Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/498400
this page, clockwise from top left: Bill O'Connor (right) in 1935; a Harvard player gets ready before the match at Myopia; a young player and his polo pony at Norfolk Hunt Club. Ga me Theory Writer Brian O'Connor accepted our challenge to jump on a horse for this story. Turns out he has a personal history with the game. A framed photo of a chiseled face peering out from under a polo helmet, a mallet raised in the air beside him, has hung on my wall for decades. Bill O'Connor, my grandfather, was in the last class of West Point cadets required to learn to ride horses. After graduating in 1924, he played polo wherever the Army sent him. That photo was the closest I got to a chukker until I pulled up to Peter Poor's Stage Hill Polo for a lesson. Poor mounts me on Doc, a slow-trotter, and runs through the basics. He pronounces my horsemanship crude but adequate and instructs me to practice swinging the mallet with my right hand while holding the reins in my left. Other students soon join us, and Poor blows his whistle. Ready or not, the match starts. Striking the ball is a challenge. Like a golf novice experiencing his first smooth, nearly effortless connection, I feel the same thrill when the mallet finally gives it a solid whack. Poor's program, affordably priced at about $300 to $400 monthly for twice- or thrice-a-week sessions, includes horse, tack, and equipment and runs outdoors from May through November and indoors during the winter. Students range in age from 5 to 80 and come from a variety of backgrounds. A recent lesson for beginners included a real estate agent, an ad executive, an energy trader, and college kids. My ambitions are modest: to play with verve, if not perfection. But I do have one goal: I hope to make Grandad, a three-goal player, raise his mallet in salute. 42 Low St., Newbury, 978-463- 8668; stagehillpolo.com PhotograPhy courtesy of Brian Wright o'connor (Bill o'connor) bostoncommon-magazine.com 113