Southampton Polo
The sport of polo has often been called The Game of Kings. Polo offers everything that attracts people to any high intensity sport and it does so all at once: speed, danger, excitement, glamour, camaraderie, team work, strategic thinking, and interaction with wonderful athletes (both the horses and the riders). Nowhere else can you get all that in one activity.
Located in Water Mill, New York, the Southampton Polo Club has existed since 1989, and is now one of the largest polo clubs in America. Founded by Laura Newcomb and Frank MacNamara, the club has 120 stalls for horses, and, by the most recent count, 65 members. Frank and Laura’s goal has always been to make it easy for people to get into polo; therefore, the club offers a structured program that allows beginners to ease into the sport gradually as their abilities and finances permit. In the first year or two of taking up the sport beginners can rent or lease one or two ponies so the cost is modest, $15,000 to $20,000 per season. After that, if they choose, they can advance into the intermediate level with three or four horses, bought or leased. Costs then are in the range of $40,000 to $60,000 per annum. After that, it’s on to the advanced level.
At Southampton Polo Club people are welcome to play at whatever level they are comfortable. Some people have only two horses and play only at the intermediate level. There are others with 30 horses, trucks, trailers, grooms, and all the equipment. The club has both amateurs and pros, with a core belief of SPHC being that it should be easy for people to ease into the sport at their own pace.
Women are increasingly becoming involved in the sport of polo and the Southampton Polo Club currently has nine female players, with the current trend being for more women than men to join the Club’s beginners program.
Learn more about the Southampton Polo Club by visiting their website at http://www.southamptonpolo.com