Not your typical sport: Little Egypt Polo Club members polish their riding game with matches near and far

Cape Girardeau native August Ritter has been playing polo with the Little Egypt Polo Club since the mid '90s.

Originally, another player, William Bahn, kept asking Ritter to come out and try his hand at the equine sport.

And, eventually, he caved.

"I did it mainly so he'd leave me alone," Ritter said, smiling. "I thought I'd come out and it would be, 'I did it, now quit calling me and hassling me.' ... It's one of those things -- you hit the ball one or two times and then all of a sudden they say, 'Oh, you did a great job.' And the next thing you know, they've set the hook and you're addicted to it and you have a horse trailer and a couple of horses and you're traveling all over the country."

Throughout his time in the club, Ritter said they've traveled a number of places, as far as Minneapolis to New Orleans, usually practicing and playing from the end of April or early May when the ground dries up through the middle to end of November.

Sandy Barnes walks out her horses on a break from the Little Egypt Polo Club's practice.Laura Simon

Even though playing polo was new to Ritter at the time, he had always been partial to horses and horseback riding.

"I grew up riding, but it was always Western pleasure cowboy stuff, and I had not done a lot of riding on an English saddle," he said. " ... It really allows you to move around a lot the way you need to in this game ... I would say if you are good at riding in an English saddle, you can ride just about anything. It really makes you practice and polish your game."

Although it's had a long-running history in the area, the Little Egypt Polo Club hasn't always been in Cape Girardeau.

Kent Pitts, from near Cobden, Illinois, has been with the Little Egypt Polo Club the longest and began playing with the club in 1993 while it was still in Carbondale, Illinois. The group moved to Cape Girardeau in 1995 after the owner of the original field in Carbondale said he wanted to transition the pasture into a hay field.

When the club no longer had a hub in Carbondale, Pitts said all the local players decided to retire, and most of the remaining active players were from Cape Girardeau or remotely nearby, so they decided to bring the group to Cape Girardeau to make it more accessible for the remaining members.

In terms of game play, a typical match has six chukkas, or periods, of seven and a half minutes, according to Bahn, who has been playing polo for 25 years. Bahn said he appreciates the game because it's played by an array of diverse cultures around the globe.

"It's really neat because this game is played all over the world. … It's a game that you can actually go play some all over the world," he said. "My early playing was all overseas because I started to play in the Philippines and I went down to Argentina once and played. It's pretty neat."

The sport can be played on any type of horse or mule, but Little Egypt club members usually ride quarter horses or thoroughbreds.

"[The thoroughbreds] have more endurance and speed," Bahn said.

Pitts said he enjoys polo because of its intensity and because it's not your typical run-of-the-mill sport. That love also runs in the family.

"Polo is a horse race and a hockey game combined, pretty much. You've got a lot of bumping and things, but for me, I never played any sports in school, I ain't played no basketball or baseball or any of that, but polo is my sport. And it's my boy's sport, too. He's a sophomore and all he lives for is polo," Pitts said.

Ritter said there's no cost to learn to play the sport through the club, but those who are interested in playing regularly do need to invest in or borrow a horse, mallets, boots and kneepads, a helmet and tack for the horse (a bridle, saddle, leg wraps).

"Anybody who can own one horse can play polo," he said. " ... Anybody who has a horse sitting out in their pasture that they're not doing something with could easily be out here riding."

Since Ritter began playing in the '90s, polo has expanded across the United States, and there are many more small clubs they can play against, especially locally, including St. Louis and Memphis, Tennessee.

Although the Little Egypt Polo Club is not as large as clubs in California or Florida, Ritter said it is nationally recognized by the United States Polo Association.

"By being part of that we have access to education, like the Polo Training Foundation will send Wilbur [O'Farrell] in for free clinics that we can put on for kids and adults, umpire clinics for people who are already playing, so we have options because we're part of that national organization," Ritter said.

Ritter said he most enjoys playing polo for the friendship and camaraderie it allows between club members.

"The people we play with, at our level of play, it's like going to the country club and playing golf with all your buddies. They're just people who are out, wanting to have a very active day, but they're having fun," Ritter said. "They're very competitive, they will push you, they will shove you, they will block you, but when it's all said and done, then we generally will have dinner afterwards and, you know, it's just fun people to be around everywhere we go. If they weren't fun to be around, we wouldn't travel as much as we do."

The polo club will host a Polo Classic at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at the Little Egypt Polo Club field at 531 County Road 657 in Cape Girardeau to benefit CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocates, and Voices for Children. The gates will open at 3:15 p.m. and there will be $10 general admission tickets for sale. A food truck and beer wagon will be there, along with some table seating in tents with appetizers and Champagne for $50. Tickets also are available for an after party at the home of Sandra McCearly, one of the sporsors, for $125.

To purchase tickets or for more information, call (573) 335-1726.

lyoung@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632

Pertinent address: 531 County Road 657, Cape Girardeau