NickawampusPoloClub

Polo Means Bentleys

March 2nd, 2024

Here, dear reader and member of the Nickawampus Polo Club, is the complete Polo kit, two world-class horses and a Bentley. While the Bentley was easy enough to drive, neither horse, the bay gelding descended from Czar, a pre-eminent line of French race horses, featured in these pages in “Mutt’s Big Race,” nor the white mare, a granddaughter of Alfred Vanderbilt’s great Native Dancer, was really rideable, not in the stop and go of a polo chukker. A previous owner had applied so much pressure that both were given to explosive bursts of speed, often when unasked for. So, chalk one up to experience. Alas, we loved them, and donated them to the Polo program at Oregon State, where the arena format somewhat contained them and the young, daring college kids had a great time on such amazing mounts.

The field is that of Polo Puro in Conquistador, and the bloke holding the horses is yours truly, the author and proprietor of Nickawampus Polo Club. Not every sally is successful, in this or any other realm, as Don Quixote repeatedly tells us, but a certain heft begins to build, and one day you realize, “I’m a polo player.” May it happen to you.
Conquistador

September 13th, 2023

To all members of the Nickawampus Polo Club, here is a book I wrote twenty years ago about a dear friend who helped many, many players on the road to polo mastery. And we all had fun. Along the way, he learned as well as taught, both about polo and the fine, neglected art of learning itself. We are going to serialize the book, all 23 chapters plus prologue and epilogue, at the rate of two chapters a day, just like Charles Dickens. So, settle into your favorite chair, bring along a snack or beverage, and be transported across time and space into a real, often surprising adventure. Let’s begin.

chapers12 Download
A New Template

February 26th, 2026

Moving Right Along
Moving Right Along

February 26th, 2026

Recently, WordPress, which administers this website, sent me an offer for a “professional email.” After signing up for it, I asked what it was exactly that I had bought.

The answer, generated by AI (and what intelligence isn’t artificial?) was very helpful. Here are some of the uses to which I can put a”professional email.” After telling me how to set up a new email address, it went on to tell me some of the things I could do with the new email address:

1) addresses like info@nickawampuspoloclubblog.com, for general inquiries, or

2) use contact@nickawampuspoloclubblog.com for member communications, or

3) consider events@nickawampuspoloclubblog.com for announcing tournaments and other events.

It suggested that I create a regular newsletter featuring tournament results, match highlights, player spotlights, and behind-the-scenes action, and post about upcoming tournaments, club events, or lessons, and share polo tips and educational content for beginners.

And it included promotional strategies to connect with equine sites, use social media as a promotion, and use WordPress.com’s Blaze advertising tool to spread my blog content on WordPress and Tumblr networks.

This is very close to the online polo club I’ve been envisioning, and I’m going to use it as a template for coming entries.

Stay tuned!
January 29th, 2026

But I Din’t Like Gators
January 26th, 2026

But I Din’t Like Gators
But I Din’t Like Gators

January 25th, 2026

Here, dear readers, is my new toy, absolutely indispensable for polo of all levels, and it came about most unusually, because it was the last thing I thought would ever happen.

You see, it’s a John Deere Gator, 2x4X, the very entry level of all Gators. Two seats, controls, a bed. And oh, yes, it has lights and a light switch. But entry level all the way. N.b. George Colonna, our neighbor and hay source, went the other way and got the top-of-the-line Kubota. “Different strokes….” And his machine is a beauty. But so is mine.

A couple of years ago the Thoroughbred Breeders Association out in Lexington had a contest, the prize for which was a Gator just like mine, two yellow seats, a bed, etc. And I entered it with my article It Started As A Joke, and, in all modesty, I thought it would win: great art, good story, ongoing lesson. As it happened, it didn’t even make the contest. But in the meantime I went up to Atlantic Tractor in Pokomoke City just to check them out.

So when a postcard arrived this September saying that since I was living the equine life, I might be eligible for as much as a 24 % discount on select John Deere products, mainly Gators, mowers, etc., the implements one associates with polo, no sooner said than done. Virtually the next day here was a shiny new Gator in our driveway, and I didn’t have to do anything for two months.

