Sweet Music

Five String Farm wins Women’s Arena Open

Photos by Dave Murrell

Four teams battled in the USPA Women’s Arena Open at Great Meadow Polo Club in The Plains, Virginia Oct. 2-4.

Five String Farm (Lindsay Morris, Jessica Schmidt, Cindy Haley) crushed Work to Ride (Emmie Golkosky, Shariah Harris, Megan West), 20-5, in the semifinal. The writing was on the wall in the first seven minutes when Five String pounded in goal after goal, amassing 12 before the chukker ended. Work to Ride teammates each scored one, ending the chukker, 12-3. Halle scored four times in the second, while Work to Ride was shut down, ending the half leading 16-3.

Cindy Halle, riding tournament Best Playing Pony Daisy, gets the hook on Shariah Harris in the semifinal.

Work to Ride kept their heads down and kept working. Halle and Schmidt tallied early in the third before Work to Ride stopped them in their tracks and managed to put two goals on the board. Halle continued the pressure, tallying two more before the matched ended.

The other semifinal was another battle between unevenly matched teams. Bad Ass Polo (Tori Picha, Posey Obrecht, Anna Palacios) faced Guapos (Marisa Bianchi, Maria Ottonello, Ruth Witmer). Bad Ass struck fast and furiously, scoring six times, including a two-pointer off the mallet of Palacios, in a matter of minutes. Biancbi put Guapos on the board to get in the game. Palacios single-handedly tallied four unanswered goals in the second, ending the half, 11-1.

Palacios increased the lead by three in the third. Guapos came alive in the last period with Bianchi converting two penalties then pounding in a twopointer, but the damage was done. Palacios added one more for good measure, ending the match with Bad Ass Polo ahead, 15-5.

The final was a tighter, well-matched affair as the powerhouse Five String Farm took on Bad Ass Polo.

Halle would be facing two former students—Obrecht and Palacios—while playing with Morris, another former student who is now a junior at Garrison Forest and plays on the interscholastic team.

Halle explained, “[Morris] started with me in fourth grade until eighth, and she’s been on varsity all three years of her upper school career. She’s an amazing athlete and could probably excel at any sport but she narrowed it down to polo.”

Palacios picked up the first goal, but Morris

Anna Palacios scored 15 goals in the final of the Women’s Arena Handicap.

Rebellis’ Kasey Morris Maggie Cooper and Anna Palacios won the Women’s Arena Handicap. John Gobin presents the $2,500 prize money. countered with a two-pointer. The two kept battling, ending the first knotted, 3-3. The teams traded barbs, finishing the half with Five String Farm ahead 6-5 after a pair of goals by Schmidt.

Schmidt carried the momentum into the second half, tallying back-to-back goals, while Bad Ass was kept silent. Trailing by three, 8-5, Bad Ass focused on a disciplined man-then-ball strategy. Palacios managed to make up the difference before Morris gave Five String back the lead. Obrecht reacted with three goals, putting Bad Ass ahead with time slipping away. Morris struck again, leveling the score at 11-all with her seventh goal, and forcing a penalty shootout to determine the winner.

“They came out in that fourth chukker kicking some butt and we were scrambling, but we got it back together,” said Halle.

Halle, who scored a dozen goals in the semis, found the target in the shootout, making it look as easy as strumming a banjo. The other players took their turns, none successfully, giving Five String Farm the win.

“No one wants to end a game in a shootout, but it happens. I was really happy because I switched to Estrella in the middle of the fourth chukker. She’s an absolute couch of a horse, so that made my job a little bit easier. It’s hard to do that under pressure and I just got lucky,” Halle explained. “This was one of those games where it could have gone either way but I think not being selfish on the field and trying to get the job done worked in our favor.”

Schmidtt, a former member of the University of Virginia intercollegiate team, was MVP. “I thought we played well as a team and made good passes and backshots,” she said. “We trusted each other to do our jobs and it paid off in the end. It was a lot of fun

Robin Sanchez presents a $2,500 Catena watch to Sportsmanship winner Whitney Ross.

Women’s Arena Open winner Five String’s Jessica Schmidt, Lindsay Morris and Cindy Halle with John Gobin

playing with friends who I played against in college, which made the experience even better.”

Daisy, a palomino mare owned by Doug Barnes and played by Halle, was Best Playing Pony. “Daisy was super handy and easy to hit off of but probably what I liked most about her is that she is one of those little horses that drops her shoulder into a bump and just keeps pushing,” said Halle. “I was able to get a lot of plays just because she would win the bump, but she was also very quick on the line changes.”

Guapo’s Maria Ottonello recieved the Sportsmanship Award and a $2,500 Catena Swiss Watch. “It’s a real honor to have been chosen for this award from the group of women,” Ottonello remarked.

USPA Women’s Arena Handicap

Four teams also competed in the USPA Women’s Arena Handicap, played the same weekend.

The semifinals had Rebellis (Maggie Cooper, Kasey Morris, Anna Palacios) topping Mystique Jewelers (Morgan Burner, Emmie Golkosky, Liz Mandros, Dominique Diroff), 16-8, and Belle Vodka (Victoria McGraw, Danielle Quinn, Jessica Schmidt) beat Twilight Polo (Caroline Chewning, Whitney Ross, Ali Stanley), 13-9.

Rebellis and Belle Vodka advanced to the final. Palacios quickly erased the three-goal handicap given to Belle Vodka. Schmidt traded goals with Cooper to end the first even, 4-4. Cooper and Morris held off the opponents, giving Palacios plenty of room to fire in five goals in a row. Schmidt tallied for Belle Vodka to end the half with Rebellis ahead, 9-5.

Rebellis controlled the second half, shutting out Belle Vodka while Palacios continued on her shooting spree. The team scored five goals in each of the third and fourth chukkers for the 19-5 win.

Palacios led all scorers with 15 goals on the afternoon. “They key to our success this weekend was playing selfless polo. Each player was willing to sacrifice themselves to create a scoring opportunity for the team,” Palacios said. “After taking a couple of chukkers to figure each other out in the semifinal, we were able to build on our strategy to come out with a win.”

Cooper was named MVP, Palacios’ Barfly was Best Playing Pony, and Whitney Ross received the Sportsmanship Award.

“I was thrilled for the chance to play with Kasey and Anna in this tournament,” said Cooper. “Despite not having played together before, I thought we really came together as a team today. Everyone was making smart plays, but also setting each other up well and using solid communication.”

Barfly, a 12-year-old bay Thoroughbred mare, came from Tom and Martha Gose earlier this year. “I had the opportunity to get to know Barfly when I worked for the Gose’s at Flying H Ranch Polo Club in 2016. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous about her ability to transition into arena polo, but she really came out and performed great this weekend. She has a ton of power, a huge bump and a lot of handle for her size,” Palacios said.

The winning team took home a check for $2,500, as well as trophies. •

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