How to Hold a Polo Mallet

It is important for new riders to know the fundamentals. Holding the mallet the proper way is important as it will impact your place, control and mastery of the ball during play. This video will give you the basics. Each time you go to practice ensure your mallet is set properly before playing. Eventually it will become second nature and you won't need to think about it. 

Moving Your Horse from Trail Riding to Polo Player

Bella is a beautiful half Arabian and American quarter horse that has power and intelligence unmatched in the area. She wasn't an easy horse to deal with. As a rescue that was almost starved to death by a son who inherited the family farm she wasn't expected to amount to much. Worse than the depletion of health at the time of rescue she was jumpy from abuse and even after extensive training she was still jump. So jumpy that the first owners returned her to the trainer because it was "too much horse". Yet Bella has survived and overcome her challenges and is now moving from the trail into polo riding. 

Its a different sort of expectation being a polo horse. In trail riding you want them to be desensitized so they don't bolt when they see things they don't like and polo horse must be further trained to move quick, have stamina, bump other horses and do things that a normal horse would never be expected to do!

While she is in the beginning of her training she has learned to move with a one handed rein, not be afraid of the polo mallet, and can take off on prompt. Easy to handle and pays attention to your slightest cue making moving during a polo game much more effective. Here are a few things I worked on with her. 

Desensitized: Continuous riding and making lots of noise around her until she calms down. 

Bite and Cue Training: Training her on subtle cues from body, bit, arm and legs that help her be responsive. 

Dominance Training: Winning her trust and then taking the dominant position with her by using firm commands with nice rewards. 

Consistency: Having other people ride her to allow her to become giving to many different mixed signals and to lower her nervousness. 

A Quality Day Trainer: Hired someone to day train her and ride here consistently in different environments to prepare her for more complex commands. 

She has more to go but is able to play polo at the walk and trot. Our next steps are to move to canter and then gallop. 

Polo Cocktails from the Pony Bar at Greenwich Polo Club

Most of the time we spend our time thinking about how to play polo but sometimes we are in the stands watching how the game unfolds.  People come for the lively atmosphere and because they enjoy the company of other polo enthusiasts. Refreshments are part of the experience. This video offers some cocktail suggestions from the Pony Bar at the Greenwich Polo Club. Enjoy!

Solid Video on Polo Basics

It is important for polo players to learn the basics and stay with the fundamentals. We may get better but you always want to check in on the basics as best you can. I found this short video and it has a lot of information you may want to review. If your new to the game this is definitely one you want to watch!

Supporting Orphans with Corporate Profits: Harness the Power of Your Network

We have a responsibility towards children in the world. Without a proper upbringing they will not grow to be healthy world citizens with a positive outlook on life. World poverty is a major issue but it is mixed with all the other issues that compete for our attention. I have a small mallet company called Escanaba Polo Mallet Co and I donate some of the profits to orphans, child enrichment and horse rescue. It is a little of a pipe dream but we hope to grow the company bigger and then sponsor an entire orphanage and supply the intellectual university talent to help these kids get the the best primary and then higher education possible to perhaps train them as managers at American companies in Mexico (or something like that). Just more of a direction among many to start walking but we will see what happens in the twist and turns of business and life.  If you like whats going on then get involved. 

HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR NETWORK YOU NEVER KNOW WHO IS WILLING TO CONTRIBUTE UNLESS YOU ASK! The Coronavirus pandemic has significantly impacted our ability to hold in-person fundraisers and orphanage trips, which have been our primary means for fundraising. Thankfully, peer-to-peer online fundraising is an easy way to provide our extended networks with the opportunity to support the children and ensure that they do not go without!   Join our peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, it only takes a few minutes to create a fundraising page and share it with your network by email or social media! We are grateful to those that have created their fundraising pages and have started fundraising teams and everyone that has donated to this campaign! Your support and participation will help us ensure that hundreds of orphaned and abandoned children in Baja have food on their table, educational opportunities and a place to call home — because the only thing a child should worry about is being a child! CREATE CAMPAIGN HERE

Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. Supports Awareness and Enrichment of Gifted Children-Lost National Treasures

This article was written as a support to gifted children. Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. donates some of its profits to orphans, child enrichment programs, and rescue horses. We would like to support more the awareness of gifted children and human potentiality but because of our size we have limited capacity but we can raise awareness of their plight. The article.....

A new study indicates that 3.6 million students in the U.S. should be labeled gifted but are not and that is leaving the country's future intellectual and artistic capital untapped. A study by Purdue indicates that many gifted students are not receiving the services they need to excel (Gray, et.al. 2019). Better programs and research might help identify beyond the smart to the truly gifted that are capable of excelling to advanced levels. One must wonder what waste in exceptional human capital we are throwing into the piles of unfulfilled contributions to our national development?

The concept of giftedness is masked in mystery for the average person and often associated with madness, eccentric, and super intelligent. The U.S. does not do well in protecting this exceptional population but has become increasingly concerned that we are losing out on high talent for global competitiveness. We ignore their needs at our own peril.

Lets first discuss two definitions of giftedness taken from the study...

The U.S. Dept. of Education's definition....

Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential forperforming at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared withothers of their age, experience, or environment. These children and youth exhibithigh performance capability in intellectual, creative, and/or artistic areas, posean unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields. They requireservices or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools.Outstanding talentsare present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economicstrata, and in all areas of human endeavor[emphasis added]. (U.S. Department of Education [USDOE], 19, p. 11).

