POLOCROSSE BY ELLIE MITCHELL

I started at Herts hunt about 4 years ago after moving from Flamstead pony club. I cant remember what got me interested in Polocrosse. But I hadn't heard of it until around 9 months ago, also I didn't know that Harriet Price, Izzie Price, Abbie Ward, Phoebe Ward and Debbie Daniels played polocrosse. I think I started playing in May and I had been to a few on foot practice sessions before that, because I saw it on a pony club event planner. These were organised by Deirdre Glover who is a pony club Polocrosse representative. In my first try at Polocrosse we started with getting our horses going fast and stopping quickly; so to go, you put your heels in and lean forward, and to stop you sit deep and back with your heels out. Also I found out you neck rein, which is where your horse moves away from the rein on his/her neck. Quite different from the normal English riding style.

Now we usually practice at Neil Smith's Polocrosse club, called Vale Impi, which is near Aylesbury. We organise practices between ourselves at Neil's and sometimes people leave their horse at Neil's overnight. When we practise we have to put bandages and overreach boots on all four of the horse's legs for protection. We also practise at home, where you can use a wall to practise catching on foot. You can also practise with another person on foot and you on a horse throwing and catching and moving about to catch in different positions.

After all the practices and practising at home, we were off to the Pony Club Polocrosse Championships, which were held in Derbyshire. Normally you would get to the Championships through Areas, but there is no one else in our Area to compete against so we go to go straight to the Championships. There were people from all round the United Kingdom, including Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We got to the Championships the evening before our first match on Saturday. We set up camp and penned our horses. We were camping on a stubble field which was very flat and stony and the horses were on a grass field next to us.

You have six people in a team and three people play at one time. Our junior team was made up of Phoebe Ward, myself, and Charlotte Slater from Moorfield Riding Centre. In our senior team were Harriet Price, Debbie Daniels, and Abbie Ward.

On our first morning we had tack and turnout, which was an interesting event because my stirrup leathers had to be changed because the stitching needed repair, Phoebe's stirrups weren't big enough so had to be changed, and Charlotte's saddle apparently didn't fit properly but she luckily managed to get a gel pad to lift the saddle to fit better.

In our first match we won as our senior team was awesome and scored some really good goals. In our second match of the day we weren't so lucky and lost, but we only had two players in our senior team because Harriet's horse had to be withdrawn.

We were also joined that day by Katie and Carol Bennitt as Katie was competing in the dressage.

In the evening we had a BBQ in my wheelbarrow as we were on a stubble field and couldn't exactly put it on the floor! Amanda had brought some prepared food which was lovely and Anne Ward bought chips from the shop in the top field. The other refreshments were good too! There was a BBQ and disco provided, so Kat Daniels drove us up to the top field where it was supposed to be. We found the disco, which was rather a non- event, but we couldn't see a BBQ anywhere. While we were up there we sat where the disco was and Phoebe gave us an amazing rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, accompanied by Cecilia Price. They were awesome! Also, on the drive to and from the 'disco' Phoebe, Cecilia, and I were singing Queen 'Don't stop me now' at the top of our lungs – in fact it was more like shouting, and we got a few stares as if we were mad! I think we all slept rather soundly that night.

The next morning we luckily didn't have to worry about tack and turnout. Even more luckily, Harriet managed to borrow another good horse and we were back on track. Our first match was against North Warwickshire who had been together for ages and were really experienced. Although we lost, we got the best score anyone had got against them all that weekend, thanks to Harriet's goal-scoring ability.

In the afternoon we had the playoff match for third place against Cheshire Hunt North, who we had played on Saturday. It was a really tough match but we won!

At the end of the day we had the prize-giving and we got the Malden Trophy for coming third and a T-shirt from the sponsors.

Phoebe Ward was riding Sam (Price), Charlotte Slater was riding Cindy, I was riding Doogle, Abbie Ward was riding Opal, Harriet Price was riding Mango, and Debbie Daniels was riding Quest.

We were really pleased with the weekend and looking forward to doing it next year.

By Ellie Mitchell