Latest / Mind Over Mountain / Polo, Pressure, and Paving the Way with Shariah Harris

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Polo, Pressure, and Paving the Way with Shariah Harris · Mind Over Mountain

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Mind over Mountain with me and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Cheryl Strade. This week, my guest is polo player Shariah Harris,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and our conversation Shariah shares with me how getting lost
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: in a park as a kid led eventually to her
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: professional polo career, about how she has faced adversity in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the sport of polo as a black woman, and also
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: about the singular experience of falling in love with a horse.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Let's listen to our conversation. Sariah Harris, Welcome to mind
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: over Mountain.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for having me.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: I'm thrilled to have you.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, you are a trailblazer and a history maker.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Of course, you played polo altra high school and at
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Cornell and then went on to really genuinely make history
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: as the first black woman to play at the highest
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: level in the US Women's Polo Championship. And I want
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to talk to you all about that because that's fascinating
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and glorious. But I want to start way back at
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the beginning.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: I understand you.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Actually kind of came upon polo a little bit by accident.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, it was a very accidental occurrence.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: So when I was younger I think I was around
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: eight nine years old. My mom got lost in the
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: park in Fairmount Park. It's in West Philly, very big
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: area in Philly. She took her wrong turn and found
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: the mar She honestly saw black children riding horses as
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: she was lost in the park and panicking, and.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: She's like, wait, there's a bunch of people on the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: horses here.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: Yes, and if you know my mom, when she gets lost,
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: let us see anything else. But she saw like children
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: riding horses and that wasn't enough to like get her attention.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: And she was like, oh, I need to go look
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: at this, so ventured side. And we actually ended up
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: meeting Leslie Hiner, who's the founder director of the program,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: and really she just gave us an application and I
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: remember my brother and I we were so stressed about riding.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: I think it was like a two paragraph reason on
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: why you wanted to join the program, and uh huh,
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: Like a couple months later we were accepted.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, And this program is called work to Ride?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Is that right? Work?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And what tell me more about this program? I mean,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: what kind of work do you have to do to ride?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And you know, what's the promise of this program.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: So we learned how to do stalls, we learned how
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: to feed horses, turn in, turn out, basic vet care.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: We did a little bit of everything with the horses,
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: but the emphasis was on you would have a weekend
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: that you would be there essentially all day. When you
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: start out, it was Sunday. I was like the beginning
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: program and Saturday was the advanced program. So Sunday it
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: was a little more abbreviated Sunday. You were there maybe
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: four or five hours out of the day where you
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: would feed the horses, let them, turn them out, let
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: them go outside, and they'll hide their day. But while
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: they're outside, you're working. You're cleaning stalls, you're scrubbing the
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: water buckets, you're throwing hay, fixing fences, everything that you
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: could think of that revolved around caring for horses.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: We were doing it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: You said, like, you know, so you're doing all this work,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: but at what point are you allowed to actually get
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: on the horses and ride. Is that something that comes
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: later after you have a sort of initial period of
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: getting to know getting to be around horses.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: So you will have your one lesson day of the week, okay,
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: and for us. That was Thursday. We would come up
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: Thursday about an hour hour and a half. You know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: first you we'll learn the basic things about getting a
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: horse ready to ride, grooming them, tacking up. They were
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: very big one teaching us how to tack up and
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: the names of things, and you know, just learning the
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: right way and really just seeing if you were scared
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: of the horses.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: And were you No.
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: Actually I was always an animal person, So I saw
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: this and I was like, yep, I'm going to do it.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: You're like, sign me on. So was that your first
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: time on a horse program?
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: That was that was It was my younger brother, we
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: both joined at the same time, and then my older
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: sister joined months later. She saw all the fun that
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: we were having, right, But yeah, that was our first
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: time around horses or horses, doing anything that involved horses.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And what did you love? I mean, what did you
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: love about it? Was it just that it was good fun?
