NEWS

I have been publishing Polo magazine for decades. I officially became a staff member of the USPA nearly three years ago. I work with my colleagues in the communications department to plan the issues, then conduct interviews and write most of the stories. I also hire freelancers, choose photos, work with the graphic designer and printer, as well as manage all advertising and subscriptions. Additionally, I help edit special projects from time to time, such as the Bluebook and annual report.

My introduction to polo was by happenstance. I am the youngest of seven children, and no one in my family is involved with horses. Growing up in Long Valley, New Jersey, one of my neighbors had a pony. My mother passed away when I was 10, and spending time with the pony was therapeutic. I began trading babysitting and grooming for riding lessons at a nearby stable and put all my time and energy into horses.

When I was in high school, I was looking for a summer job with horses and a family friend lived next to Hell Mountain Farm that was always looking for help. It was owned by Dick and Laura Kates, who played polo in Florida in the winter and New Jersey in the summer. I was hired, having no idea what polo was, but soon learned! Their farm was perched atop a rocky mountain, inaccessible to horse trailers. We had to pony the horses from the barns, down a gravel drive, through a stream to where the trailers were parked. After evening polo, we had to pony them back up in the dark.

The Kateses played locally and I traveled with them throughout the Northeast in the summers. After a few years, they invited me to come to Florida to work for one of their pros. It happened to be Peter Rizzo and several years later, we were married. We’ve been together ever since.

Later, I went to work for Herbie Pennell, who managed Palm Beach Polo during its heyday. I worked in the polo office and took care ofhis personal horses. During that time, I also helped out numerous players with exercising or caring for horses when they went out of town or getting barns ready for them before they arrived for the season.

Peter and I traveled with our horses to different clubs in the summer. After starting a family, I worked as an in-home assistant for players Norman and Nancy Brinker during the season. I worked for them for five years before being hired by Polo magazine. Two years later, in 1997, when the magazine’s name changed to Polo Players’ Edition, I took over the contract with the USPA to provide subscriptions to its members. The magazine was eventually sold to the USPA and in 2022, I was hired to publish the magazine through them.

After several decades in Florida, in 2019, we sold our farm and moved back to my hometown, a beautiful area of rural New Jersey. It is close to some of my siblings and roughly halfway between my son’s home outside Boston, where he is a PhD candidate at Harvard, and my daughter’s home in Baltimore, where she is a surgeon for a sizable small animal shelter.

My kids share my love of animals, cooking, traveling, sports and adventure. Over the years, our family has ridden horses through several countries, done white water rafting and waterfall repelling in Costa Rica and even jumped out of airplanes together in Florida. Bothkids are now married and stay pretty busy, but I see them whenever I can.

When not working, Peter and I enjoy the area’s beautiful farms, historic towns, cider mills, farmers markets, hiking and biking trails, lakes, etc. I am also the president of Tinicum Park Polo Club (Erwinna, Pennsylvania), where I play in the summer. Some people may be surprised to know I have dual citizenship. A few of my siblings and I became Irish citizens several years ago.