Hello Saratoga horse and pony friends (and other friends who know nothing about horses but still feel obliged to read this blog), I hope you all have some wonderful plans for this upcoming holiday weekend. I personally will be somewhere in the middle of the country, relaxing by a lovely little private pond watching the minis and an energetic chocolate lab run around like maniacs. I will NOT be thinking about the Belmont, not just yet, since I am still annoyed at myself for once again not picking the winner of the Preakness, but more on that later. This post is dedicated to a new friend I met over at Surya this week, Richard Prather. Richard is the new club manager and I got the chance to meet him on Monday when I dragged the minis and La Nina over there with me to chat with him while he taught some lessons. It seemed like the first day it hadn't rained in ages and I was glad to put down my blueprint for a potential ark to take the short trip over there. Surya is well into the swing of things over there now, the new pavilion over on the spectator side of the field is almost done and looking absolutely fantastic, and there were three students taking lessons the day I was there.
This is Richard's first year with Surya, and he comes to the club from the program I have mentioned earlier, the Philadelphia based Work to Ride program. Richard joined the program a year after its inception, in 1995, and became a member of the first all African American team to compete in Interscholastic Polo in America. I asked Richard what drew him to the polo part of the Work to Ride program and he explained that polo had a different feel to it, the teamwork, the fast pace, the more aggressive aspect of bumping people off the line and charging at the ball, that the other parts lacked. It was something I felt too when I first started taking lessons, being part of a team is not something you really have when doing horse shows, it's you against the other riders, but in polo it is of course an essential element. That teamwork element will definitely be present at Surya this season, since as I mentioned in a previous post, Richard's friend and teammate Kareem Rosser will also be part of Surya this summer. You can watch an interview with Richard and Kareem's brother Daymar, also a part of Work to Ride, on Fox LA,
here.
As I kept one eye on the minis romping gloriously through the biggest field of dandelions they had ever seen I watched Richard teaching the lessons and thought what a great fit Richard and Kareem and Surya are. Having young, energetic and enthusiastic players helping to grow this young club seems like a match made in horse heaven. Richard is off to Nigeria this week, one of many trips he has taken there to play polo, and I can't wait to hear all about it when I go back to Surya to take a lesson after vacation.
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