Please share your background with us.
I’m from a little town called King City, which is about 40 minutes north of Toronto. I grew up there on a horse farm. My mother’s side of the family are all into horses. Before my grandmother Lucille Carpenter passed away a few years ago, she was inducted into the Canadian Horse Hall of Fame for everything she's done in Canada.
From breeding horses, to show jumping to fox hunting, she was great! She's quite a famous lady in the equestrian world. Two of my aunts married professional show jumpers who have represented several of the Canadian Olympic teams such as Beijing, Atlanta, Sydney, to name a few. One of my cousins is a professional show jumper and is competing in Wellington this season.
My brother and his wife are professional racehorse trainers in Toronto and are in Florida now and have horses training in Paysan Park, which is about 45 minutes north of Wellington. So, everyone's into horses! My father is the only one from his side of the family that was into horses. He was an amateur show jumper for a while and then he got into Polo through some of his equestrian friends.
The farm that we had was 10 minutes from the Toronto Polo Club, and he was introduced to some people in the horse world. By the time I was born, he was already playing Polo for fun. We grew up with a few horses and I played Polo with my father and brother, kind of weekend warrior stuff. Everything was horse related for our family in the summers and then in the winters, I was playing hockey which was my real passion and all I wanted to do.
Horses were something you did with the family because they were there, and that's what my family loved doing. That's where I started and then I had the opportunity and was asked to come to Wellington and play professional Polo when I was 17. I was still playing hockey but when the team asked me, I moved to Wellington and never left. That was in 1995 and I’m in my 30th season here.
Polo is such an International Sport. Where have you played?
Yes, it is! I’m playing for four teams right now in Wellington, but my main team is Dracarys, which is based in Long Island, NY in old Westbury at the Meadowbrook Polo Club.
Right now, we're about eight months in Wellington and then four months during the summer in New York where we play in Greenwich, the Hamptons, and in Meadowbrook. In the fall, usually November, we go to Argentina to play but I think this coming November we will go for more of the training and buying horses. I have also played in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, France, England, Germany, China, and South Africa.
I know you played Polo in Aspen on the snow and have played in Miami on the sand. What was that like?
Yes, I played several times. It's amazing and so much fun! I mean, Aspen is Aspen! It's a great tournament that a lot of people come out to watch despite the cold weather. They’re there because it’s cold and they enjoy outdoor sports whether playing or being a spectator.
I also played in China for the World Cup Snow Polo in Tianjin, which is about two hours from Beijing. They had about 12 countries participating in the tournament. We were invited and played there for two or three weeks, and I did that for two years in a row. It was an experience to say the least. Also, I have played many times in the Miami Beach Polo and a beach tournament in Punta Cana, DR and a few in Mexico.
So those fun events are always good and it’s somewhat of a business/pleasure trip. You know, you're playing Polo, but it's something exciting to do.
Most of us don't know anything about the preparation of the horses. Can you explain the day to day?
Yes, there's a lot of preparation especially because it is seven days a week! This year, I have 18 horses for myself to get through the season. With that number of horses, I have three people working for me every day to help with the management of the feeding, to the training, to the scheduling, and to everything in between.
We need to be on top of each one of the horses every day, preparing for the next game. There's an extensive amount of responsibility to prepare and take care of these horses! I take 11 horses to every game and play at least 10 of them. We’re constantly having to access which ones are ready that day, choosing the best ones, and picking the order we’re playing them. There's a lot to do with the horses behind the scenes.
Obviously, at this level, teams are usually put together a year or so in advance. Everyone's getting their horses ready, everyone's organizing the accommodations, the barns, practice fields, and so on.
Let’s talk about the game itself. What’s that like?
There's so much more than just showing up, hitting a white ball, and smiling. It takes a lot of work behind the scenes since the game is quite physical. I mean, we're going 40 miles an hour and hitting a ball over 100 miles an hour with 8 players all going that fast. So even though it's a 300 x 150-yard field, which is the equivalent of nine football fields, it sometimes feels very small when you have eight horses going 40 miles an hour in different directions.
It's extremely physical and very demanding in Wellington and the best of the best is here playing. You have the best players and the best horses from all over the world. The same holds true for show jumping and Dressage. Wellington is the hub from January to April for the top athletes in the world. You're competing against the best and the biggest organizations that have endless budgets.
There's always somebody that is coming up and everyone's trying to find the new up and upcoming superstars. I’m so fortunate that this is my 30th year and I'm the third oldest player in this tournament, but I’m always competing against the younger, and faster. My work ethic, and physical stamina keeps me playing at this level each year.
What’s the work span of a Polo player and the horse?
As dangerous as Polo is, if you get lucky and without any major injuries, you can play for many years. I'm 47 and still going strong. You don’t see many athletes playing at my age. In the different sports especially football, you see the least amount. Baseball and hockey, maybe you can get to 40 if you’re lucky, but usually by the time you’re in your 30’s, your career is over. With Polo, you can compete a little longer because there's a handicap system and although your handicap might be getting lower, you're still able to compete as long as you're always better than what your handicap is. It doesn't really matter the number so that sliding scale allows you to keep going a little longer. This is a physically demanding sport, and I know some guys who retire by the time they’re 30 due to injuries with their back, shoulders, or head.
