Julian Appleby discovered polo in his final term at Millfield School in England - an institution renowned for its sporting prowess and the only one that had a resident polo team - when a fellow student introduced him to the sport.

“A good friend of mine who captained the polo team said: “Why don’t you give it a go,” said Julian. “And that was it.”

He had ridden all his life and had horsemanship skills from hunting, eventing and show jumping.. Julian trained his jumper, an Arab-cross, to play polo initially - and won the highly-competitive Pony Club U21 championship twice in a row. His parents bought him a 2-year-old OTTB for his 21st birthday and from that point forward he made his own horses by buying ex-racehorses at the Thoroughbred sales.

Julian worked for his father in his electroplating factory and played polo on the weekends until “people just started offering to pay me money,” and he turned pro. From there the sport took him to spending winters in New Zealand, making and selling horses, to England for the summer.

His umpiring career began in England in the early days of professional officiating. “It was a steep learning curve,” he said, of umpiring the high goal in his inaugural year. He still umpires in England and is a regular umpire of the Florida high-goal season. The game has changed dramatically since he started.

“The horses are now quite unbelievable and the margins for error are miniscule,” he said. “It’s a challenge to keep up with the play - and keep out of the way. As an umpire your peripheral vision has to be as wide as it can be at all times. You have to stay on it.”