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Or was there I mean I grew up with horses myself,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and what I always felt was.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: Like, that's that deep connection that you have with an animal.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you felt that from the get go
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: or if it was just like playing good fun for
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: you at that age.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: It was definitely the horse connection.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: For me.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: My brother was he was five when he joined, so
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: for him it was fun.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: It was you know, he had other kids his age,
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: well most of them were older, but there were a
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: few that were closer to his age.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: He was just running around having fun.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: But the connection we both have, or we all have
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: now was our love for the horses.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: So that is really what kept us in it.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: And then the fun that we had and the friends
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: that we made that was the and of course later
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: on Polo is what made us stay.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Like Okay, no, I know it's hard.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: I know it's difficult to play in around school and
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: you don't have your friends that you grow up with.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: To do it with you, but.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: You have your horse friends exactly and they get it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: What do you think that is to me? It's a
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: very hard thing to describe, but it's a very very specific,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: unique particular bond and it's and it's very like, I'm
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the smells even just you talking about like grooming and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: muffing stells, like the smell of the horse, right, there's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: something that feels like this total almost spiritual experience.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: And it's weird because when now that I'm older and
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: you know aren't because when I was younger, just always
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: at the barn, always around the horses. Like I said,
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: we did lessons one day week. Well, when you play
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: polo and you're on the team, and the more involved
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: in the program you are really the more you get
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: from it.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: So we were up there multiple.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Days a week, right, it was like full immersion pretty.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Sadly, and I remember like, uh, you know, after college
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: and I was around them lesson, especially COVID, I was like,
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: I've missed the smell of horses.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: I know, there's something.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: If you're not a horse person, you'll be like he
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: missed the stink. No, it's like the I don't know,
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: it's like the sweat smell. But like you if your
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: horses and grow up like you that smell Like you
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: missed the smell. You missed the sound of the who
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: hitting the ground. Yeah, yeah, just small things like that.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: So you're you know, first it's really just this this
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: wonderful kind of exposure experience for you. At what point
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: did you think, Okay, this is kind of like an
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: athletic endeavor to learn how to compete and play polo
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: and actually like take this more seriously as an athlete,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: at what point did that begin for you?
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to think, because I've always been super competitive.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Are you one of those people like I'm gonna win
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: whatever it is?
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, I always want not okay, so yeah, correction, it's
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: not you're going to you just did you just always want?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: That's good, I think.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: I think for me is so what made me want
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: to play was seeing the older kids at the time,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: seeing how good they were, and you know, just seeing
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: them run around in the field, hitting the ball together
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: and just having fun and you know, just being carefree
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: but having fun. I think that was the moment I
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: was like, oh, I want to do that too. Whatever
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: they're doing, I want to do it. And then once
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: you start playing, you're like, oh, honestly, polo, you either
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: love it or you hate it. I think because there's
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: a bit of you know, equon disciplines are are very disciplined,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: they can be and is a little more.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Spur of the moment, more how do I describe it?
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Rollicking?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: It's like a yeah, it's.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: You're you're not like sort of laced up.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I mean when you're doing like a show horse and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: you're like walk trot trot, cant right, Like that's a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: very almost prim activity and with polo, like you've got
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the mallet and you're racing around. Is that is that
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: what you mean?
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like it's a little more untamed.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, if that's the word I'm looking for, because
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: you know, we lets made sure that we did a
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: little bit of everything. We we did pony races, we
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: did hunter jumpers, we did we did film master chases,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: we did fox hunting, we did a couple Western shows.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: So we had the opportunity to do everything.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: And then you know, you kind of pick what you
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: want and we all kind of steered away from the rigidness. Yeah,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: and especially hunters, we kind of, uh, we steered away
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: from you know, the yeah, everything has to be perfect.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: We're polo.
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: Like I said, you could be a little more untamed,
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: you could be a little uh.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: It's like it's controlled madness. Yeah.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: That we like to call a hockey on horses. That
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: that's probably the most, uh, the thing that we can
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: relate to with the most because love that. Yeah, hockey,
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: you can you can run into each other, you can
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: bash your safely because it's always you know, around the safety.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Welfer of the horse.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: But you know, you go at top speed, you can stop,
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: you can turn, you can hit each other, you can
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: take the ball that way, you.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Can send it past to your teammates, so you.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Can break bones, get your teeth knocked out, all that
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: fun stuff.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've taken the ball to the face and thankfully,
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: where's my wood? I have not had a serious, serious, and.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Oh that's amazing.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: So many of the athletes I talked to on this
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: podcast are like, they have an injury story, So so
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: you don't.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I mean I have.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I have.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Our fun thing.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: We would get a project horse, mostly usually off the shart,
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: and we would train though well, my project course, she
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: took a lot of energy and I had her on
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: the throw one day and she jumped over a creek
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: and ran my leg into a tree and I didn't
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: break it. I didn't break it anything. I'll still have
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: some nerve damage. Yeah, so that is my worst injury, thankfully,
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: And it took forever to hear.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: It was swollen for months. So but I didn't bring anything.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So once you did start competing as a polo player,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: where you were in high school at that point, is
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: that right?
