‘Juggling a dairy farm with polocrosse can be hectic’
Wicklow farmer Stephen Nuzum is getting ready to compete in this year’s Polocrosse World Cup in Australia, writes Siobhán English
FARMING and polocrosse do not exactly go hand in hand, but somehow Arklow-based Stephen Nuzum finds the time to combine his busy workload and his love of the sport.
“This time of the year is not too bad as it is off-season, but it is hectic during the summer between milking cows, farm contracting and competitions,” he says.
The spring months are also a busy time on the dairy farm, with calving now in full swing, and in recent weeks Stephen has had to do some serious juggling to squeeze in training ahead of the 2019 Adina Polocrosse World Cup in Australia.
A member of the Irish team that competed in a test match in South Africa last summer, Stephen will be making his debut on a World Cup team for the first time.
“I was a member of the under-21 team that competed in Australia in 2013, but this will be my first time going to a World Cup,” he says.
Stephen (24) — who also played for a local Australian team while working on a sheep farm in Yass, New South Wales in 2013 — now works full-time on the family farm with his older brother Sam, following the death of their father, Sam Snr, in 2011.
“My father got out of dairy about 15 years ago and was doing sucklers only, but we got the milking parlour back up and running again two years ago,” says Stephen.
They currently milk 120 cows, in addition to running a farming contracting business that offers baling and hedge-cutting, amongst other services.
Time
“Time is my biggest problem,” he says. “At the moment we are calving, so in the mornings I do the milking and then exercise my horses.
“During off-season here, we do a lot of road work with them, and in my case it is in the morning as it gets dark so quickly in the evenings.
“Ahead of the World Cup, we are now training each weekend.”
Stephen has three horses he uses for the game, all thoroughbreds. “What we use is often bigger than a polo pony, but a lot of them are ex-racehorses too,” he explains.
It was thanks to Stephen’s cousin, Clive Nuzum, that he first got introduced to the sport in 2010.
“Clive was just starting a club at his Lookout Stud and I happened to be over there with some young horses. It all started from there really,” recalls Stephen.
“Since then I have become really involved and love it.”