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hurlinghampolo.com
TA L K
My father, Steve Gose, was born and raised in
Wichita Falls in Texas, but his lifelong love for
horses and polo gained steam in San Antonio
upon his marriage to my mother in 1950, and
his polo career took off in the early 60s. His
nearest polo-playing pals were Harold and
young Joe Barry, who ranched upstate near
Truscott, some 600km north. Plenty of horse
trading went on between those three, as well
as with Harold’s brother Paul.
At that time, green horse polo was played
in San Antonio during the winter. A lot of the
greats played there during the week, at the
barn and huge dirt field built by George
Miller. Many famous names could be found
wintering at Miller Field and Breckenridge
Park on Sundays – Cecil Smith, Rube
Williams, Rube Evans, Little Roy, Ray
Harrington, Benny Gutierrez and Wayne
Brown, to name but a few. My grandfather,
Colonel Tom Hastey, and my uncle, Tom
Hastey Jr, provided my father with his first
introduction to the fine polo played there.
Practices of 30 goals were not uncommon,
Tom Gose reminisces on a special team that went from 12 to 26 goals over six years
L I K E F A T H E R , L I K E S O N
and he was fortunate to learn under the
watchful eyes of these men. The first season,
my father was not allowed to play with shoes
on his horses. The second year, Colonel Tom
put on front shoes only – my grandfather’s
way of teaching my father how to stop
straight and maintain control.
In 1976, my father was playing some
practice games with Hap Sharp in
Sotogrande, when he received a call from Joe
Barry. Bob Uihlein had entered an Open team
with his son Robin, Joe Barry and Johnny