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: Honestly, I'll probably use middle school school. Okay, so what
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: kind of leaves.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, this Work to Ride program is specifically directed
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: at under resource kids, kids who would not necessarily be
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: in the kind of socioeconomic slice of the culture that
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: they have access to things like horses and barns and
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: writing lessons and all that kind of stuff. I mean, Honestly,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: when I think about the sport of polo, the thing
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: that comes to mind, and I think I'm not alone
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: in this is like, I just imagine that, like the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Royals and you know in you know, the UK playing right,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: it seems like an extremely sort of upper class you know,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: economically at least sport. So what kind of leagues were
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you guys playing against in Philadelphia?
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: So I had the benefit of coming into a program
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: that was pretty well established. Leslie started the program in
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: ninety four ninety five, so she had been doing this
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: with the kids years before I joined.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: So there.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: There were the interscholastic season we would really we would
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: travel for everything. We would go the teams in Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut,
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: New York with some other crazy places. We went to Massachusetts,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: Rhode Island. So we always traveled. We picked up from
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: school early and traveled to We went to Maryland a
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: decent amount because there were two teams there and just
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: because it was closer. But just get picked up from
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: school early, loaded into leslis truck and we would travel
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: over to our games. And honestly, those are some of
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: my most fai memories of the program, just the car
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: rats together and the road trips.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: But when you would show up, would your team look
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: different than the teams you're competing? Again?
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely there There weren't any other black kids playing
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: when when I joined. I will say, things are shifting
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: a bit more and I see more like children in
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: the sport now than obviously than when I started.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: So it does show a little bit of progress.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: But and you know, people wanted to emulate programs after Leslie's.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Program, right once they saw what she was doing. They
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: found a way, I mean, is there is there, genuinely,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I think, a viable way to make that sport more diverse.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, and not just racially, but obviously economically because
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: of what I just said about like it takes, as
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: you know, a lot of money to.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Own a horse, or to rend a horse, or to
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: have it. You know, that whole apparatus around it is
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: extremely expensive, right.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I would say it's hard. I think the program was
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: very unique and I don't know.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: I guess we have the tools at our disposal through
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Leslie and the connections that she had for us to
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: continue to want to be successful and also like our
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: own drive to want to do it. But it's still
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: hard because the prices do nothing, but you know, go
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: up every year.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: If you don't own a horse, you have to rent,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: which is my current.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: Uh, which is my current roadblock because horse rentals are
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: they add up?
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't have any sponsorship or.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Like outside sponsorship or we call them patrons or patronas.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Patronas and ladies pull up who picks you up for
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: a team and covers your costs. It it's very very.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Difficult to do it.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: So I don't think the sport is there to make
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: it more accessible. However, I think the way to make
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: it most accessible is at the you know, middle school
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: intercollegiate level, because then you have your you have these
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: clubs right will allow you to play in or polo,
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: which is significantly cheaper than outdoor. So if you get
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: kids start I think honestly and people will say this
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: in a sport too then younger you get kids involved,
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: no matter the socio economic background, usually you can, you know,
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: because maybe they'll be good enough to go playing.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Find a way like you. So you did go on
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: to get a full scholarship to Cornell? Is that correct?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Correct?
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: And was that an academic scholarship or a polar scholarship
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: or both? I mean, I think you were also quite
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: a strong Instellar student.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: It was it was more of academic financial scholarship Cornell
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: is I was very fortunate that Cornell gives need based scholarship.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: So once you're accepted into the school, excuse me, once
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: you're accepted into the school, they want your financial records.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: It feels like back to the day you were born.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of paperwork, right, Yes, there's a lot
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: of stuff.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: They want to make sure you never had any money before.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Sure, you never had money, your mom never held money.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: But once that.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: You're like, I signed me too, I grew up for
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yep, I'll put my both hands up.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: I've got no no pennies in my pocket.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like, we don't have anything. And at the time,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: my mom she had recently got laid off. So that
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: was that was a big stress factor.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: You were like, oh good, so she was paying, but
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: she was like, you know how much the school costs?
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: And you know, I was. I did my research because
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: I knew I want to pull out in college. So
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: once they saw that we didn't have any financial backing
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: to pay the souition, they just they just have a
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: I guess they have a pile of money for students
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: who are accepted but can't afford the tuition.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I think they keep it out back behind the barn
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: and a big pile, just their pile of money they get.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Thankfully, so that pile is what I got.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: That's really why I was able to go to Cornell.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you Cornell. I mean, what was that like?
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: So you're coming from Philly, you're you know, that's always
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a big transition for anyone to leave their family. But
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: you have this team and even though you've been competing
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: against you know, other you know, players who lived in
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: different environments, I'm going to guess, were you the only
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: black woman on your team?
