NEWS

Houston Polo Club recently sent an email update to players and members of the polo community:

What a crazy couple days it has been in the Houston area. The list of people to thank for moving polo ponies to higher ground is endless.

The water at the club is receding quickly, and we can now see the Farish field again! All ponies that stayed at Houston Polo Club throughout the storm remained dry and well taken care of thanks to the great Houston Polo Club barn staff.

As for polo season...the scheduled first day of polo is Tuesday, September 5, obviously with many players' horses being displaced due to flood waters it may be difficult to start tournament play as scheduled. As the flood waters recede, we will be calling teams to get everyone's pulse on their feelings on when to start.

Huge thanks to all that are helping by providing pastures for horses and shelter for people and pets. We may be fierce competitors on the field but support each other even more fiercely in times of need.

- Mark Prinsloo, Executive Director of Houston Polo Club

From Houston Polo Club Members Tim Kelly and Carl Price:

It was a combined incredible effort of teamwork that came together to help us in a frantic situation where there were many unknowns. Leading up to the hurricane, Pecan Acres Polo Club in Simonton, Texas, had been transporting some of our horses to Houston and it became clear it was unsafe. Those horses and our team were welcomed with open arms at San Saba Polo Ranch in San Saba, Texas. We need to thank Luis Echezarreta and his team for their help and support. It happened to be a fortuitous twist of fate, as we struggled all weekend with a high volume of tornadoes in our area and serious threats. All the while, Hernan Tejera and his family were under extremely serious hurricane conditions in Victoria, Texas. Rocking P Polo Ranch in Fulshear, Texas, dealing with the same conditions we were. Overnight from Sunday to Monday, our area quickly came under a mandatory evacuation. There were so many of our polo family that quickly pulled together to help us deal with the situation, regardless of their own personal safety to selflessly help us. We will be forever be in their debt.

Thank you to our Pecan Acres Polo Club crew for their work in San Saba and our guys locally pulling together quickly with Carlos, Raul, Tania. We are so grateful.

Thank you Billy and Pam Mudra, and Chad Bowman for pulling a truck and trailer to the farm through treacherous weather to get the horses and bring them to higher and safer ground.

Hernan Tejera left his family during a hurricane to ensure the horses would get to safer conditions...a huge thank you to not only him, but his wife Denise, and children Toho and Cata.

Thanks to Ray Stainback for welcoming what were surely shaken horses for greener pastures.

Thank you to the Rocking P organization and Marcos Villanueva for everything they did to help us and so many others manage through this.

Thank you to Ricardo "The King" Silvestre and Fairplay Polo Farm for everything they did for everyone, again selflessly.

Thank you Martin Munoz, Scott Wood and the ERG team for all they did to help us.

Thanks to Tom Harkness for the pre and post help while we were there and a far.

Last, thank you to everyone that called, emailed and texted to offer their help, their homes, their pastures for the health and benefit of the horses and us. You are too endless to name, yet there are so many.

You always have a sense of who will ride with you in the taxi when the limo has broken down, yet you really never know until the going gets tough. These are people that demonstrated that they will risk their lives and their comforts for the benefit of our other partners on the field...the horses.

The effects of this hurricane have impacted many in ways never anticipated and we are all extremely fortunate.Texas strong and Texas forever.