Polo needs! In addition to this, Harley Equestrian, onsite, caters to a wider range of popular equestrian lines. If you need to discuss your saddlery repairs or if you require ‘bespoke’ work please contact a member of staff in our workshop who will be happy to help. Society of Master Saddlers Qualified Saddle fitting service.
The Yard Rugby Polo Club offers full part and DIY livery at competitive rates, with two yards and a brand new stable block, as well as an on-site equine vet (Onley Equine Vets) and Farrier. This means that you can bring your horses to us, safe in the knowledge they will be properly and professionally looked after.
Contact Details: To discuss booking a lesson, obtaining membership or finding a team for an upcoming tournament: - Call the office on 01788 817 724 - Email Jayna at jayna@onleygroundsec.com - Follow @rugbypoloclub on Instagram - Find @rugbypoloclub on Facebook - More information is available at http://www.rugbypoloclub.com
Adam Bu
uchanan
Images supplied by Clive Bennett
Pair Bonding Adam Buchanan talks to us about the use of pair bonding in the training young horses.
Communication and learning One of the most interesting and enigmatic processes studied by behavioural ecologists and ethologists at the moment is the role of transferring information (and in turn, teaching) within an animal species. A successful transfer of information can only be achieved through effective communication. Communication consists of exchanges of information between a sender and a receiver using a code of specific signals. These specific signals usually serve to meet common challenges (e.g., protection, feeding, reproductive) and they promote cohesiveness of the group/herd. Herd communication serves many important functions, such as: individual identity, behavioural predispositions, social hierarchies, breeding physiological states, monitoring collectively for dangers, opportunities of the environment and synchronising organised activities (i.e. migration, foraging). 
Species-specific communication (Imprinting) Two horses still qualify as a herd, letting them speak in their own language and allowing them to learn who a new person or herd member is by their own methods and not purely on the concepts of flight, herd instinct and hierarchy promote confidence and reduce stress. Using one horse to communicate in its own language to another, close to or within its own age group and both stable (bonding) in their relationship together, naturally enhances social interaction and filial imprinting. The process of imprinting clearly involves genotype environment interaction (GxE) and represents genetic canalisation of behaviour development. Individual and social behaviours can be profoundly anchored in their genome, which as we know are a genealogical grid bonded by motherhood. The ideology of pregnancy, lactation, parturition and maternal care are all links of matrilineal kinship. Filial imprinting behaviour leads to a following (i.e. the imprinted horse following alongside another), thus allowing the equine to protect itself from predators as a foal does to its dam. This is what has allowed horses to survive for centuries, yet humans remain determined to isolate them. This same isolation is orchestrated when most people saddle a horse for the first time, removing the horses prime source of protection. Horse whispering, a spurious language with deleterious effects on the behaviour of the horse? The relationship between horse and human has evolved from predation to companionship. This evolutionary process has shaped the behaviour of both horse and human predecessors but dominance in human understanding of social systems has tended to over emphasise its importance in the interspecific relationship between mankind and horse. The use of intermediary languages for studying the linguistic and intellectual potential of horses through arbitrary signs, gestures, objects and other stimulus raises the question of legitimacy or a factoid of behaviour through anthropomorphic signals or gestures.
Benefits of herd or pair bonding in teaching I have noted changes in hierarchy, pecking order, social competence and work appetite changes as the new horse evolves and behaviours between the pair are modified by the development of the pair bond. The tutoring horse will also mature by defining a work mode and promoting its behavioural development. Social behaviours increase from day 1 to days 2-8 as the pair bonding manifests itself in an increased intensity of social behaviours.
Stress events and their short and long term effects. If during the horses developmental stage, a stressful event occurs it may enhance the degree of severity by being separated from the herd, and so enhancing the short term negative impact. In addition to these short-term effects, early adverse experiences, in particular during the neonatal period, can cause long-term behavioural and neurobehavioral after-effects, involving higher vulnerability to stress and the development of abnormal behaviour in later life.
How can we help our horse? The idea that animals are innately programmed to attend to specific cues in specific behavioural contexts suggests a mutually reinforcing relationship between learning and instinct, which provides a connection between ecology and cognitive ethology. Training philosophies that embrace learning theory can be ethological in the sense that they might take into the account the types of stimuli horses are most likely to respond to, and the types of reinforcement that are the most rewarding to them.
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buchananpolopony@instagram
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Another Year, Another Intake of Polo Freshers by Jess Roche (former Durham University Polo Club President 2015-2017)
Although autumn is a quiet time for most polo players it is a very busy time for polo clubs who organise university lessons. University polo has seen a massive growth in the past decade with over 60 universities now running polo societies. University polo is designed to encourage those who have never played polo before, as well as more seasoned players, to become involved during their university years. A lot of students who try polo have the additional difficulty of never having ridden a horse before. You would think this would make learning an equine sport quite difficult, however, with the help of experienced HPA coaches most students are able to canter and hit a ball by the end of their first term. One of the added benefits are organisations such as SUPA (the Schools and Universities Polo Association) ensuring polo is made as affordable as possible to try and eliminate the notion that only the rich can afford to play. At the start of the autumn term university clubs run numerous taster sessions, often split by ability. It really is incredible to see some students who start off being incredibly nervous of horses to have such enthusiasm to go faster when they are placed in a chukka environment. I play out of MHF polo club in Essex, where Kent, UEA and Essex University play. The first few weekends of term were packed full of taster sessions with record breaking sign-ups for all three clubs. Essex University is one of the new universities this year to have formed a polo club. Prior to this academic year the university had an equestrian club, but had never tried polo. This year
competitions start quite early in the academic year. The first big tournament is held at Rugby Polo Club in mid November. There are different divisions to cater for the wide variety of abilities, from beginners to an open category. To encourage beginners to get involved in competitive play as early in the year as possible, there are strict rules in place ensuring beginners are students who are new to the sport this year. For those who aren't quite ready to play their first competitive chukka, many uni clubs are trying to think of alternative ways for students to get involved more frequently than their lesson slots. Kent University have invested in a wooden horse, so students can spend more time practicing their shots. The university is allowing them to have a timetabled slot to use the horse on one of the sports pitches, which will really help beginners and more experienced players alike. Durham University have expanded their wooden horse string, with the club now owning three wooden horses to make the most of additional coaching. They have also started strength and conditioning classes, which fits with a general move in the polo world to spend more time in the gym outside of the polo yard. If you would like to keep up to date with university polo news, see the Instagram account @universitypolo with photos from university clubs around the country being featured. Our website is in development, with the aim to promote university and alumni polo to a wider audience, as well as offering assistance to those who are new to the sport.
there was a full afternoon of taster sessions for all the students at Essex, who were keen to try a new sport. Essex University is an example of how quickly this area of polo is growing.
Contributors La Low Goal
la_low_goal
This Months Contributors: • • • • • • •
Jess Roche Sam Boreham JF Polo Academy Ignacio Llorente Adam Buchanan Clive Bennet Bob Hopkins
Editor: •Connor Kay
Thank you for reading this issue of La Low Goal Magazine. I sincerity hope you enjoyed the issue. Please continue to look out for our content on issuu.com, Facebook and Instagram. If you have any comments, advice, opinions or articles please get in touch via our social media or by email at clarehamilton311@icloud.com. A massive thanks to our generous contributors producing content for the magazine, please go and look for their other content on various social media. Also remember to use the hashtag #lalowgoal on Facebook and Instagram too be featured in next months magazine.
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