As far as the horse, you’re usually trying to sell them by the time they're 13 or14 so you're not left with a 19-year-old that you can't do much with. There's always somebody that has a place for them who is playing at a lower level and will take those horses. You're constantly shifting, increasing, and moving the older ones to bring up new ones.
As far as your physical work out, how does it compare to other athletes playing sports?
Our workouts are very similar to a soccer player. Obviously, they do a lot more cardio, but ours is very similar with a mix of cardio, weights (not heavy), core, and reaction training.
When I started in 1995, it was my first winter in Wellington. I was told I wasn't even allowed to throw a baseball or football because they were worried that I would hurt my arm. They told me not to work out because I may bulk up, so weight training was out of the question. I was told to go swim in the ocean and fast-forward to today, everybody has their own trainer and lives in the gym.
Let's talk about Polo for Life and the mission of the organization.
Polo for Life is a foundation that I started to raise funds for pediatric cancer patients and their families to help them financially. I work with some local beneficiaries here such as Kids Cancer Foundation, Pediatric Oncology Support Team, and Miami Cancer Institute. If your child has cancer, one of the parents must quit their job. We help with mortgages, car payments, utility bills, etc. There have been times when we helped kids with their last wish of wanting to go to Disney, like the Make a Wish Foundation. Unfortunately, there's been times we've had to pay for funerals. We're there to provide financial assistance which we got more involved with during COVID. During that time, one parent was laid off and the other had to quit, so there were parents that couldn't even afford the fuel to get their kids to treatment. We were giving out gas cards for transportation. It's great that these organizations fund research and help to build these big wings in hospitals, but I wanted to do something that I could touch, shake someone's hand, and know that I helped them. Just like knowing I kept them in their house during that challenging time and I made their car and insurance payments. We pay their vendors directly and lessen that financial burden for them. We have funded programs, even equestrian programs, and everything we do is not only for the patient, but for the family and their siblings who often are forgotten.
We're going into our 10th Annual Polo for a Purpose which will take place on Friday, March 7, 2025. In 10 years, we've raised about 4 million. The event gets bigger each year, and this started because I'm a pediatric cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when I was 14. The diagnosis stunted me from playing hockey. I woke up one morning and my left leg was swollen, and I figured I had an injury. I had a rugby game on Thursday, a Polo game on Friday, a soccer game on Saturday, and I woke up Sunday morning with a swollen leg and assumed it was some type of injury or a blood clot. Later that day, the doctors realized
I had a softball sized tumor that had wrapped around my left urethra, shut off my left kidney, and hit the lymph nodes on my left leg. My leg wasn't draining fluid, so it was just constantly getting bigger and bigger. The initial prognosis was that I was going to lose my left leg and my left kidney. The doctors told my parents that I had six weeks to live! There was a lot of experimental drugs and chemotherapy. They had to start right away and what they had wasn't fully approved yet, but we didn’t have a choice, and they pumped everything into me.
I remember that they came in with a tape measure every few hours and said that if my leg reaches a certain number, they were going to amputate it. Luckily for me, the first round of chemo started to help immediately, and they couldn't operate because the tumor wasn’t encapsulating. It was just attached to everything so they couldn't go in and try to dig it out. Initially, it started to help right away, and my leg was being saved. They put a stent in my side to try to open the left urethra, which they got through to start trying to get my left kidney to work.
They said my left kidney probably didn't work for about a month, but I had no idea because my right kidney was working. That took four and a half months with chemotherapy. Because of this set back, I missed a good part of my hockey season, so I started to play Polo much more and was asked to come to Wellington to play professionally a couple years later.
About 15 years into my Polo career, I was asked to do a charity event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at the Polo Club and that's when I started the event Polo for a Purpose. I never wanted to talk about my past but figured it was time to help others and start doing something about it. The first four to five years, we fundraised for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which was great!
But then we would put the event on, hand them a check and they would vaguely tell me where the funds were going. That's when I decided to get more involved and started my own foundation Polo for Life so I can choose where the funds go and began hosting my fundraising event Polo for a Purpose each year. I love being hands on and seeing where and how we put these dollars to work. As mentioned, we're growing and in our 10th year. Last year, we hosted our first Polo for a Purpose last September in New York and we’ll do it again this year on September 14, 2025. Last year it was a small event, but this year will be much bigger just like how we started the first one in Wellington.
Tell us about the entertainment.
This year, we're going to have a DJ who will play a great mix of music. It’s a long day with the Polo game, cocktails, and the dinner. The crowd loves a DJ who keeps everybody dancing right from dinner time on. Two years ago, we had an Indian theme, and I rode in on an elephant after the game. Last year, was a Hawaiian theme and we had fire dancers and this year, it will be a Japanese theme and great music! Very exciting!
How can our readers donate or purchase a ticket?
If anybody wants to attend or make a donation, they can visit www.poloforlife.org. Guests can also purchase tailgating tickets for the game which we will have tailgating tents in the main stadium field of the National Polo Club. The VIP tickets include the game, cocktails and dinner, and after party.
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