Kings & Queens of Saratoga Polo

Local players bring skill and enthusiasm to the field

By CARI SCRIBNER

During social time that goes hand in hand with the Saratoga Polo season, a group of local players chit-chat, have a cocktail and compare notes. But out on the playing field astride their polo ponies, it’s game-on.

Local players pay membership, or greens fees, plus tournament fees. Although highly-trained and clearly committed to the sport, the amateur players hire professionals to round out their teams each season.

James Rossi, managing partner of the Saratoga Polo Association, said team players who live locally are an enormous benefit to the grand, quintessential Saratoga Springs summer sport.

“Their support keeps us in the limelight,” Rossi said. “They help spread the word and bring in spectators and more players. We can’t say enough about how they promote the sport and our club.”

With a goal of enticing more local men and women to take up polo, classes will be offered at the Saratoga Polo fields this summer. Best of all, there’s no experience required.

“We’ll teach people who’ve never ridden how to first ride a horse, and then play polo,” Rossi said. “We have youth teams for different age groups so that whole families get into it. We’ve had kids who started here who are now pros. I’ve seen it happen time and time again that people who try it get addicted to polo.”

On a recent weeknight, despite the oppressive heat and humidity that refused to budge at dusk, seven local polo players gathered at the meticulously groomed, seemingly boundless (they are, in fact, 9 football fields wide) practice fields for a photo shoot Afterwards, they sank into chairs on the outdoor porch overlooking their beloved fields, talking with visible enthusiasm about the upcoming world class polo season.

Dave and Dr. Lael Peters of Charlton clearly fall under the category of avid players devoted to all things equestrian. Dave runs the family business Friends Lumber; Lael is a professor at RPI. They’re building an indoor arena at their home on Sugar Maple Farm to ride their seven horses year round. The husband and wife are also masters in another sport that’s altogether a horse of a different color.

“We love to go fox hunting, which is really intense,” said Lael, a vivacious, stylish woman who offers constant praise for the other local players. “But you should see AJ (Famiano) on fox hunts. He’s a stadium jumper, which is very different. On fox hunts, he can jump a picnic table; that just freaks me out.”

Famiano talks modestly about his equestrian accomplishments, despite the fact he’s been a member of top-rated polo teams, and off the playing field, he competes in major stadium jumping at competitions from Saugerties to Wellington, Fla.        

“It’s fun to do the jumping during the off-season, but I have to say, I do miss the camaraderie that’s part of being on a polo team,” Famiano said.

Will Orthwein and his wife, Tab Orthwein, don’t have to travel far to get to the Saratoga Polo fields. They live next door to the club at their Bloomfield Farm. Tab is a graduate of Skidmore College, where she met Will, who is now a coach at Skidmore for about 20 student players. They have three children, Owen, Oliver, and Vivian, who can be seen romping on the sidelines as their athletic parents practice.

Tab said the polo ponies are as much a part of the team as the players, who ride two or three horses per match, switching out when they become fatigued.

“When you have children, you tend to be more careful in the sport, and I won’t play on a horse I’m not comfortable with,” Tab said. “I started playing on a polo pony named Dragon who was very experienced. He knew more than me. On your best horse, you can play two or three times better.”

Will comes from a long line of polo players, following in the horseshoes of his grandfather, who started playing while living in St. Louis.

“I have cousins and uncles who play, but it wasn’t expected we’d all take up polo; some of the family just ride,” Will Orthwein, who competes on several teams at locations including Florida, said. “This (Saratoga) club is a great one; there’s so much history associated with it. The fields are always good, and Saratoga is just a great town to be in.”

 Rick Baum hails from Vermont, where he is a veterinarian at his Arlington Animal Hospital. Baum’s wife, Cathy, and daughter, Sarah, also spend lots of time on horseback in hunter and jumper competitions. He began his polo career at Cornell University and now captains his Dos Perros Polo team.

For Baum, the game is more about strategy than being the first one to get to the ball in play.

“We can’t be like little kids playing soccer where everyone swarms; it’s not a race, and you can’t be tense,” Baum said. “It’s not so much keeping your eye on the ball, but knowing where you want the ball to go. It’s a challenge to out-think the players on other teams. Pros that just want to be in the limelight aren’t the ones you want on a team. When you’re on a team with the right players, everything seems to click.”

 Five years ago, Tamie Ehinger of Saratoga Springs relocated from San Francisco, where she played with the Wine Country Polo Club. Youthful and exuberant, Ehinger said she came to the sport late, at age 31, and is still considered a newcomer.

“I’ve done a lot of sports; snowboarding, running, cycling, but this is by far the most competitive,” Ehinger said. “We start out saying we’ll play nice, but then it just comes over you, and you completely go for it. You certainly don’t ever go easy on your friends.”