A neat little video produced by the United States Polo Association about getting involved in polo. Narrated by TV host, John Walsh, this video features polo players from many different backgrounds who are enjoying the thrill of polo!
Scott Weir interviews Rege Ludwig, the internationally known polo instructor and coach, about his “rider’s checklist.” Rege explains the importance of balance in polo and gives some tips on how to improve your balance — and consequently your polo game — while riding.
The “rematch” of Adolfo Cambiaso’s La Dolfina team and the Pieres’ Ellerstina team was just played this past Saturday in France and was filmed by several channels. I won’t spoil it for you here in case you haven’t heard the results yet, but I will say it was a great match to watch. The game was televised with English commentary and plenty of the more spectacular plays were replayed in slow motion — great for those of us interested in watching technique.
The full length match video is still available online at: http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?id=633584&db_oem_id=23000
Enjoy!
In this video, Christian demonstrates how to execute a nearside shot without crossing over the line of the ball, a common foul. He shows how to practice the shot with your horse so that its performance, as well as your own, will be consistent on game day. Another great video by Christian Moon demonstrating how sound horsemanship will lead to good striking in polo.
In this video, Christian plays on Tobacco, a horse he started in April 2009. Christian demonstrates the importance of acclimating the green horse to the mallet by continually taking practice swings, on both the nearside and offside of the horse, throughout the chukker. This reinforces to the horse that Christian won’t hurt it by swinging.
Additionally, Christian demonstrates stops, checks, and both right and left turns throughout the chukker. He emphasizes keeping a relaxed grip on the horse, keeping the horse balanced and on the proper lead, and using soft contact with the horses mouth via the reins.
In this video, Christian plays Hanalei in her 6th ever chukker. Hanalei’s balance is good enough that she is doing natural lead changes when necessary, but she’s not quite at the level of queued flying lead changes yet.
Christian talks about acclimating the green horse to other horses on the field, and the swinging mallets that come with them. He talks about introducing the ride-off and using the trot to help balance the horse by changing diagonals rather than being forced to balance the horse by changing leads at the canter.
And perhaps most important of all, Christian uses the chukker to help reinforce in Hanalei’s mind that he will not lead her into painful situations. When she accepts this, she will truly be able to start enjoying the game. Enjoy!
I imagine that most of the PoloGringo readers are already familiar with the website Polo.tv but in case you’re not, this is a fantastic free resource. Basically, Polo.tv is a collection of video clips from the various high-goal polo tournaments around the world. They have video of the Argentine Open, the US Open, the Coronation Cup, the Outback 40-goal, and many others. There is even some snow polo and test matches thrown in there.
All-in-all this is a great resource. It’s fun to watch and sometimes, if you’re like me, you can think about your own technique too much and get stuck in a rut. It’s nice to watch 10-goalers for inspiration and ideas — especially when you have the ability to rewind and watch a specific play a few times. Enjoy!
In this, the sixth video in the Schooling a Green Horse for Polo series, Hanalei plays in her first chukker! In a very few weeks from her first introduction to a saddle, Hanalei has made great progress.
Notice that Christian takes care to keep the intensity and stress low and allows Hanalei to enjoy running with the other horses. He does not attempt any ride-offs or rollbacks, no sliding stops or sharp turns and he keeps Hanalei at a trot or hand-canter at most. Christian’s care will allow Hanalei to develop a positive experience of the game and to look at polo as something fun rather than a burden, or worse yet, something to fear.
In this 5th installment of the Schooling a Green Horse for Polo series, Christian works with Hanalei on her stops. This is perhaps the 10 to 14th time she has been ridden.
Christian discusses the importance of recognizing problems quickly and addressing them immediately lest you unwittingly reinforce undesirable behaviors. Hanalei has begun to halt from voice command alone now: “Whoa, whoa, whoa” and she is beginning to understand directions from the leg. We see Christian and Hanalei work on halting from the walk, trot, and canter in this video as well.
This is the fourth video in the Schooling a Green Horse for Polo series. In this video, Christian rides Hanalei for the 5th time (or 6th or 7th time, but who’s counting). He talks about “playing” with problem areas to get the horse to more easily accept tack and commands, preparing the horse for the roll-back maneuver and continuing to practice halting.
Later, Christian discusses the advantages of walk and trot work vs the canter, leading off with a turn after a halt attempt to keep the horse’s attention, and overcoming rein interference at the canter (a distraction that could be keeping the horse from moving forward properly).
And finally, we get a look at familiarizing the horse to the big hand movements she can expect from polo.
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