The Clinics
The Virginia Polo PTF Summer Clinics are sponsored by the Polo Training Foundation (PTF); both organizations provide instructors to create a strong learning environment for the interscholastic players who travel from around the country (and some internationally) to hone their skills.
The Content
This year we enhanced the focus on health and fitness for the player and the ponies, to make sure each player had a strong foundation to build upon. Instructors led sessions on tack— the purpose of each piece, demonstrated how to adjust them properly, and how different bits function. These sessions were designed to ensure players were able to safely and efficiently tack up for games and prepared them not only for future intercollegiate competition, but also helped them to become better horse people. To this goal, we added an instructor to help the players strengthen their riding skills by utilizing their seats and legs more to communicate with the horse; these lessons were gratefully welcomed by the players who were eager to become better riders for polo.
The Instructors
This summer students benefitted from instruction by Julio Arellano, Jenny Schwartz, Robin Sanchez, Caroline Brockmann, Abbie Grant, and Miguel Torres with support from Jen McLeavey and Jenny Germroth. Together the lessons, game reviews, planned healthier meals and quality time spent on barn and tacking skills added up to create well-rounded 3 day clinics for these talented players.
The coached chukkers were fast and competitive, offering the players the opportunity to utilize the lessons they learned earlier in the day. Sportsmanship was evident, the players worked hard and played hard while their parents cheered them on from tailgates along the Beh House porch and arena rails.
The Support System
We’d like to thank all the parents who invested in their children’s polo by traveling to Charlottesville to participate in the clinics. And to thank the instructors and Polo Training Foundation for seamlessly collaborating to make these clinics so educational!
