South Island SUPA Polo Tournaments

First of all I want to apologize for not uploading blogposts as regularly anymore. I guess it is just because am I quite busy with school and free time activities but also because of the fact that I want to make the best out of the time that I have got left in this stunning country. Experience as much as I can and do things that I love doing such as Polo which this blogpost will actually be about.

As I already mentioned in previous blogposts, I have been playing Polo for about the last seven months. I have never been more passionate about a sport before. I think for me it's the combination of horse riding, a ball game and team sport, which I find perfect. It is just so much fun in general!

It all started off with a couple of polo lessons last year in October that the school organized for us international students at the polo place called Waireka in Sefton. To be honest, I struggled in the beginning and I didn´t enjoy my first lesson at all.  I just didn`t feel comfortable, as everything was so different from what I was used to: the tack, riding with the reins in one hand and having a mallet in the other hand. I really struggled keeping my balance and I even thought about quitting after the first couple of lessons. Now I am so glad that I continued, because soon everything started to become easier and when we started to hit our first couple of balls, I really began to find interest in the sport and to have fun.

Unfortunately, we didn´t get to have a lot of lessons, because we had our international programme in the end of term 4 and polo also was cancelled quite often because of bad weather. Then the long summer holidays started and with that polo through the school stopped until next year. I found it really sad that it had already stopped and because I wanted to continue playing in the summer holidays, I did some research in the internet and found that there is another Polo place even closer to me. I contacted them and soon after I started playing at Blue Springs, which I have already mentioned in previous blogposts. Since then, which was in the beginning of December, I have been playing Polo two times a week and just had so much fun while I was progressing my play.

When school started again in the beginning of February, Polo through school started again, which meant that I had an additional lesson to my two lessons a week at Blue Springs. I had already known that there will be tournaments in the end of the month and in the end of March, which I was super excited about and was the reason why I was practicing a lot.

Cleo

The first South Island SUPA Polo ( = South Island Schools & Universities Polo Association) tournament was on Sunday the 28th of February. A friend and I got dropped off at Blue Springs early in the morning to get all the polo ponies in from their paddocks and get them all ready for the tournament. After that we loaded all the gear and about eight horses in the truck. Luckily I got to sit in the truck while we were driving to Waireka, were I had Polo through school, which was a cool experience! When we arrived, all the horses got unloaded and bandages were put on their legs as well as their tails got put up with tape, to make sure it doesn`t come out. We got the schedule for the day and because we were all playing in different teams and grades, everybody had to remember when they are supposed to be out on the field. The chukkas (a seven and a half minute game) at the SUPA tournament are divided into A,B,C,D and E Grade, with A Grade being the Grade for more advanced players, E Grade for beginners and so on. Because it was my first ever Polo tournament, I was playing in E Grade that day together with three other people for the Rangiora High School B team. Our school had two teams; the Rangiora A team who was playing in C Grade and Rangiora B in E Grade which was my team. The tournament started at 9:30 in the morning and while I had to wait for my first chukka, I got Cleo, the horse that I was riding this day, all tacked up and ready. No sooner than that I got my team shirt with the number 1, that I had this tournament, grabbed a mallet and whip and got on the horse. I went out to the side of the field with the other players from my team to warm us and our horses up and to do some quick Stick`n`Balling before we already went out on the field. We cantered to the middle of the field, were we lined up, facing the players of the other team. We put our mallets down and with the referee rolling the ball into the middle, the game started. For this first chukka, we tried everything to get the ball into the goal and even won at the end of this first chukka. My team was super happy and an amazing feeling to win the first ever tournament chukka. I brought Cleo back in and while I was waiting for our other chukkas, I took a lot of pictures of the other players, especially the other Rangiora High team. The weather was also great for the tournament, even though the field was a bit slippery in the morning but as soon as the sun came on the field it was fine for the day.

We also won our second chukka, which meant that we only had to win the last chukka become first in our grade. The last chukka wasn`t easy and probably didn`t have as much energy anymore as in the beginning but we still managed to score one goal! I was really happy when the bell rang, because I knew we won but then all of a sudden, we had to have a run down. There must have been miscommunication between the referees, as they didn`t count our goal. That means that we had to have a run down, because in the chukka we didn`t have a winner. A run down is when the teams have to bring the ball from one side  of the field all the way down to the other side. The team that is the fastest, wins the chukka. So my team lined up on the line and I went first to hit the ball. I had hit the ball about two or three times, when I didn`t hit the ball properly and I couldn’t reach it anymore. My team backed me up and I rode a circle and to the back. Soon I had the ball again, because the others missed the ball. I was cantering down the field, and saw new that we could win if I don`t mess the last part up. I tried to stay very concentrated, hit the ball and heard the people from the end of the field cheering me on and I managed to get the ball over the line before the other team did. I was just so happy and couldn`t believe what just happened. The others from my school were already waiting for us, congratulation us to our win.

After all the grades had their finals, we had prize giving and everybody in my team got a box of chocolates and another girl got even more chocolate because she got MVP, which is Most Valuable Player. Everybody that participated in the SUPA tournaments, got a hat, too, which I was even more happy about than the chocolates.

After the prize giving, we loaded all the tack and the horses in the truck and went back to Blue Springs. There we put the horses back in their paddocks and the tack back in the tack room. I was very happy and had an amazing day! This experience was just awesome and it will be a day to remember.

The following pictures are from the run down:

And some pictures that somebody else took of me:

The second SUPA tournament was one month later on the day just after Easter on Tuesday the 29th of March. It was supposed to be on the Easter Sunday, but a lot of people didn`t have time on that day, like me because my host family and I were in Cromwell for the weekend. Because the public holiday was on the weekend, it got moved to the Monday. All the schools had an extra free day on the Tuesday and that`s why it was moved to this day.

The schedule of the day was pretty similar to the first tournament. We arrived at Blue Springs in the morning, got everything ready and drove to Sefton. This tournament I was playing in C Grade for the Rangiora High A team. I got to ride Cleo again and this time got to play number 2. The numbers don`t actually mean anything for us in the level that we are playing polo. They have got more meaning to more experienced polo players.

This tournament didn`t go as good as the last one, but it was still so much fun and a great experience! We lost the first chukka, won the second one and unfortunately lost the run down in the last chukka. Over all we became fourth in our Grade.

 

 

I thought it was time to write another blogpost in English, as my previous one was from last year and it is nice for me to see how I have improved since then. But it is also because I have got to know a lot of people through polo, especially through Blue Springs, and I thought it might be interesting for them to read, too, without having to read the bad translation from Google Translator. My next blogposts will be in German again though.

This is one of the most meaningful blogposts for me, as polo has impacted a lot on my whole exchange experience in its very own special way. I am grateful that I got to know so many nice people, if it`s though the High School Polo or Polo at Blue Springs, I am lucky that I had these great experiences and lifetime memories. A very special thanks to my Polo teacher at Blue Springs that had taught me so much in the last couple of months, kept me motivated and always made it possible for me to come out to Blue Springs!

Annika