A Typical Week in the Virginia Polo Club
What do we mean by “sweat equity”?
The mission of the Virginia Polo Club is to make polo accessible to students by keeping dues and expenses low for the players. The generous financial & equipment donations from alumni, parents, and friends of the program enable us to pay the bills on the herd of ponies, maintain and improve our facility, and pay the management staff.
The sweat-equity component to club membership enables members to learn about the horsemanship side of polo, from feeding & mucking to basic veterinary care. At the beginning of each semester the Club President coordinates student sign-ups for their feeding and mucking shifts for that semester. Each morning student members arrive on their chosen days to bring the horses in from pasture. They feed, inspect legs and observe the horses for soundness as they come into their stalls. The horses are then fed and watered again around noon.
Each day (excluding Mondays) club members arrive for the afternoon to work horses, in sets, chukkers, or stick and ball, depending upon the day. Each team, Men's Team, Women's Team, and the Club players have two scheduled practices a week. Members have the ability to come out and ride daily, signing up for ponies and chukkers. As each chukker ends horses are untacked, washed and then turned out for the night. At the end of practice the members clean tack, hay and water the barn and clean stalls.
For 10 Saturday mornings each semester we offer Polo Boot Camp for UVA, Piedmont Virginia Community College students, and high school riders interested in learning the game. Boot Camp is offered both Spring and Fall semester to teach the game to potential club members. Club members organize the program and help Assistant Coach Abbie Grant instruct, teaching the basics of polo and polo style riding to the new players.
To serve the local polo community, Virginia Polo offers a program for high school students, the Virginia Juniors, during the academic year with practices on Wednesdays. The team competes against other interscholastic teams under the coaching of Abbie Grant.
All of this takes tremendous coordination and effort from the Virginia Polo Club members as they each take responsibility for a different parts of the operation and develop valuable life skills of dedication, responsibility and leadership along the way. We strive to not only improve their polo skills, but also their horsemanship and teamwork in this comprehensive horse program.
