Horse Play : This Is the Peak Season Locally for Riders Hooked on the Thrills of Polo Competition

Girded with helmets and knee guards, the horseback riders resemble galloping gladiators as they clutch the reins in one hand and swing the mallet with the other.

Their battlefield is the arena, their conflict with the opposing team. To succeed, riders must smack a ball four inches in diameter into a goal. The team with the most goals wins.

Polo players say charging full speed up and down the field on a 1,000-pound horse, making quick turns, is like no other game. And summer is the peak season for tournament polo in Orange County, where the sport--contrary to its elitist image--is available to the public.

“This sport is very addictive,” said Gary Moeller of Newport Beach, a polo player for four years. “It’s the rush of taking it to the edge--like racing a car.”

Denny Geiler, also of Newport Beach, a 12-year player, agreed: “My wife gave me one polo lesson, and I said, ‘This is the greatest thing I’ve ever done.’

“It’s a team sport like football and basketball, but you get to do it on horseback,” Geiler said. “The speed and the excitement of the game--you can’t find that anyplace else. . . . At the end of a game, you just feel very refreshed.”

Hooked on the sport, these adult riders belong to the Playa Grande Polo Club at the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center, the only polo club in Orange County.

The club offers lessons year-round to all levels of players, and games take place on the dirt surface of its 300-by-150-foot arena.

There are no other polo playing fields in the county, but a grass field has been proposed at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. “We are quite excited because we don’t have a [grass] polo field in Orange County,” said Roland Von Coburg, the military base’s stable manager, who is involved in the proposal.

Non-members can learn to play at Playa Grande too.

“There’s a lot of normal working people who own one or two horses and are very dedicated to the sport,” said club member Sheryl Clark of Signal Hill. “It’s a difficult game to be very good at; it takes a lot of time and commitment . . . but it’s such a thrill.”

Susie Welton of Corona del Mar says she gets a tremendous adrenaline rush when playing polo: “There’s an element of physical danger and you just see if you can stay on the horse and hit the ball. And when you do, it’s ‘Oh, wow!’ and if you make a goal it’s double ‘Wow!’

“You either love it--or you’re not at all interested.”

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The club is headed by professional player Kathy Batchelor, rated among the top 10 women arena polo players in the country, according to Rick Hartnett, chairman of the national handicap committee of the U.S. Polo Assn.

Batchelor said that while polo is played from October to April in the desert and other areas with warmer climate, it is played especially in the summertime in Huntington Beach because of the city’s moderate temperatures.

Playa Grande Polo Club has about 35 members who play year-round, with the peak season for club tournaments from April to October.

Club games are Thursday nights and Saturdays, with tournaments on Sundays.

The season’s final tournament--the U.S. Polo Assn. Amateur Cup--will be Oct. 6, 7 and 8 at the club’s arena.

At Playa Grande Polo Club, the novice player can take group lessons for $40 or private lessons for $50. The lesson includes horse, tack and playing equipment.

“Anybody’s capable of playing--it’s a matter of how much effort you want to put into it,” Batchelor said.

Batchelor said the sport has grown in popularity, but the poor economy in recent years has limited the number of new players in Orange County.

“It would grow a lot better if the economy was better,” said Batchelor, who teaches at Pacific Coast Polo Club in Indio from October to April. “The economy is not stable enough to justify the spending.”

The U.S. Polo Assn., based in Lexington, Ky., says its nationwide membership has steadily increased since 1990. The association has 3,442 members, compared with about 3,000 in 1994, officials said.

Batchelor said club players spend about $600 a month, which includes club membership and keeping their personal horses at the stables.

The price of a good arena horse ranges from $3,500 to $7,500, and monthly board is $240, Batchelor said. Horses can also be leased, and in some instances riders share ownership.

Some players own two or more horses, so that the animals can play alternating chukkers during an arena game. (A chukker is a 7 1/2-minute playing period, with four of these to a game. The games match two teams of three players each.)

“We switch horses because we wear the horses out,” said Welton, who owns two and shares another with Clark. Playing each chukker, she said, is “like sprinting for 7 1/2 minutes. You have to give the horse a rest.”

Besides the fun and exhilaration of playing polo, riders say they develop a special bond with their horses--which usually know the game better than they do.

“What I love about this sport is you have this great affection and communication with your horse,” said Clark, who has been playing for two years and who, like Welton, owns two horses besides the one they share. “It’s so rewarding to play a game. I wish it was more of a mainstream sport.”

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Local Polo

Orange County’s only polo outpost, the Playa Grande Polo Club at the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center, offers lessons and scheduled games. Lessons include horse, tack and equipment:

* Group Lessons: Tuesdays, 6 p.m. for beginners; $40 per hour.

* Private Lessons: By appointment; $50 per hour.

* Club games: Thursdays, 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m.; tournament games, Sundays, 1 p.m.

* Club annual fee: $600, allows access to practice games.

* Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

* Information: (714) 842-7656

Source: Playa Grande Polo Club; Researched by DEBRA CANO / For the Times