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: For now?
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I was, so suddenly you're just in this pretty much
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: all white space. What was what was that like for
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: you in terms of culture shock or adjustment?
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: It was definitely a culture shock because even though I
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: knew we were the only kids playing in the program.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: I tell people we always had each other, and I
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: was fortunate enough to play with my brother and my
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: sister and then some of my best friends at the
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: time because we were always together. So even though we
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: were the olding whims, we still had each other and
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: we still had lots. Yeah, but going there, and it's
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: a difference between having other people like you there and
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: then being by yourself. But I was very fortunate because
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: my teammates at Cornell never made me feel out of place.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: They never really made me feel uncomfortable at always like
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: as soon as I got there, people scooped me up
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: like a baby bird, like, oh, you're going to be
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: my friend.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Oh that's great.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I was very fortunate. It was a great
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: group of I don't know, I've always had great teammates,
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: whether they were on the JV team, the first year team,
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: the starting team, it was. I've always had a good
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: experience with my teammates at Cornell.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I've always been curious about this when I was thinking
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: about like to say something like, wow, you were the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: first black woman to play in the in the US.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Women's Paula Chavia Ship Like, whenever you're the first or
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the only, I imagine there is this other layer of pressure.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Did you feel that or were you just like, no,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I'm just me playing this game, or did you feel
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: that you were representing in some way?
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: I will say I had a taste of being the
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: first when I was a soft Nope.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I had just finished my freshman year of college and.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: I one of the patronas for a team got injured
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: in the high going Connecticut and they had good relationship
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: with the program. Somehow, some way, I got selected to
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: take her spot and play. So at that point, I
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: was the first black woman to play in the like
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: one of the the highest we call them handicaps, one
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: of the highest handicap tournaments in the US. So that
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: was my summer of my freshman year, so I think
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: that was like twenty seventeen. So I had a taste
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: of that, and it was a lot of pressure at
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: the time. And then of course you know when you're
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: the first, you always get the you get the good
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: and you get the bad that comes with the experience.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: So there was there was a lot of pressure I
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: felt at the moment because there were things that came
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: up negatively about me getting that spot, and it did.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: It dampened the experience for me at the time.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: But you know, why were the negatives things? Do you
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: mean people thought you got that spot because you were black?
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: People thought I shouldn't have the spot.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Uh huh. And I didn't have the right look for
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: the spot. I see someone, but so and so should
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: have been selected over her.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: And you know, everyone has something.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: To say, and how did you answer that or survived that.
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: I just tapped into my love for the sport and
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: the opportunity that I was getting to play besides people
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: that I watched on the TV. So of course that
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: puts a damper on it because you're like, everybody should
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: be excited for me, But yeah, not how the word works.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: And now everyone doesn't celebrate your biggest and happiest moments
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: with you.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: That's a hard lesson to learn.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it hurts. It was, It did, and it was
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: a tough pill to swallow.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: I'd be lying if I say that I, you know,
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: by myself, cried because you can't let people see you cry.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: But I'd be loud if I say it didn't hurt
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: and it didn't upset me, and it didn't make me
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: feel discouraged. But you know, when I realized again, when
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: I realized the opportunity that I was getting, I'm playing
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: beside and against and with some you know, people that
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: I looked up to and that I watched on the
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: TV and that I watched one Championships. It's like, you
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: know what, I'm doing this for me. And usually people talk.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Badly about you because they are jealous of the position
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: you're in.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: That's true, So they want what you have exactly.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: They want, yeah, your your ability or your power and
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: magic and you know, expertise at the sport or whatever
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: it is. But you also said that there was like
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the good, the negative, and the positive, the good and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the bad. So I'm gonna guess the positive was actually
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: like really huge too, because not only did you get
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: to do this thing and do it well, but you
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: did you did make history, and you did pave the trail,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: blaze the trail I should say for other players of
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: color who might look at you and say, if she
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: can do it, I can, I have a place too.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I and I said after my first game,
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: there were a lot of people who showed up because
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: you know, I was doing interviews, I was getting pieces
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: done on it before leading up to my first game
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: and throughout this tournament. And I'll say the because it
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: was in Greenwich, Connecticut, you know, a very old money
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: part of the US. But when I played my first game,
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: there were a lot of people who came and there
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: were a lot of black women.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: In the crowd.
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: And after the game, they would come up and ask
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: to take pictures of me, and I want to call out
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: their daughter, and I was like, ah, yeah, So I
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: will say in that moment, I was like, you know,
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: you know, I was only how old was I at
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: the time, Like eighteen nineteen?
