Name of show: Hoofbeats Polo Society, Sunday Polo Match
Date of Show: Feb. 6th
Hosted by: Kim Rogers
Hosted at: Monarch Meadows
It is a beautiful winter day, the air is cool and crisp and there is a bright sun in the sky. It is February 6th, and time for the February Hoofbeats Polo Society, Sunday Polo Match. The match will be played indoors at Monarch Meadows at an indoors polo field located there. There will be two teams competing with three players per team. There will be four periods of 7 minutes, with four minutes between each period, except the second period when there will be ten minutes afterwards. There shall be two mounted umpires on the field and one referee in the stands officiating. The two umpires will be Chris Lamelein and George Bucher. The referee will be Joyce Buchanan.
The teams have been decided as follows:
Mathilde Vincent, Kim, and Mel will be on Team #1. Their colors will be green and silver. Team #2 is Katie, Bonnie, and Jacki and their colors are blue and white. If any player from either team is hurt then Natalie is at the arena as a stand-in.
Mathilde Vincent is the team captain for Team #1 and Katie is the team captain for Team #2. They are both ranked -1, while all other players are ranked -2.
These are the following assignments for horses:
Mathilde Vincent: First Knight, Chalkdust, Public Relations, and South by Northeast.
Kim: Higher Standards and Just Dixie
Mel: Jump for the Stars and Skootin' Down the Street
Katie: I've Already Done It and 4 More Minutes
Bonnie: Little Skooter and Mouse
Jacki: Just Do It and Morgan
Positions:
Position #1, the field captain, the offensive position who scores most often.
Kim for Team #1
Bonnie for Team #2
Postition #2, most experienced player, must push the ball at all times on defense and offense.
Mathilde for Team #1
Katie for Team #2
Postition #3, the defensive postion.
Mel for Team #1
Jacki for Team #2
Final Score:
Period 1: Team #1- 3 Team #2- 3
Period 2: Team #1- 2 Team #2- 1
Period 3: Team #1- 1 Team #2- 0
Period 4: Team #1- 2 Team #2- 0
Final: Team #1-- 8 Team #2-- 4
((Scoring was done with four slips of paper from 0-3, they were picked randomly out of a hat by my brother to determine the score for each team for each period))
Results:
1st place: Mathilde on First Knight, Chalkdust, Public Relations, and South by Northeast
1st place: Kim on Higher Standards and Just Dixie
1st place: Mel on Jump for the Stars and Skootin' Down the Street
2nd place: Katie on I've Already Done It and 4 More Minutes
2nd place: Bonnie on Little Skooter and Mouse
2nd place: Jacki on Just Do It and Morgan
Best Horse of Show: Just Do It
Best Rider of Show: Mel
Quick overview of the periods:
Period #1- All the players came out very strong with some of the horses being very high-spirited and slightly difficult for their riders to control. Both teams were riding at full speed charging back and forth from goal to goal. Defense had a very hard time blocking the goals, but Jacki did an excellent job on Just Do It. She seemed to anticipate exactly where the rider would be coming next and Just Do It would spin as if he was on wheels to follow her lead. They both made an excellent defensive combination, blocking over 4 shots from Katie and Kim, they were the stars of Period 1.
Period #2- All the players were mounted on their new second string mounts. Morgan did not respond nearly as well to Jacki's commands and could be seen several times tossing his head angrily and pawing at the ground. Mel on the other hand seemed to make an excellent team with Skootin' Down the Street.
They took Jacki's place as the star defensive team during Period #2 and blocked three shots from Katie and Bonnie. Katie and Bonnie also did extremely well and worked well with their second mounts. They shot many goals and worked well as a team but unfortunately Mel blocked most of them. Mathilde and Kim also worked as an excellent team with Mathilde and Chalkdust pushing both the ball through both of the times to score.
Period #3- The once strong first period mounts have rested up some during period 2 and the break but you can still tell they are tiring. The once extremely strong Just Do It is already starting to tire and isn't spinning quite as fast to follow the offensive players of Team #1. Mathilde is mounted on her fresh horse Public Relations and he is ready to go, they seem to be purposely tiring out and distracting Jacki and Just Do It to allow Kim on Higher Standards to slip in the only goal scored during the whole period. The horses are dragging towards the end of the period and very little action takes place.
Period #4- Team #2 is determined to win and come out very strong. But they just can't get past the excellent defensive combination of Mel and Skootin' Down the Street. Katie and 4 More Minutes make over three shots during this period but each is blocked.
Bonnie on Mouse also makes a strong showing by helping to ride off and block three of the shots made by Team #1 and making two of her own. Kim on Just Dixie slips in one goal in the middle of the period and the rest of the time Kim and Mathilde just try to ride off Team #2 and interrupt their shots. But, towards the end of the period, Bonnie fouls Kim while trying to block her shot and she gets to take a goal shot which goes in. With less than a minute left there is little left for Team #2 to do.
An extremely exciting game full of tons of action, and fortunately few fouls. Both teams defense are stars of the game. Both teams are ready to practice more and hopefully come back for a rematch. Very good game on the parts of both teams, Congratulations to everyone and especially to those who played their first match, everyone did very well.
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