The Polo Girls

From left are Regionals-champion teammates Nora O’Neill, Lauren Rae, Kendall and Courtney Price.

When you think of polo in town, what likely pops to mind is the Houston Polo Club, that surprising patch of urban green bordered by the tangled trees of Memorial Park and roaring Interstate 10.

Also, we’re guessing, you envision women in lovely hats on the sidelines and men – athletic, confident, possibly privileged – in white britches, dwarfing their galloping ponies, bumping each other and whacking a ball in aggressive scrums down a large grass field.

Those pictures aren’t wrong. But they don’t tell the whole story, including the unlikely tale of four teenage girls who play in small arenas where the ball bounces off surrounding walls at crazy angles, and the action is concentrated and intense.

This spring, one Houston girls’ team, cobbled together from four different high schools, did something nobody expected. They won the Interscholastic Central Regionals, beating longtime powerhouse Indiana prep school Culver Academy, where polo is a varsity sport, and earning a trip to Connecticut for the Interscholastic Polo Nationals, where they placed third in the country.

“Words cannot describe how proud I feel of my team and everything we have accomplished together,” says Lauren Rae, a junior at The Kinkaid School and one of the team members, along with Episcopal High School senior Kendall Plank, St. Agnes Academy junior Nora O’Neill and Foster High sophomore Courtney Price, formerly of Memorial High.

“I’m passionate about horses, and that’s really what I love about the game itself,” says Kendall, the veteran team captain who will play polo for Texas A&M University this fall. “It combines a competitive team sport with this incredible animal, and the adrenaline rush you get when you’re out there is unparalleled.”

Like many players, Kendall started because she loved horses. She tried jumping lessons, but, attracted to the thrill and the team sport, switched to polo lessons with trainer Barlee Flanders at the Houston Polo Club.

In Interscholastic polo for high schoolers, as in Intercollegiate play for university students, you don’t always ride your own horses. You travel to the competing school’s arena and compete on donated horses from that school and the region. While there are some equine gems in the programs, there are also some tricky, challenging mounts, and riders must be able to handle all sorts.

Kendall Plank, who will play polo at Texas A&M University, served as the high school team’s captain.

This year’s Central Regionals were held here, but not at the Houston Polo Club. They were at the vast ERG Polo Complex in Brookshire, which also serves as the home field of the Texas A&M Polo Club. Most drivers of cars whizzing by on nearby I-10 don’t realize there are multiple full-size polo fields – each nine times bigger than a football field – just beyond sight, where mature trees from an old pecan plantation border scenic expanses of manicured grass.

It’s all very lovely and civilized – until you approach the covered arena surrounded by parked cars. Spilling out of it are raucous sounds: parents hollering from bleachers, the smack of a ball hitting a wooden wall, the nonstop throbbing of hooves and an amplified announcer’s tense play-by-play: “Busting clear of the pack! A shot on goal!”

Inside, the action is anything but ladylike. It’s hard-core. The reason for the riders’ helmets and horses’ protective boots becomes clear as mallets swoop in high-speed circles, and galloping ponies bump each other at high speed, then stop and “sit” on their haunches to turn and race the other way.

These lightweight ponies, most technically small horses, are among the most adaptable of equines, sensitive yet tough. Their manes are buzzed off (“roached”) and tails are braided up tight to stay out of the way.

Local instructor and player Mark Prinsloo says polo, like other team sports, is largely about anticipating each other’s moves. He thinks of it as field hockey on horses, except the defense is more like basketball, where you position yourself to block an established “line.” “You get next to the opposing player, shoulder to shoulder, and ride him off.”

Team member Nora says polo is like another favorite sport; soccer. But in this case you’re controlling the four legs of another creature with a mind of its own, plus swinging a stick after that elusive, rolling target.

“This sport is hard to play!” says Courtney, who recently met up with Kendall at the ERG arena to watch the national Intercollegiate finals between teams who had traveled from across the country. Courtney will take over Kendall’s spot as team captain of the girls’ high school team next season, and she already is anticipating next year’s Regionals.

During breaks in between “chukkers,” as periods of play are called, she eyes a band of little girls on a patch of grass outside the arena. On foot, the girls dash back and forth, chasing a ball and swinging “foot mallets.”

Recruits.