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Wow, Like you know, like I just want to play polo.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: But that moment was, you know, the beginning of the
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: eye opener for me that it's not just about me
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: and it's not just about my love for the sport
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: and I'm just doing it because I love it. There
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: are people watching, and there's people who are looking to
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: me as a role model, even though I didn't see
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: myself as a role model at the time.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: But I was starting something bigger.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: And now that I have people that are like, oh,
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: I got my daughter in because of you, or.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: So, oh my gosh, that's I think that's so powerful
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and so beautiful and really the highest achievement and in
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: any of the work we do, whether it be you know,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in elite sports or in any field that you can
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: say like other people feel that they had that opportunity
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: in part because you modeled how to do that.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: Right, and I didn't know how to you know, handle
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: that At the time. I'm like, I just want to
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: play vola. But by the time I got to the
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Women's Open, I kind of realized, you know that in
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Patu you make At the time, yeah, I learned that,
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: So tell me about the Women's Open.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: How how old were you when you got that opportunity
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and how did that come about? I don't I would
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: love for you to explain to my listeners more about
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the logistics of polo and how it is you get
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: selected to be on a you know, on a team
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: Again, it was uh, luck and opportunities.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: You got lost in a park, luck of opportunity, that's.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: So, how did it get started?
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: So the year prior, one of the teams in the
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: final of the Women's Open selected work to ride is
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: like charity to receive, like you know, their charity check
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: for being the finalists in the open, and let's have
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: me go down to accept the check.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: And I was able to sit, you know, front row
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: and watch the.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: Final and and I said to myself, I was like,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: I want to play in this next year.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well so I just you know, just started inquiring.
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: And so I will say the really the only reason
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: that I was able to play was because of the Ganseys,
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: Melissa Ganzy and Mark Nancy. They are the owners of
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: polo club called Grand Champions and Florida, and they've always
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: been a friend of the program because I believe they
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: both went to Penn so they have Philly connections and
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: they knew Leslie throughout the years.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: So we were putting.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: We had an event, the first, the first Polo Classic
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: in Philadelphia, and this was twenty twenty. Oh goodness. Got
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: to think of the years. I was like, twenty twenty
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: four to twenty five, So a couple of.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Years ago, you're twenty six, twenty seven.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Now I just turned twenty eight, twenty.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Eight, Happy birthday, thank you.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: So yeah, they were at the first Polo Classic event
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: and I just remember asking Melissa. I was like, yeah,
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: it just that I wanted to run something to buy
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: her because I was I knew that in order to
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: do it, I need to fire sponsorship. It's expensive to
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: play at the lower goal level, but to play at
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: the highest women's level in the US, I knew it
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: was going to take money.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: So, you know, after the event.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: Spoke to her a few days later on the phone
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: and I just, you know, just told her that I
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: wanted to pick her brain if she knew of any companies,
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: any people who I could ask to, like, you know,
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: get the ball rolling, how can I find money for this?
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: And she's so funny and her her question was was, well,
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: who do you have in mind for the team? And
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: I was like, I didn't make it that far. I
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: just was My question to her was really, where do
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: you think I could get started? And how do you
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: think I should propose it? And her response was just like, well,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: what's the interro fee? Totally interry fit.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: She was like.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: Just real, well I could sponsor it, Oh my gosh.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes since all you got to do is just name
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the dollar amount, right, and somebody writes them like huh yeah.
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: She's like yeah, and just very ca She's so funny,
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: just very casual, like, yeah, I can do it right.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure she told you this. If she did,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to say it to you, and I
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: know this without even knowing you, is that she she
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: didn't write that check because she had the money, having
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the money help, She wrote that check because she knew
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: what an amazing athlete and rider you were and are.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: And well it shocked me because you yes, and I
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: always am always I'm thankful to her and everything that
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: she did to help me and help the team with.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: We actually made it to semi finals with.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: Like I said, we were a team that got pieced
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: together pretty late on because people and the Women's Opening,
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: they plan their teams like the Women's Open happened in January.
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: More than likely they know what their team is going
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: to be for next year already, so we.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: Were late to the ball.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: It worked out.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: Because the other two people who I had to join
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: the team was a girl named Maddie Grant and another
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: woman named Nina Clark. And in the Polar War Nina
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: Clark and she has been one of the best women's
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: players for the longest amount of time.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: She's from the UK.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: And it's funny because Maddie and Nina they had teams planned,
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: and then their teams moved in another direction. So I
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: got wind of them being available, and they were available
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: at different times, but I got one of them being available,
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: you know, shortly after Melissa said, well, you know, think
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: of some people and let me know.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: So it kind of worked out perfectly. So you kind
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: of built the team. What does it take to be
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: what is it? You know, what's a good polo player? Like,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: what are the qualities of a good polo player?
