Paradise Stables sits down a winding gravel road, several miles outside Moscow.
The privately owned facilities sit in a quiet field surrounded by few residents and a spread of tall trees. Tucked away here is the home of the Idaho women’s horse polo team.
With just five students on the varsity roster, the team competes across the region with programs like Stanford, Westmont and Oregon State.
The organization is a student-run club, with members responsible for the care and upkeep of the horses.
The team has faced a number of challenges this season, ranging from a small budget to having a long-distance head coach.
Despite this, club president Sara Holtz has produced a winning program.
The game consists of three players on the field for each team at a time. The horseback players use mallets to guide a ball to goals on either end of the facilities.
“(It’s) a mix of hockey and soccer on horseback,” Holtz said.
Many of the rules in horse polo concern the safety of both the horses and riders. The last player to have hit the ball is given the right of way, and it is illegal for another player to enter their path.
Blocking from alongside is acceptable, as long as the path stays clear for the riders.
Players hold mallets in their right hands, which means that left-handed players may be less accurate, but are better at steering their horse because they can use their dominant hand.
The umpire also rides on horseback during competition.
At the professional level, horse polo is held outdoors on fields that are three to four times the size of a football field.
Holtz said most Californian schools have arenas that are regulation size, depending on the school.
“We go down there and we (struggle),” Holtz said. “We don’t know any of their horses and it’s way harder and way more fast-paced.”
The biggest competition for the Vandals is Westmont College, a private Christian university in Santa Barbara. Many of the players at Westmont have several years of prior experience before they enter college.
Westmont is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation. The team won the National Championship in 2013.
The majority of the Idaho roster had not played the sport before attending the university. Holtz was one of the few additions with previous experience.
“I found horse polo in high school,” Holtz said. “I was one of the few people who actually came in and wanted to play.”
Holtz’s English-style riding background allowed her to excel on the field and lead the Vandals. Most players enter the sport with experience in the Western style of riding. An English-style saddle does not have a horn, giving the rider more range of movement, but less security.
“Your balance has to be really good to play,” Holtz said. “You need the freedom of movement. You’ll be up, you’ll be reaching and doing all this stuff.”
The club owns six horses that they share with Washington State. The program receives a donation of two or three horses each year. All six of the team’s current horses were donated to the program.
“They all know how to play polo,” Holtz said. “They come from an outdoor polo experience. People are either getting out of polo or bringing in new horses for themselves.”
The tack and polo gear is all donated as well.
A typical practice includes warm-ups and scrimmages, as well as maintenance of the horse stalls and general care of the animals.
One of the team’s biggest challenges is the cost of travel – the transportation of several 800-pound animals would be too expensive on any team’s budget.
As a result, the host school provides horses for the visiting team, as well as sleeping arrangements.
“When we went to Cal Poly in January, we stayed at their members houses because we can’t afford hotels,” Holtz said. “We do the same when they come see us. We find floor space for them and that’s how we get to know them.”
As a sports club, Idaho’s women’s horse polo team receives funding from the Sports Club Federation. The program receives an average of $7,000 per year.
“One stipulation of that is we have to fundraise that much every year,” Holtz said. “Between our member dues and donations to the club, we match that. We get $14,000 in a good year.”
In addition to the challenge of maintaining a club program with high costs, Idaho’s head coach currently lives in Texas.
Mason Sideroff, an Idaho horse polo alum, coaches the program from a distance. Sideroff’s horse Duke lives at Paradise Stables and has participated in local 4-H competitions.
“We only know what we’ve been taught,” Holtz said. “It’s such a struggle for us sometimes to be able to coach ourselves and do all this all by ourselves.”
Holtz sends Sideroff video segments and clips of games in order for the coach to provide advice and guidance to players.
Holtz said playing against teams from Stanford and Westmont can be disappointing due to the disadvantage’s Idaho has. These programs have daily practices with a full coaching staff, and oftentimes these coaches play professional polo during the summer season.
“In that aspect, it’s also so rewarding to know that we can do it by ourselves without supervision.” Holtz said.
The Vandals have already earned two pivotal victories this spring. In January, the team clinched a 12-11 win over Oregon State, and last week the program took down Montana State 14-11 at the Paradise Stables.
The path to national competition is long and windy, much like the road to Paradise Stables. The team must play two games with two separate programs to qualify for preliminaries.
“We have to win preliminaries in order to go to regionals,” Holtz said. “Then you have to win Regionals to go to nationals.”
Holtz says that the team usually reaches regional competition before losing.
“That’s when we get to play the California schools, and they just cream us,” Holtz said.
This season marks the final year that the team will run out of Paradise Stables. Holtz says the team is looking for a new arena for the 2017 winter season.
The team will utilize facilities in Spokane during the summer session.
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tesstakesphotos