Nina’s at top of her polo game
Nina Clarkin wants others to catch her, but it doesn’t mean she’s ready to relinquish top spot.
The 35-year-old Englishwoman is the best female polo player in the world – the only woman who rides off the highest handicap of 10.
Clarkin is nearing the end of her annual visit to her Waikato home with husband and fellow top polo player John-Paul Clarkin and their two children, Elizabeth and Patrick.
Horses are in her blood. Her father, who died last November, was a keen player, picking up the sport while in the army serving in Kenya, until he had a riding accident that left him in a wheelchair when Clarkin was about three.
Clarkin did everything when it came to horses, having gone through the pony club system in England, but it wasn’t until she finished her university degree in English literature that she decided to try her hand as a professional.
"I really love all aspects of it – the horses, the competition, the adrenalin – but it combines together to make this wonderful sport that you rely so heavily on with horses to get the systems going really well."
Clarkin has played with and against men - where her handicap is a respectable 4 - including her husband, and Princes William and Harry. But she is enjoying the strength of women’s polo, which is beginning to shine with increased numbers and ability.
"I would have always said I would have preferred playing men’s polo as it was faster, more open and exciting. That has changed in the last 10 years, but significantly in the past five years."
"The quality of women’s polo is excellent and I love being part of it and I was always a little bit, I don’t want to play, but I’m completely converted now.
"I think for a lot of women of my era, they have worked incredibly hard to get to where they are and are doing it for very little reward in comparison to their male counterparts. If we could change, I think that will change the face of the sport and that is an actual real goal, so I would like to see that happening."
She believes the increase in female players comes down to a few things, including more tournaments available to play and a reduction in cost.
"I think there are a lot of women who are very successful in business who want to do something fun, social, challenging and exciting in their free time and they actually have their own disposable income to put towards the sport rather than the husband or partner saying, yes, you can play.
"Now it’s their decision, their money, their choice."
Clarkin, who is the England captain, enjoys the fact that her husband also plays. They know what the other is going through and trying to achieve.
"It’s good to have the advice and coaching from such a top player. I hope the help I can give him is valid and taken on board in terms of tactics or game plans, so we get to share information.
"We’re both doing what we love together, which is very rare and very lucky. Sometimes it’s a lot because it’s all the time, because with horses, it is constant – there is never really a day off."
Clarkin has seen New Zealand polo improve during the annual trips back with John-Paul for the past decade. The couple, along with John-Paul’s cousin, now own Cambridge Polo Club in Kaipaki.
"When I first started coming out here, there was noticeably a different feel. Now it’s a lot more similar, the style of polo here, to England. There is a difference which comes back to the different makeup of fields more than anything."
While it’s difficult to know if the youngest Clarkin - sevenmonth-old Patrick - will take up the sport, their elder child, Elizabeth, nearly six, already enjoys horses - though not fanatically.
"I don’t think that having children has affected the way I play polo, but it has affected how hard I take the losses.
"Because now you finish a game and you lose and you can be really angry and cross, but you come home and your focus is immediately on these two wonderful creatures you have in your life – then I find the losses are easier to take. In many ways it’s improved my attitude towards the game because I have less invested in it.
"I genuinely don’t think my attitude to the sport has changed since I have had children. I’m not sure if that reflects very badly on me or well, but I think to play polo, I think you need to have a slight side of kamikaze because there are some scenarios or plays you are in and you think, ’That is crazy.’"
The Clarkins head back to England next month in time for the polo season there, which runs from the end of April until September.