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: I will say strategic.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: How well they hit the ball, and uh, for me personally,
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: how well they ride, because it does get hard when
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: it's international players coming in and players like myself and
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: who don't own their own horses. If you don't ride
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: well in your own rentals, usually it is not the
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: best combination because if you're not able to get on
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: other people's horses and figure out a way to make
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: them play well and to make yourself play well, it
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: usually isn't.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: A good combination.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: And so that's my next question is like, what are
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the qualities of a good horse? And I'm imagining, I'm
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: guessing I could be wrong, so please tell me, you know,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: does that kind of relationship between the rider and the horse.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: How how big of a role does that play?
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Like, how how long do you have to kind of
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: build that relationship between you and the horse you're riding.
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: So we say that horses in polo are works are
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: account for seventy sixty to seventy percent of the game.
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: So if you can't get your horse to do to
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: want them to do, yeah, you're.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: You're not gonna You're not gonna have a Goazam.
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: So honestly, it's it's a it's a your basis of riding,
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: how well do you ride, period? And then how well
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: do you adjust to other horses. Thankfully, because I went
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: up through the Inner Scholastic intercollegiate program, I was always
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: I was used to riding different horses, actually every chucker
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: because you know, we didn't have our own horses in
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: the work to our program that we would take with
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: us the game, so we always rode the others teams horses.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: So I think that helped me. That has helped me
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: tremendous sleep through my polo career because now I'm able
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: to get on almost any horse, and no matter it's quirks,
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: I'm able to be productive to some degree. So yeah,
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: and it helped because the Women's Open was over. It
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: was about a month long, Yeah, about a month, so
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: the horses that we were playing, we had time to
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: ride outside of games so that we were able to
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: familiarize ourselves more with them.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: What's a lesson you've learned from a horse?
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Oh? Oh, I would say patience.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: It definitely patience because if if you're fighting against your horse,
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: you're usually never going to win that battle. You have
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: to find a way, even if you're frustrated, even if
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: you need them to do something right in that moment,
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: if you don't know how to ask them for it,
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: if you don't know how to be to refocus yourself
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: and refocus your energy and give them and give yourself
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: a moment to just decompous and ask again a different way.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, then you're always gonna be fighting with your horse.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: In my experience, that's a quality that really crosses over
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: into life, isn't it. I mean I think about that's
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: how parenting works, that how it works in relationships or
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: on the in the workplace. That's that's a you know,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: it's a lesson for sport, it's a lesson for life.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: Like so many Yeah, just take a second, like Okay,
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: let me get us together and then ask again.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Speaking of qualities and traits, I have a Dear Sugar
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: letter that I would love for you to help me answer,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: and it's about just that kind of thing.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: Can I read these the letter?
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Of course, Dear Sugar, this is a different kind of
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: letter because I'm seeking your advice not about one specific
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: issue or dilemma, but about advice that fits more into
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: how to live a good life category. I'm a twenty
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: seven year old woman who lives in rural Montana, and
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: on the long drives from my house to the high
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: school where I teach language arts, I've been listening to
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Mind over Mountain.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I like how you and your guests share.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Stories about your lives and the ways you face challenges
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and hardships to find your way to success. The question
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I have for you and also for your guest is
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: what are three or four character traits or habits that
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: you've developed and drawn upon to achieve a sense of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: contentment and or success in your life. I'm asking my
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: students to write about these things for one of their
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: required essays, and I'd like to share with them the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: wisdom that you and your guest have to offer thank you.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: It's sign teacher. I love that letter. So who wants
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: to go first?
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Sharia? What would you say, you know, are really.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Central character traits or habits that have been really important
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: to you as as as a polo player, but also
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: as a human.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: I always say to not let other people put limitations
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: on myself.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: I think that's a mindset and I think that's the action.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: I have to keep reminding myself daily.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: To that only I can put limitations on what I
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: can do, and to shut out the outside noise. And
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: I think that, I think that's just life, because people
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: always want to tell you what you can again do.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Oh and I'm a very stubborn person.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: So that was that's pretty easy for well, not easy,
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: because that's it takes work daily to not fall into that.
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: Oh well I can and no one believes. And so
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: all of that, I will say, prioritizing my prioritizing myself
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: and my health.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: How I was in college, it's not the same activity.
