Calgary Polo Club summer internship

This summer - the summer of 2022 - was a particularly special summer because it was the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that we could travel outside Malaysia without needing to quarantine on the return journey. The first stop on our Canadian adventure was Vancouver where we would re-pack our suitcases and embark on the 10-12 hour drive across 3 mountain ranges to Calgary. I had a two-week internship working at the Polo school at the Calgary Polo Club. The first thing that I immediately realized when I got to the polo club was the temperature. After being used to riding in 30 degrees plus heat the 15 degrees felt refreshing, to say the least. One of the coolest things for me that the Calgary Polo Club has that the Kuala Lumpur polo club doesn't have is a cage that feeds the balls back to you. There was a funnel on the offside and nearside with angled ramps feeding the ball into the funnel on both sides. This allowed you to hit the ball and for the ball to come back in the perfect position for you to hit again every time. This meant that the practice on the wooden horse could be a lot more efficient and frankly worthwhile taking time out of your day and practicing. Days would alternate between stick and balling 3-4 horses in the morning and farm work in the afternoon, or teaching lessons, going to the cage, and helping to get horses ready for polo. These things were interchangeable depending on how busy the polo school was. When I was not riding sets or doing other farm chores, I was at the farm weed whacking which was a really cool new skill I learned while working at the farm, although the novelty wore off extremely quickly. I had a great time at the Calgary polo club and I would like to give a big thank you to Kyle and Megan for being so welcoming and for all of the great new skills and polo tips that I learned.