The Mercedes Benz – B Grimm Thai Polo Open final last weekend was an eye opener on many levels. I saw that the RMPA International League has moved to The Next Level of play. It was very competitive amongst all the teams and the quality of polo was much higher than in previous years.
I posted photos on Zack’s Tack’s page on Facebook of four new saddles that Zack’s Tack had received. All were distinctive polo saddles - two were royal blue suede polo saddles, a pink suede polo saddle, and a flower seat polo saddle.
As a social networking tool, Facebook has no peers. Within two hours, all the saddles were sold out.
New Year’s is a time for resolutions. I’m not normally one for lots of resolutions. But, as I get older, I have less time on earth left to do the important things. So here are my top 20 resolutions for 2010:
Zack’s Tack moved from the first floor to the ground floor of our Sri Hartamas location yesterday. (For Singaporeans, that means we are on the first floor, not second anymore.)
What a difference it makes to be on the ground floor! Lots more natural light and a much bigger area are the immediate benefits.
The last couple of weeks has been really hectic, hence the lack of posts. I traveled to Argentina with a contingent from the Royal Malaysian Polo Association led by RMPA President HRH Tengku Mahkota Pahang to make a bid to host the FIP Polo World Cup Zone D playoffs in Malaysia in June 2011.
Yesterday someone in the service industry called me at 9:30 in the morning and in the course of making polite conversation said “Did I wake you up?” I was insulted, but I decided not to let him know as I was sure he didn’t mean to be insulting.
I have been an early riser all my life. It goes back to the days when I would jump out of bed at 4:30 am to be able to work two horses, shower, change and drive 30 km before starting work at 7:25 am. I have long held the belief that it is better to work horses in the fresh cool of the morning. I still much prefer a morning ride to an evening one.
It was just a video clip posted on YouTube. But in a few days, 58,665 people all over the world had seen it. It was just a group page on FaceBook. But within 24 hours, 841 people had joined it, again from all over the world. Now, just days later, it has over 2,100 members.
Steve Wyatt runs a super show at the Nine Dragons Hill Polo Club in Shanghai. The club that he founded was the first to reintroduce polo to China after many centuries. Their Royal Salute Polo Gold Cup is the biggest polo tournament held in China, and rivals the best tournaments in Asia.
I recently went to a horse show dressed in breeches, dy’on chaps and saumur jodphur boots, looking the part of the jumper again. I even had my trusty silver hammerheads on as I schooled Harry Potter in the warm-up ring at 3Q Equestrian. It got a lot of people talking and asking if I was making a comeback to showjumping. All I was doing was schooling a horse for a friend.
I’ve been trying to compile an event calendar of shows happening in South East Asia in 2010. M’sian Polo has dates going as far as June 2011 but I can find very few settled dates of horse shows.
More than 1,000 costumes, 70 acrobats and dancers, 32 horses, 100 doves, three falcons, two eagles, two vultures and two donkeys.
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