Let's get rid of the concept of child and youth. While that applies to school definitions it doesn't apply to the entire life cycle. Certainly one can be gifted and 90, probably with mountains of insight and knowledge, but they would still be gifted despite not ever having formal education. Yet, finding them in youth allows for the best capitalization for long-term contribution to society. Since most of our kids go to school that is likely the best place to find them (i.e. the Internet might be another).

Next let us look at the National Association for Gifted Children's definition.....

Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude(defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (documentedperformance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more domains.Domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol system (e.g.,mathematics, music, language) and/or set of sensorimotor skills (e.g., painting,dance, sports). (National Association for Gifted Children, 2000para. 5

It appears that there may be two major problems with the selection of giftedness as it relates to improper referrals and lack of culturally neutral biological markers. Thus, policy makers may be unsure of what it means to be gifted and the biological and psychological indicators that separated the gifted from the non-gifted but smart. Wrong referrals of wealthy schools and privileged backgrounds may be sucking the resources needed for gifted students.

Gifted people often process information differently which doesn't always translate into high grades. For example, straight A student may not be any more gifted than a C student. Straight A students give the answers they have learned from their books and teachers. The do really really well at memorizing and using information that has already been presented. A C student may be more gifted if he/she constructs new information that moves beyond the knowledge presented in the course but consistently under-performs. They may also be drawing information from multiple sources in life and reconstructing new understanding of basic class concepts.

So there are intelligence and performance variables that may not be in alignment. Typically gifted may or may not outperform others but carry with them the potential regardless of actual performance. When groomed they can outperform just about anything you have seen before and may be able to construct new knowledge beyond what science (or their class) has offered. That is one reason Einstein was a gifted genius...he sucked at school but excelled at new associations (The same can be said for Newton, Socrates, Leonardo, and others.)

So many teachers are giving wealthy students with nagging parents referrals to gifted programs because all of the family examples, tutors, happy shinny faces, hours spent studying, and encouragement leads to an A. While the rich may also have gifted children the poor gifted student sometimes comes from the hell of poverty, abuse, lack of role models, little quiet studying time and still performs at an exceptional level when the environment is right.

Giftedness is also a quantitative and qualitative difference in existence that themes throughout a persons life-cycle because of innate biological differences. They feel, think, perceive, understand and work in ways that others don't. They feel pain when people do bad things, and they see colors in ways that others may not see them. Senses can be higher and they may delve into the deep moral questions of life. Some can paint, some do music, and some solve math problems while others maybe able to pull data from their environment and build constantly updating models. Their biological development creates sensory depth that processes information it in different ways that leads to intuitive insight.

As a nation we should have a better understanding what giftedness is and what it isn't so as to develop to its full potential. Let's not confuse enrichment of the smart and the enrichment of the gifted as the same thing. Each species has a percentage of highly tuned offspring as a natural result of adaptation to their environment. They are like the small percentage of birds that can see an approaching fox way before the other birds or the chimpanzee that learns a new tool in a new way without an example. So we cannot develop gifted programs from intelligence tests and academic learning alone. There are other markers that should be considered so as to ensure that certain races and backgrounds are not excluded by ethnocentric sociocultural demographic blindness. We need better studies and more accurate measurements to develop our national treasures in science, art, music and technology. Genius and the tragic gift are most likely to be developed when the right environment is created.

I'm not delving into the ethical and moral implications of leaving the gifted to the wolves of conformity and self-seeking caretakers. I'm talking about finding our gifted, albeit a much smaller number than the "smart", and developing them in a way that leads to their personal self-fulfillment and national growth. As a nation, we are now competing with a world where information, data, and performance will be significant influences of national growth. Without selecting those with the best potential to master that environment and advance our society, capitalism and philosophies of freedom we will be limiting not only their potential but also the potential of the nation. We need their skills and abilities to invent, think and create in ways that advance our society to new heights.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. -Ernst. F. Schumacher

Gray, et. al. (2019) Gifted Education in the United States:Laws, Access, Equity, and Missingness Across the Countryby Locale, Title I School Status, and Race. Purdue University. https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lxzznnyh5u0jj1/Access%20Denied.pdf?_ga=2.150928054.1010582410.1595379513-1542347822.1595379513

It should be noted that Escanaba Polo Mallet Company is a good works company that supports orphans, horses in need and child enrichment programs. We are a small start-up with lofty goals. Please visit us and share at https://www.escanabapolomallet.com/

Arizona Polo Club and Polo Cares, Inc.-Sponsors Help

Being involved in polo is a great and fun way to spend time understanding the sport. Sponsors help keep the game alive by helping to augment expenses. Players still pay a significant investment but any contribution is helpful. If you own a business and want to help sponsor Polo and foster the game you can find more information about their Sponsors HERE. It includes companies like Red Bull, Shepler and Mayo Aviation.

Arizona Polo Club and Polo Cares, Inc

Polo Cares Inc is a non-profit amateur polo club dedicated teaching and promoting not only the sport of polo, but equine health and wellness. The welfare of our horses and players is paramount. Our vision is that all people in the valley have access to viewing and learning about polo and horses. Polo Cares long term project is for APC to have its own field, arena, and club house in order to develop the philanthropic roots that the club is seeding now.

This is their Facebook Page

Their website is ...http://arizonapolo.com