Polocrosse Comes to Alaska and Hawaii

By Sally Batton with Lucretia Witte

Sally Batton is the Founder of Athletic Equestrian which includes the Athletic Equestrian League, Athletic Equestrian Clinics and the Athletic Equestrian Riding in College Podcasts. She was the Head Coach of the Dartmouth College Varsity Equestrian Team for 30 years and currently teaches clinics to Pony Clubs and community members in Alaska, Hawaii and all around the US. Her book The Athletic Equestrian will be published in January 2022.

The explosion of cheers at one end of the field told me that the first goal of the game had been scored. As the riders trotted back toward me, their happy chortles and congratulations mingled with the sound of seabirds and the lapping waves. We were in Homer, Alaska, putting together days’ worth of clinic work into our final game. The hoofprints of the horses left divots in the sand of the Homer Spit at low tide and the peaks of Mt. Redoubt and Mt. Augustine soared high over Kachemak Bay.

Here in Alaska, Polocrosse thrives, on the opposite side of the world from its beginnings in Australia. The sport, developed in 1938 by a horse-loving husband and wife in Sydney, has expanded most prominently to other Australian clubs, South Africa and the UK. Back in my college days at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, a group of students took their term abroad in Australia and returned home in love with the game, putting Painesville on the map as one of the first places Polocrosse was played in the US. Most of them lived in my dorm, and after witnessing their joy, daring and camaraderie in the game, I decided I had to bring it with me when I began my career teaching in the collegiate world.

Throughout my career I’ve taught mostly Hunter/ Jumper and Equitation and noticed that as I instructed riders on technique or body position that they ride with their heads, trying to remember and control every little thing. What I notice when I teach polocrosse is that it frees riders from the analytical approach. In polocrosse, I see riders who may have been a bit unsteady or a bit timid experience a total change of perspective. Sometimes it’s going from riding with two hands on the reins to one, other times it’s the laughter of their teammates that loosens them up. But time and time again I’ve seen a student get a racket in their hand and go galloping down the field with their focus on the ball and the movement of the team, all the self-consciousness and analytical riding gone out the window. Hand-eye coordination, motor skills, reaction speed all improve—it’s a whole-rider experience.

In the late 1980s I traveled to Australia to research the origins and rules of polocrosse for my book, Polocrosse: Australian Made, Internationally Played, the first book published on the sport. By then I was convinced that it’s enormously helpful for riders to be trained in disciplines besides their primary one, because it helps connect form and function. From my time playing all over the US, I also knew how much fun it could be. I also noticed that it had appeal to riders who loved horses but wanted something different from the precision of equitation or dressage or the individual competition of show jumping. Polocrosse appealed to families and thrill-seeking youth and I wanted to help its spread to other parts of the world.

An unexpected opportunity to do that came my way during my time as the head coach at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. A prospective student and her mother came to visit the farm and glimpsed some polocrosse photos while we chatted in my office. In 2013 I was invited for the first time to teach polocrosse clinics in Alaska, at the Jai Capilian Pony Club in Anchorage, the Kachemak Bay Pony Club in Homer, and the Redoubt Riders Pony Club in Kenai. As Melon Purcell, DC of the Homer Pony Club answered when I asked her “why Polocrosse?”: “IT'S FUN! The riders are enthusiastic for the new challenge; riding and using a racket to pass the ball or scoop it up off the ground. It works on riding skills, especially balance and change of direction. There has to be a lot of communication with the horse particularly with legs and seat as one tries to scoop the ball up with one's net. Passing to others uses teamwork skills and adds to that sense of camaraderie.”

Photo Credit: Olivia Yossa

But Alaska is not the only exotic place in the US where polocrosse has found a foothold. In Hawaii, the Na Lio Kai Pony Club on Oahu invited me to introduce the sport to their members. As in Alaska, the scenery is stunning. We play on a field right across the street from the beach, where the sea turtles are swimming and I will join them after my clinic. Tiare Watts, DC of Na Lio Kai, says she wanted to bring polocrosse to her club “to show riders the different sports that USPC offers and how fun and challenging they can be.” Watts added, “Learning polocrosse helped our members to be more organized and aware in their aids, reins and minds. It also helped them realize they needed their horses to be more responsive to their aids. And lastly they had a blast!”

Summer 2022 will be my ninth year teaching at the Pony Clubs of the Alaska Region, and kindling a love of polocrosse around the US has been a highlight of my career. Pony Clubs in the US have been instrumental in its spread—I remember how when new riders would arrive at Dartmouth they’d see pictures in my office and say, “I know what that is!” I still think it’s amazing that polocrosse has made it as far from Australia as Alaska and Hawaii, but just like those of us on “the mainland” or the “lower 48,” the Pony Clubs I had a chance to visit know a good sport when they meet it.

Sally Batton can be contacted for clinics at: athleticequestrian@gmail.com