KLAP
Riding Through the Off Season
Oct
We bid farewell to Coach Agha Khan. Coach Agha has done a sterling job and I’m sure you join me in thanking him for the insight and progress he has brought to all our polo students. We hope to have Coach Agha back again, next season. Thank you Agha. We look forward to your return.
There is one more tournament, the KLPC Low Goal Tournament before the end of the season. This is from 24th to 29th October. Julian Lancia and I will be playing with KLARITA. We will be joined by Neville Stewart, the President of Perth Polo Club, Ali Reda, former Polo Captain of Singapore Polo Club, and La Sarita star Ameer Jumabhoy.
As the haze and rain starts to affect us, we expect more rain affected cancellations. The Kuala Lumpur Polo Club will close its field for end of year maintenance too. It is a time to rest the horses and recharge them and ourselves.
WICs, FRICs and SICs
We will keep going with Wednesday and Friday afternoon and Sunday morning Instructional Chukkas, till mid-November or till the North-East Monsoon hits us and/or the field closes.
Rest for the Polo Ponies
During the off season, we will give the ponies a few weeks of complete rest. They will go out daily to the paddocks. What we will do is rotate the horses who rest, so that while half the ponies are rested, the other half will stay in work, and then we will swap, and those who had been working will have rest, while we bring the others back into work.
That way, the Polo Section of KLAP will not completely shut down.
This is what you can still do at KL Academy of Polo during the off season.
Morning Exercise
Learn to ride work, riding and leading in a string of horses. This is actually quite an exciting ride. Daily exercise at 7:15 AM with Wahid, Herman and Coach Peter. Horses will be allocated – no requests please. Only those who have passed their track tests should ride. Cost is RM90 per ride or RM150 for two rides in a day. Book in advance as only half the strings will be working.
Half and Quarter Leases
If you prefer a more sedate ride and on the same horse each day, WhatsApp Coach Peter Abisheganaden at +60122875638 about short term half or quarter leases that may be available.
Riding For Polo
For equestrian riders who wish to be introduced to the wonders of Riding For Polo, we have an 8-lesson course over 4 weeks, starting from 9th January to 1st February 2024.
Polo 101
Polo 101 returns in February 2024. This is a 16-lesson course designed to start riders into the sport of polo, with the goal of playing in instructional chukkas by the end of the course. Polo 101 will run from 6 February 2024 to 10th March 2024.
Polo 201 – Intermediate Polo Riding
During the off-season, we will work on riding drills to improve your horses and horsemanship, using the USPA Riding Drills to improve your riding. These Polo 201 lessons will run on Wednesday mornings, at 8:00 AM
POLO 360 – Schooling the Polo Pony
Aimed at teaching you how to school the polo pony, with an emphasis on performance, turns, polo stop and turns, lateral work, and flying changes. These Polo 360 lessons will run on Friday mornings, at 8:00 AM
Events
KL Academy of Polo will be involved in quite a number of exciting events over the next few months.
First up is the Argentine Open Polo Tour 2023, from 22nd November to 3rd December. It is a bucket-list tour for any polo player, and we have a few international bookings to join us for this tour. We will close bookings for Argentina tour in a few days’ time, so if you have not yet booked, please speak to Coach Peter immediately.
Colts Polo has invited us to take part in their invitational international arena tournament in Singapore. Teams from Hong Kong, Singapore and KL Academy of Polo are invited to play on 2nd and 3rd December 2023 in the Youth Olympic Games Arena in Singapore.
In preparation of that, we will run some arena polo lessons in our sand arenas so that you get used to hitting arena balls before a selection of a KLAP team is made.
A wet weather favourite will return in December. Nala Designs has agreed to sponsor a Cushion Polo tournament and the inaugural Nala Cushion Polo Tournament will drop on Saturday 16th December.
In conjunction with this tournament will be an Asado at the club that night.
The KLAP Horse Show will be held the next day, Sunday 17th December. These will feature ridden classes on the school horses and will include show classes for the Best Ridden Polo Pony, Novice, Intermediate and Advanced, amongst the prizes.
KL Pony Club will be staging a few rallies and camps during this off-season period. Next week we have a KL Pony Club Rally, the seventh of the year, on 21st and 22nd October. The KL Pony Club Christmas Camp will be held on 19th to 21st December. For more details, please contact our Administrator at +60 11 1638 3835.
KL Academy of Polo is also working with Thai Polo & Equestrian Club that we can send students there for training and polo in club chukkas this season. Juan Martin Gallego will be handling all the coaching there.
We will have available dates for short tours to Thai Polo, in Pattaya, Thailand, very soon.
If you are looking at travel for polo in January, please keep 12th to 14th January available for the Perth Polo Experience Tour. This will be the second tour organised by KL Academy of Polo to Perth Polo Club, after our very successful tour in 2022.
Please DM me if you are interested in participating in this tour next year.
We hope that these off-season activities will keep you kicking on till the start of the new polo season in January 2024.
Best regards,
Peter Abisheganaden
MD and CRI
Kuala Lumpur Academy of Polo
