Polo Finds Its Way to the Inner City

PHILADELPHIA — A group of young horsemen from some of the toughest neighborhoods in Philadelphia is raising eyebrows in a sport with a royal bloodline.

“I like the riding, I like the speed--definitely the speed--of polo,” said Richard Prather, 21, a member of a polo club. “It’s something I just love to do.”

Prather and his teammates neither look nor live like the princely and privileged “horsey set.” Some wear their hair in corn rows, others are clad in the urban uniform of baggy pants and basketball jerseys. Some come from troubled homes, all are minorities and all live in neighborhoods where crime and drugs are facts of life.

The young people were introduced to polo through Work to Ride, a nonprofit program founded in 1992 by longtime horse trainer Lezlie Hiner. In 1994, she moved the organization from her farm to a vacant horse stable at the 1,500-acre Chamounix Equestrian Center in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Two years later, she introduced the sport to the youngsters.

“The thing is, these kids are good. They’re really good,” she said.

Hiner’s street-smart charges attracted their share of stares when they first started appearing for matches at some upper-crust polo clubs. That changed after the older and more experienced competitors saw them in action.

“When you’re an adult and a kid takes the ball away from you and goes down the field and scores, that’s where the respect comes,” Hiner said. “That’s the equalizer.”

Nationally, polo remains very much a game played by the wealthy. The typical player is a 40-year-old white-collar worker with an average income of $174,000 per year, according to the United States Polo Assn. There are about 275 USPA member clubs with more than 3,500 players.

Work to Ride holds summer horse camps, gives riding lessons and has an “urban riding program” to which only about a dozen per year are accepted.

Children in the program are the ones who play polo--as long as they maintain a C average, don’t miss any of the twice-weekly practices, and keep the 33 horses, their stables and equipment in good shape. If they’re having trouble in school, Hiner helps arrange tutoring and works with parents and school officials.

To qualify, the kids also must be low-income city residents, which usually means they come in not knowing a bridle from a bit.

“When I got here, I think I had only been on a pony ride, maybe,” said Prather, who came to Work to Ride at age 14. He now plays for the Work to Ride team and works there full time as an assistant program director.

“I was getting tutored and I told my tutor about my interest in animals, so she brought me here,” he said. “I never really left.”

Chris Perren, 16, spied the stables and the riders during a football game at an adjacent field. That was seven years ago, and he’s been there ever since.

“People don’t think of polo as a contact sport, but it’s one of the best contact sports around,” he said. And although polo is often associated with fancy riding clothes and gear, “the only important thing is how you play,” he said.

Then there’s Kareem Rosser, a diminutive 10-year-old affectionately known as Bee.

He’s only been playing polo for a year, but his skills have endeared him to local polo fans. His prowess has also caught the eye of a prominent private school that Hiner hopes he will attend in a few years.

“The first day he got here, he was bitten on the face by a horse he was teasing. He was back the next day,” Hiner said with a laugh. “The crowd [at a match] named him Killer Bee on the polo field--he takes aim and never misses. And he competes against high school kids who are 220 pounds.”

Prather hopes to make a career of the sport. Perren has his sights set on college. Among the success stories, there are heartaches: A few kids have dropped out and turned to crime. One is in juvenile detention.

“The hope is the ones that mess up will come around,” Hiner said. “At the stables, they learn about responsibility, discipline, hard work and compassion. You just have to hope that carries to their life outside the stables.”