HORSING AROUND BY TRIANA ELAN

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International Play

Jody Sole is still here, even if I haven't seen him for a few days. At the time of this writing, he is on his way back from an International Polocrosse Tournament with the horse gang from Lopez Island.

Polocrosse is a great game. It's Lacrosse on horseback. It's fast, it's fun, and with a bum right shoulder, I can't play it!

Being most at home on the back of a horse (or in its mouth), Jody picked up the skills quickly with the help of Tina Meng of Lopez Island. The San Juan County Pony Club has been building up a polocrosse team for quite a while, and it's not cheap. The rackets and equipment cost quite a penny or two, but one look at a game and you can see why the kids are going for it.

The rules are strict, to encourage safety. For instance, you can't cut in front of someone else's horse, you can't hit each other or each other's horses. Other than that, the game goes so fast it's hard to know what the rules are unless you have the book.

A typical polocrosse field is about three acres of flat land. Practice can be done just about anywhere, as these photos will show.

When polocrosse first came to Lopez Island via Crossroads Arena, I remember the evenings after the horses had been fed when we'd pull out the equipment and have a rousing game on the ground, complete with squealing, laughing and chiding. It was exhausting and none of us were even on a horse.

Over time, I watched the Lopez kids practicing. The very first thing a player has to do is get the horse accustomed to the equipment; a horse running for all it's worth and having a racket flying around their head and a rider leaning, twisting and hollering takes some getting used to.

It didn't take long for the horses to tolerate this new nonsense and soon the kids were cantering around the arena, tossing the ball and trying to catch it. Once in a while a ball would bounce off of a horse's head (the ball is soft) and the poor beast would look pretty confused but take it in good humor thanks to its mount who had adequately warned it through training.

The next installment will hopefully yield the results of this adventure where Americans, Canadians, Africans and an Englishman went at each other down in southern Washington.

© 2002 Island Star