Spotlight on horses at polo's 'hub'

Opening day of polo season brings many things, most of them involving well-dressed people, champagne and crackers.

That’s my way of saying polo is a good time. When I went last year, I focused on that aspect of the sport. For this year’s Sarasota Polo Club opening day, on Jan. 7, I decided to focus my attention on the athletes themselves, because if you’re making a day of polo, you might as well know what goes into the preparation.

Oh, by the way, by “athletes,” I mean the horses.

Not just any horse is suited to play polo, and even the horses that are take years to learn the sport and become capable of competing with their elite counterparts. Hunter Jelsch both plays polo and is responsible for getting his horses ready to go. He currently lives in Ocala but called Lakewood Ranch his “hub” for polo activities. Before the match on Jan. 7 began, Jelsch had his six horses set up around his silver trailer, including Storm, a silver mare, and Bugatti, a brown mare. 

Jelsch’s horses are retired racing horses, so he doesn’t have to increase their speed. Polo is the horse's version of golf, he said, in that it the athletes can compete at some level of the sport for a long time (up to 20 years old, approximately). Also like golf, polo seems simple but is hard for horses to master.

“You start off showing them the communications of polo,” Jelsch said. “When you move a direction with your body the horse should react to that and remain in balance. Once the horse feels how to go left, right, stop and forward, you’ve introduced it to the game.”

After that, Jelsch said, horses grasp the game quickly — and astonishingly well. Properly-trained steeds will follow the trail of play on their own, and some even naturally start bumping other horses off the ball. On a few occasions, Jelsch has had horses check down, or stop, after a shot has reversed the flow of play, without Jelsch having signaled to them to do so.

Like humans, horses have emotions, and trainers have to deal with them. When horses do something wrong, they get more attention, and that leads to more energy, Jelsch said. That might sound like a benefit, but it’s not. Jelsch wants calm horses that listen to instruction and won’t get rattled by the commotion of a polo match.

So what’s the secret?

“Little victories every day,” Jelsch said. “Finding the right note to end on every day. When a horse does something right, they feel strong. It’s also about what you don’t do and the space you give them to be the be natural animal that they are that builds confidence.”

I know it’s tough to focus on the match itself when surrounded by booze, snacks and friends, but next time you’re at the club, take a second to admire the work the horses and their riders are doing. It’s the culmination of years of precise training, and it deserves some fanfare.

Then, by all means, get back to — dare I say it — horsing around.