SATURDAY 8TH OCTOBER 2011

We had a real treat today with a talk followed by a demonstration on Polocrosse. Polocrosse is a game that is a cross between Polo & Lacrosse played on horseback.

Jenny introduced our speaker Ashley, who besides being aPolocrosse player and a Barefoor Farrier, is also an ex Pony Clubber who has competed as a Junior in the Pony Club mounted Games, Show Jumping & Eventing and now plays in the ‘B’ grade Polocross League.

Ashley& his team came to the stables and while the horses were being warmed up, told the members a little bit about the game and how it is played also the pitch and its size. The width of the polocrosse pitch is actually wider than our Sand School so the riders had to show amazing control with both their aim and their riding skills.

After he had described how the game is played, he changed places with one of the other riders and with the 3rd team member acting as umpire, Ashley & his brother showed us some of the throws, catches & manouvers that are used when playing this game.



Afterwards it was the members turn to practice, without ponies I might add. They were shown how to catch the ball in the nets, throw the ball from the nets and also picking it up from the ground in the nets. The nets are fairly small approx 6” x 9” on a long handle. There is a lot of skill involved just being on the ground with throwing & catching into such a small area, so to do all of this while on a galloping horse, with sharp turns, stops & accelerations thrown together, balance & control come into play in a very big way.

All of the members had a lot of fun trying this out and trying to get them away to ride was a bit like pulling teeth, however we managed to get all the members riding at one time or another with many of them saying “can we go back & practice the polocrosse please”

We would like to say a very big thank you to Ashley & his Team for coming to give us such an informative and entertaining demonstration of Polocrosse.



For more details on this sport please go to www.polocrosse.org.uk or www.pcuk.org/disciplines/polocrosse

Riding was done on in the school for the 1st session followed by riding on the track in the following sessions due to the sand school being used for polocrosse.

The afternoon session was a little different as we didn’t have the demonstration. So we covered a wide range of subjects. The members took a bridle apart and then had to put it back together again. We did field maintenance, looked at poisonous plants, mucked out, cleaned & filled water buckets, rode, covered horse handling, grooming etc.

Everyone had such a good day and all were very attentive & hopefully some of what has been taught today will have stayed in their memory for future reference.