As it happens, I’m now 80 and don’t ride anymore, getting tossed just hurts too much. So I no longer had a means to be out with the darlings, except on foot. But here came the Gator, I’m out there with ’em, and we’re having the same great times as always.

And I din’t like Gators.
What Is Polo, Anyway?

July 30th, 2025

Here is a pretty good summary of polo. You’re on your trusty steed, you’ve been chasing that little white ball, and now you slap it between the goal posts. Well done.

But here’s a forerunner to polo, well turned out gentleman, good hoss and pack of hounds, ready for the hunt. And notice the similarities with polo. Substitute that little white ball for Mr. Fox and you have parallel activities, with the one important difference that you don’t need thousands of acres of unused land for the pursuit, a field 100 x 300 yds., 10 acres, will do very well, and we’ve carried the oldest sport right into the modern world with all its constraints and space restrictions.

If we see polo as the extension of this ancient tradition, we’ll not only bask in such glory as being George Washington’s sporting grandsons. We’ll also ground all of our modern sports on a foundation much solider than merchandising and passive entertainment.

And now the umpire has given the ball back to the players and…..Tally ho, the game is afoot!
The Investiture of Sir Van of Locksley

June 18th, 2025

One of the benefits of insomnia is the ideas that occur to you in the dark of night.

For example, it occurred to me to add some oomph to my Polo by using last Sunday ‘s church picnic to get a blessing.

The rainout impelled matters indoors, adding to the ecclesiastical factor, making the simple blessing look more like an Investiture, even a Knighting, which is just fine with me. In future, you may refer to me as Sir Van, with reference to my namesake Van, Rodeo Horse No.1, also in these pages.

All-time great Juan Carlos Harriot famously said, “when all else fails, you might try thinking.” If thinking doesn’t work, there’s always prayer.

And many thanks to Fr. Ed Hunt who good naturedly went along with my jest, one of his last official acts before retiring from a most distinguished ministry.
A Look At Our Clubhouse

September 26th, 2024

Here’s The Piano Lesson, by Henri Matisse. He also painted the Large Interiors in Red, and the Moroccan Triptych, also in our clubhouse living room. Very relaxing.

And here’s Risky Business, by Iggy Dycke, the cover illustration for my dad’s article in Field & Stream. More great horse art, in the club dining room.
As I Was Saying

August 5th, 2024

The next step, after the strokes on the Library Pony, was to see real live shots on a real live horse. Didn’t happen. It was far too difficult to hold the lead ropes, the mallet, and the camera. Also, I got scared of my horse and haven’t been riding that much, March 3,2024 being the last post. But here is some footage that may help, and reveals the main horse activity of the last 5 months or so. Hand grazing horses, tap-tap-taping with the foot mallet, all in search of the wild asparagus, i.e. the perfect, accelerating, gravity-creating contact with the ball.

So looking around the photo lib. I came across this. If you’re too scared to toget on, play on foot. Keep playing. What happens with the mallet is far the most important part of the game anyway. And being astride is not nearly as conducive to real improvement with the mallet as being on foot. So get with it.

See what I mean. None of this is easy. Onward and upward.
Field Work 101

March 5th, 2024

We have promised to get out on the field and show what it’s really like. We haven’t factored in just how hard that might be, to hold two lead ropes, a mallet and a camera. Here’s the first effort. More later.

Here we are on the back field of the Nickawampus Polo Club. And have you ever seen a more beautiful setting for a polo field? No, I didn’t think so. And the Arab mare, who goes with us, adds another lead rope to a situation already requiring three hands, for a mallet, a camera, and another lead rope, for Easy, the horse we’re riding. Never fear, dear reader, we’re working on it. Patience and perseverance made a Bishop of His Reverence. You will soon be sitting on a wonderful horse, tapping a ball with a polo mallet, on your way to a new familiarity with our great sport.