by Annie Eitman

Created on: July 30, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2009

We were playing a polo tournament at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. It was arena polo, similar to hockey in that it's a physical team game played off the walls, and similar to rodeo in that it's rough, fast fun in a dirt arena. This is by far my favorite sport, and my favorite horsey pastime. While grass polo has been weighted down with the stereotypical "snob" factor most people immediately think of Prince Charles, pompous accents, and pinky fingers crooked high above fancy drinks, arena polo is the furthest thing from it. Imagine cowboys playing hockey on horseback and you get a better idea of the atmosphere.

The other team's fans were booing me. I took it as a compliment - they considered me a threat, and I had scored on them already, taking the ball all the way down the wall right in front of a hissing crowd.

One of my horses, Superiora, was and is to this day the fastest thing I have ever ridden. A gorgeous chestnut quarter horse, "Supie" resembled a rubber band that was constantly wound very tightly. The key to riding Supie was carefully unwinding the rubber band without getting "snapped" in the process.

When I first saw her, she was out in an arena practicing incredibly fast rollbacks. All by herself. She seemed to love the speed and quick stops, spinning and spraying dirt everywhere on her handy turns. She reminded me of a champion skier on a slalom run, whooshing through turns in one smooth move.

I taught her barrels, which she loved, to the point that as we flew out of the arena after our turn, she'd do a rollback in an attempt to go back and do it again. The lateral "g" forces as she whipped around the barrels made me physically nauseous. I'd dismount and not be able to stand. Anyway, she was intense and I got her cheap because most people were afraid of her abilities.

Near the end of this particular tournament, I took a shot at the goal and missed. However, the ball bounced off the wall and I was able to spin around on Supie and attempt a near-side back shot. For this type of shot, you lean your right hand and mallet way up and out over your left side, across your body, and swing down and back over the left side of your horse, sending the ball flying back behind you. Horses naturally don't like having big sticks raised high over their heads, but good polo ponies tolerate it because they know something exciting is about to happen.

And of course something exciting did happen. The ball bumped a dirt clod, I missed my shot completely and hooked my mallet

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