NEWS

The Texas Arena League (TAL) played the second leg of its four-event series February 7-9 at Legend's Polo Club at Legend’s Horse Ranch in Kaufman, Texas. Twenty-two teams played over the course of the weekend in three levels of play. At the social dinner, Legend’s Horse Ranch served chili and pie and Kirk Carter from Cargill/Nutrena gave an equine nutrition talk on Body Condition Score and topline.

The February event was especially busy with Casablanca Polo, the 2020 High-Point Overall award sponsor, in attendance to measure players wanting to order the new NOCSAE certified Casablanca NEU helmet. Pepper Stewart from Texas Ranch N Rodeo Weekly on Farm and Ranch TV came out to shoot some footage, interview players and have a polo lesson with Brady Williams.

Utilizing a polo club management web application, the Texas Arena League used Polo Score Keeper (Polo SK) during the weekend's event. Polosk.com provides detailed, electronic score keeping with real-time access for spectators. Jocelyn Berneche from Polo SK was on hand to support the score keepers and ensure that the software performed as expected. Game scores, team standings, players’ statistics and awards were all immediately available in real-time. In addition to score keeping and club management, new modules in PoloSK were recently launched for the USPA Umpires, LLC, for the arena/outdoor tests, umpire certification, and professional umpires scheduling.

Three teams faced off in a C Flight round robin on Friday, February 7: Polo Girls (Kitana St Cyr, Katerina Kortova, Caroline Woodman), Oklahoma (Don Gruntmeir, Tori Summers, Kim Buttram), and Southern Methodist University Junior Varsity (Adriana Arguello, Sophia Garvin, Lindsay Bellack). Southern Methodist University Junior Varsity ultimately came out with the win.

The Southwestern Circuit Arena Admiral Chester Nimitz and the Southwestern Circuit General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller continued with Polo InterActive (Wyatt Myr, James Glew, Jose Velez) and Notorious P.O.N.Y. (Javier Insua, Zoe Lehmer, Devan Groves) moving on to the Southwestern Circuit Arena Admiral Chester Nimitz Final at Midland Polo Club in Midland, Texas. Legend’s Horse Ranch (Nacho Estrada, Kim Buttram, August Scherer) will move on to the Southwestern Circuit General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller Final against the winner of a shootout between Dallas Polo Club (Will Walton, Wendy Stover, Allison Bowker) and Williams Polo (Brady Williams, Mark Osburn, Wyatt Myr).

At Legend’s Horse Ranch, TAL began the Southwestern Circuit Arena Amateur Cup (0- to 3-goal) with Bar-Spur (Ryan Owens, Mark Osburn, Brady Williams) defeating Tulsa Polo Club (Greg Summers, Karen Summers, Don Gruntmeir), Texas Military Polo Club (Trey Crea, Jack Crea, Karl Hilberg) winning over OKC CCC Ranch (Kelly Coldiron, Rob Phipps, Oscar Bermudez Jr) and SMU Women (Grace Grotnik, Meghan Rahlfs, Lindsay Bellack) defeating Waterski America (Ismael Vazquez, Trenton Werntz, David Werntz).

In the Southwestern Circuit Sherman Memorial (3- to 6-goals), OKC CCC Ranch (Kelly Coldiron, Greg Summers, Roxy Keyfauver) defeated Texas Military (Karl Hilberg, Jack Crea, Trey Crea) while Southern Methodist University Men (Barrett Coke, Luke Kletner, Juan Bueno, Tomas Herrera, Joe Coors) took the win over Waterski America (Rob Phipps, Cody Goetz, Wyatt Myr).

Winners:

• Galvin Agency Most Valuable Player - Wyatt Myr (both the 0- to 3-goal and 3- to 6-goal), Barrett Coke, Greg Summers, August Scherer, Karl Hilberg, Javier Insua, Meghan Rahlfs, Mark Osburn.
• Catena Sportsmanship Award - Trenton Werntz, Katie Anderson, Wyatt Myr, Karen Summers, Oscar Bermudez Jr., Javier Insua, Kelly Coldiron, Tres de la Paz, Cody Goetz.
• Nutrena Best Playing Pony - Rocket (played by Stephanie Massey in both the 0- to 3-goal and 3- to 6-goal), Solitario (played by Barrett Coke owned by Southern Methodist University Polo), Solita (played by Javier Insua), Burgundy (played by Wyatt Myr), Demi (played by Rob Phipps owned by Kelly Coldiron), Mataco (played by Grace Grotnik owned by Southern Methodist University Polo), Nugget (played by Trey Crea), Renee (played by Greg Summers).

The finals of the four tournaments will be played from March 13-15 at Midland Polo Club. New teams and teams that have been previously knocked out will play in the Southwestern Circuit Arena Challenge Cup and Southwestern Circuit Arena Masters Cup. Players and teams participating in the Texas Arena League will continue accumulating TAL points toward the End of League Awards while simultaneously gaining points toward the National Arena Amateur Cup.

Photos courtesy of ©David Murrell