All-Black polo team returns to Valley
Work to Ride entered in Scottsdale Polo Classic
Even in a pandemic, the city of Scottsdale always finds a way to entertain. And this Saturday, with new COVID-19 guidelines in place, the Stella Artois Polo Classic will be headlined by the first all-Black polo team to win a high school championship, Work to Ride.
The Philadelphia-based team will play in the Classic for the fourth time in the program’s history. Three Work to Ride veterans – Daymar Rosser, Shariah Harris and Richard Prather – return to represent the program and compete against a women’s all-star team comprised of Natalie Grancharov Camacho, Sheryl Slick and Molly Agee in the final match of the event.
Work to Ride was a late addition this year. Their spot was originally held by Morehouse College, the first and only historically Black collegiate polo team and the alma mater of Martin Luther King, Jr. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, they have been unable to practice and had to withdraw, said Jason Rose, a longtime Phoenix-area public relations executive and co-founder of the event.
Work to Ride’s inclusion came together quickly.
“Because of our relationship with them, we were able to call them up, Kareem Rosser in particular, and just say ‘Hey, we need some help here,’ ” Rose said. “And within a weekend they had put together a team, and we’re excited to have them.”
Work to Ride is a non-profit founded in 1994 by Lezlie Hiner that uses horses
to work with children in the Philadelphia area.
Horses had been a part of Hiner’s life since high school, when she saved up to buy her own. She worked on horse farms and on a racetrack before heading to college.
After graduating, she was reintroduced to horses through a friend. From there, Work to Ride came together naturally.
“I have a degree in psychology, and I was always kind of into animals, learning about animal therapy, and kind of figured out that there might be a way to combine my love of horses and animal therapy,” she said. “Knowing the effect that it had on me as a kid, I figured out a program that I could combine my love of horses and teaching and working with kids into a program, so basically I kind of just wrote my own job description.”
Originally, Work to Ride did not include polo. Hiner brought in Philadelphia youths, many of whom came from underprivileged backgrounds, to help feed, clean and take care of the horses. But it became something more when Hiner discovered polo for herself. She fell in love with the sport, but also realized how much work went into it. Hiner decided she needed help.
Prather remembers how Hiner approached teens asking for assistance in caring for the horses.
“She said ‘OK, I need you guys to come with me on Sundays to help me hot walk horses, put things away, and you’ll get paid for it,’ ” Prather said. “So being13,14, I’m like, ‘I need some money, that’s awesome. Just to walk horses around? That’s a no-brainer for me.’ ”
With Prather and the others spending so much time around the sport, they started asking questions about how the game worked, what the rules were, why certain decisions were made, why certain whistles were blown.
Eventually, Hiner taught them how the game works. Slowly but surely, the kids got into games of their own. From that point forward, Work to Ride had a whole new meaning.
“That’s when I said, ‘ Okay, I like this. This is fun. This is different. This is not like jumping, this is not like Western shows, this is incredible,’ ” Prather said.
Building self-esteem
Since then, polo has become an integral part of the non-profit. The program, housed at the Chamounix Stables in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, serves the disadvantaged youth of the area. Youth ranging from 7 to 19 can participate for anywhere from just a year to through high school, and many long-term participants return as mentors. Work to Ride also helps with networking and college enrollment and funding.
Part of what makes Work to Ride so groundbreaking is polo’s status as a traditionally white sport. The costs of owning and maintaining horses and barns can become exorbitant, especially for underprivileged communities.
“I think the biggest part of the sport is that it’s super expensive for everybody,” Rosser said. “People can only do so much for you for a certain amount of time. They can obviously help you out, but they got to make their money to feed their horses as well as themselves. We’re all trying to figure out how we can make it accessible for everybody without them coming out of their pockets too much.”
Prather estimated that the costs of running a barn could exceed $200,000 per year between the food, medicine, bedding and more. He also added that travel and potential for injury serve as further hurdles for the sport’s accessibility.
Initially, none of the three riders representing Work to Ride this weekend even meant to join the program; they didn’t know it existed. When Harris was 8, her mother took a wrong turn and they stumbled across the barn.
A teenage Prather was struggling with school, and a tutor recognized his love for animals and introduced him to Hiner and the program. And when Rosser was only 5, his older brothers found Work to Ride during a walk in the park and they all decided to check it out.
Since then, Work to Ride has reshaped their lives.
“It wasn’t just about riding and playing polo, it was about building your character and self-esteem to become a good person,” Rosser said.
“And with Lezlie, if you were bad, if you did bad in school, she took away the horses. I had to change my ways and start to become a better person, so the Work to Ride program definitely helped me out with my attitude and the way I hold myself today.”
Harris said the program, and polo in particular, changed her life.
“My first time out of the country and out of the state was through polo and the program, and I definitely don’t think I would have gone to Cornell if not for the program because polo is what introduced me to the school,” Harris added. “The program and polo just introduced me to a world that I never would have imagined being a part of if I hadn’t found it.”
Harris graduated from Cornell last spring with a degree in animal science and is now enrolled in a two-year nursing program. Prather works as a career education specialist in Houston, Texas, advising middle and high school students on their future career paths. And Rosser is a marketing coordinator and, alongside his older brother Kareem, a Ralph Lauren model.
Getting Black youths involved
Shared between the three are numerous accolades, achievements and memories from their time in Work to Ride and playing polo. They each remain connected to the program and try to give back when they can.
“It’s nice being able to feel welcome to the sport, because there’s not many Black people who are playing it,” Rosser said. “We want to change that. We want to get more Black kids involved in the sport and have it there as an option for them to come out and play. That’s what the Work to Ride program provides the kids.”
It isn’t an accident that this is Work to Ride’s fourth appearance in the Scottsdale Polo Classic. The event, held at WestWorld of Scottsdale, had simple beginnings when a pair of local polo players walked into the office of Rose’s public relations firm in 2010 asking for help promoting their club. Since, it has developed into a showcase of the most exciting and unique talent the polo world has to offer.
Rose learned about Work to Ride from a TV feature and immediately invited them to the 2012 Classic. The high school team “beat the snot out of” a talented Harvard squad in their 8-3 victory.
The event continues to focus on diversity, Rose said. The Classic has featured some of the top male and female polo players from not only the United States, but around the world. They also hosted the Gay Polo League in 2014.
“We’ve had teams come in from Wales, we’ve had players from Argentina, England, come in, and then we mix it with local,” Rose said. “I don’t think anyone else does it like we do in the world of polo. That’s why the captain of the Wales polo team called it the best polo event in the world, because of the diversity and variety that takes place.”
Hiner has nothing but praise for the event.
“It’s been first-rate,” she said. “It’s a quality event.”