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: Load that I'm able to do now with a full
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: time job and all that other stuff. So continue, you know,
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: continuing to better myself to you know, as they say,
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: your body is the temple, because there's no greater thing
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: than having your health, especially being someone in healthcare.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: There's nothing more value.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: Right you're a nurse, Is that correct?
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, nothing more valuable than having your health for
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: as long as.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: You can have it.
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: Okay, number three, number three, Number three, number three. If
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: you've got one value your relations with people, because like
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: I said, that one relationship I had with Melissa allowed
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: me to play and the woe that's open. So because
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: no one gets anywhere by themselves. Yes, you do a
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: lot of the work yourself, but there's always there's someone
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: or something around you that allows you to get to
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: the spot that you're in. So I think that's important
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: not to take for granted.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: Because I had a mom who's amazing, I had les,
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: I had my siblings, I had all these people along
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: the way who directly and indirectly helped me get to
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: where I am now. So always with the people you
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: know who helped you along the way.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: That's such. Those are all wonderful things. Totally agree with them.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And I love that you use that term relationships because
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes people can get really cynical about like, oh,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: you've got to know somebody who knows somebody to get
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: you know ahead, and I think in my experience too,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: in my career as a writer, is that, like all
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the good things that have happened, they're not about you know.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: Sort of cheating the system because I knew somebody.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: It's about, you know, as you say, like having relationships
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: with people who extend a hand, you still have to
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: do the work, you know, Like I said, you didn't
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: get that check written because you just came out of nowhere.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: She wrote you that check as she believed in you,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: because you've proven yourself and you've shown up and and
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and you know, way back very beginning, you your mom
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: took that wrong turn and you showed up, you know,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: at this opportunity, and your mother decided to like make
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: it happen.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: And so those those are really authentic things.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: So my three, what I would add to your three,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: because I want I believe everything you said is really valuable,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: is I would say, you know, I think that courage.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Cultivating your courage is a really important part of life.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: And that to me means you know, like taking risks
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: in the direction of vulnerability, or taking a chance or
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: trying something new, just.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Like you did.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Sorry, how would you you know, showed up with those
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: horses kindness. There again, it kind of backs up what
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: you said about relationships. I think always leading with love
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: and kindness. I think love is the most powerful force
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: in the universe, and so hit your wag into it
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and good things will happen. And the last thing I
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: would say is, you know, to teach her and her students,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: is you know, trusting yourself that like that deep wise
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: voice that lives within us is a divine voice, and
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: it is the one that will all aways lead us
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: to the right place. And it could be scary to
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: do that sometimes, but that's why we have to cultivate
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: our courage and to trust it. So those are my
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: tips for this teacher in this letter. Now, if people
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: would just follow those instructions, right, Shariah, they'd have a
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: you know, a good life. As so they said, I mean,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: you know, I love it. Thank you for helping me
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: be sugar for a minute there that. I think those
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: are some good words to live by.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: So you are a nurse.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask about that first of all, tell
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: us about being nurse. What kind of nurse are you
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: and and how does that like coincide with your you know,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: your work as an athlete and your you know, your
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: profession as a folo player.
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: So I am a nurse in the OAR. So I'm
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: I'm one of the people that interfer you for surgery
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: and bring you back and do all the charting, documentation
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: and and really running the room when surgery is happening.
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: But there's two roles when you're operating room nurse. You
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: can circulate, which is that role, or you can scrub,
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: which is what you see and.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Like Raised Anatomy or any other medical show when they're
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: like the.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Pit, which I'm obsessed with. Okay, everyone says that's a
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: good show. I haven't watched it yet.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. You'll just feel like I feel like
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: you're at work, you know.
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: So yeah, great, Or you could be scrubbed down with
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: the surgeon and you're the one. You're the one that
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: sets up the table and you know when they're like scalpel,
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: scalpel or that person.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: Uh so they I know all.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: This because I know I watched the pet So you
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: could just like, you know, put me in some scrubs
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: and I'll get to it.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: There you going with me?
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: So, yes, I work in.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: The ore and and you still are riding and pursuing
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: paula plane.
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: I am now working full time does make harder, but
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: recently I've been making active efforts to uh make polo
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: happen outside of work. I'm just happier that way.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: I think I was just very unhappy when I didn't
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: have polo very involved in my life the way I
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: wanted to. So I've been more intentional and more active
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: in making things happen. So I'm actually leaving on what day.
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: I'm leaving on Monday morning for ag in South Carolina.
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: I'll be there for two weeks for two polo tournaments,
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: and then I'll return a month later for another tournament.
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: And I was thankful enough to find a sponsor for
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: the first two tournaments and a half sponsor for the second,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: so that made it a lot easier for me to say, yes,
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: I would like to play in this and how long?
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: You know, what's the longevity for polo players, Like, is
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: it one of those sports that you that you can
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: do into your fifties, you know, at a competitive level,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: or do you do you age out pretty young like
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: some other sports.
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: No, thankfully, it's it does have longevity to me, unless
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: you have a bad accident where you can't and ride
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: and play anymore. It is it's a sport you can
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: play really until your later years because we we say
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: you're never too old tomorrow how to play because thankfully
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: you have a horse that is doing the running and
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: the the crazy athletic movements for you now to be
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: at the top of your game, you also have to
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: be very athletic.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: And very very good. But you can. You can still.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: You can go play senior chuckers. You can go out
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: there and play practice. You could do a lot with polo.
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: So there is, uh, there is a longevity with the sport.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: And what about your old your old mates back at
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: work to ride, do you ever go back and mentor
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: the kids or talk to the kids about your achievements
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: in the sport.
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: I definitely do go back. I don't go back as
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: often as I want to because work, so I do.
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: I do go back. And there is a there's a
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: group of newer kids that I'm not as familiar with,
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: but the kids before that, I know them a lot better.
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: And you know, I've gone to some of their games,
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: and I played with a couple and some of the
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: you know, lower tournaments and and they've helped me get
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: ready for my games. Uh, let's will be like, oh,
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: I'll say, you want the kids to help you, so
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: so yeah, I will say that worked around is a
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: big family. So it's it's just like your younger cousins.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: You don't know your youngest cousins that well, but you
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: know the ones that fall in the range.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: You've really enlightened me about the sport of polo, and
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: before we go, I did. I did have one question
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: that I just forgot to ask, you know, what is it?
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Because I do think and I wonder if you agree
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: with me that the polo is this sport that a
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: most people really don't know much about and they have
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: that idea like I had like in my mind, I'm like, okay,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: it's like that's what like the Prince the Prince of
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: you know, like you know that the royals play over
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: there across the pond rights and they do, and it's
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: not really like it's a sport that seems at all
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: like accessible to me, you know, in any way. And
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: so I'm going to guess there's a lot of misconceptions
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: about the sport and I'm wondering, like what is it
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: that like you think are some you know what, what
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: could you tell us that's the kind of correction to
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: the way that we perceived the sport.
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: I don't know if I have much correction because what
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: you think is correct.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: However, however, it's a lot at the top level. It's
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: like that. So the top level is what you think.
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: You know, the super white pants, the people getting their
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: horses ready for them, and a lot of money, and
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: you know, the big hats and the flowy dresses.
• 45:13
  Speaker 6: So it's list of champagne. Yes, yes, yeah, Well, at
• 45:17
  Speaker 6: the top level it is like that. But when you
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: get more to you know, where most players are, which
• 45:23
  Speaker 6: is low to medium gold stuff, it's a lot more
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: boots on the ground.
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: It's a lot more Even the pros, you know, the
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: low goal to medium pearls, they're working their horses themselves.
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: They're doing the work for their horses their selves. So
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: there is an elitism in the sport. But there's also
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: people who are just work hard and people who are
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: you know, might not have grown up in money, might
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: not have grown up in horses, but they're still paving
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: away for themselves. So yes, it is money, Yes it
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: is glamour, Yes it is rich yes, it is the
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: fancy champagne, but it's also probably a lot more people
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: who put in a lot of work outside of playing
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: to the low happened, and.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: They're not even They're not only paving the way for themselves,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: but like in your case, you also are paving the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: way for so many others coming up behind you. So
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: thank you for that, Terah, And really it's been such
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: a delight and pleasure to talk to you today.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: It's been great meeting you, nice talking with you, and
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: thank you for having me.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. If you'd like to write
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: to me seeking advice, please send me an email at
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Deardearsugar at gmail dot com, and don't forget to rate,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: Happy Drels and I'll see you next week.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Min Over Mountain with Cheryl Strade is an iHeart women's
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: sports production produced by Britney Brown and Rodney Brown of
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Barbara Jean Productions. Supervising producer is Kaylin West at REALM.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: Associate producer Amaya Brathwaite. Our executive producers are Molly Barton,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Jerry Carita Grace Views and Jesse Katz. Our theme song
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: is composed by Gramoscope Music. Don't forget to rate, review,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, Happy trails, and
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: I'll see you next week.