Polo Pioneers
The evolution of women players in Santa Barbara.
The Evolution of Women Players in Santa Barbara
Elaine McInerney started playing polo at age 9 in Los Angeles and was called in to play practice rounds with Walt Disney and Spencer Tracy, who admired her ability so much he loaned her some of his horses from his string.
Compiled and Written by Nigel Gallimore
Inside the 1937-built vintage cottage-style Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club clubhouse, the hunter-green walls are lined with decades’ worth of photos of teams accepting the silver cups, bowls, and trophies locked in glass-fronted cases. The beginning of the club’s story, however, predates that building, the trophies, and even the adjacent fields.
From the start of polo in Santa Barbara, the sport was peripatetic from 1899 until it found a permanent home in 1926 at the current location in Carpinteria. Polo in Santa Barbara has a long heritage starting on April 27, 1894, when an exhibition match was played at the Agricultural Park’s Flower Festival (now the location of the Lower East side between the freeway and East Beach). This match encouraged sufficient local interest in the sport, and the first organized polo game in Santa Barbara was played on May 19, 1899, by a team formed of members of the Santa Barbara Country Club. By 1902, the fledgling polo club boasted a 40-member roster and interest in the sport had increased tremendously.
The first purpose-built skin (dirt) polo field was in 1901 on the Westside at the foot of the Mesa, where the players leased 22 acres. It was not until 1916 that the first grass field was built on Middle Road in Montecito and where, on April 1, four women made their first appearance in a mixed polo period. The red team: Dorothy Tweedy, Ruth Peabody, Charles Dabney, and Elmer Boeseke Jr. played against the blue team: Katherine Harvey, Lorna Tweedy, Graham Miles, and Frederick Leadbetter. This is also where local estate owner and socialite Esther Fiske Hammond was among the women players.
On March 27, 1931, the Girls’ Championship of Santa Barbara was played on Fleischmann Field. It is significant that this particular game was included in the United States Polo Association’s yearbook, as this mention is perhaps the first acknowledgment by the USPA that women played polo in the United States. By 1932, many women in California were forming their own polo teams. Local player Ann Gavit Jackson (of the Palmer Jackson family) had a team in Santa Barbara. Dorothy Wheeler of Santa Cruz wrote to the USPA in New York for some help in organization, and secretary/treasurer Mr. F.S. O’Reiley replied that the general opinion was that “polo is not a women’s game!” The women in California knew this was nonsense and successfully formed their own organization with the help of the male players in the state.
In June 1934, the first tournament of the Pacific Coast Women’s Polo Association was held. Two years later, it became the United States Women’s Polo Association. At one time there were 130 women players up and down the California coast.
In late summer 1937, club owners Ann Jackson—with husband Charles “Pete”—took a women’s Santa Barbara polo team to play in Long Island. Unfortunately, the association came to an end at the start of World War II. In the same year, Ann Jackson went on to build the cottage-style polo clubhouse still standing to date. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were married in Santa Barbara in 1927 and lived in Montecito until their deaths (“Pete” in 1978, Ann in 1990). The Jackson family eventually sold the polo club in 1963 to Rudy Tongg of Hawaii.
Today, along with the many other decades of contemporary women players who have closed the gender gap on the field, there are two women patrons (Leigh Brecheen and Dawn Jones) on the club’s board of directors, and nationwide, women’s polo is the fastest-growing sector in the game. ●
See the story in our digital magazine
Heading for the Hills
If the Busch name reminds you of a certain beverage, it’s time to think again, as polo patron Andy Busch debuts Folded Hills wines
If the Busch name reminds you of a certain beverage, it’s time to think again, as polo patron Andy Busch debuts Folded Hills wines
Andy Busch walks his horses—including those iconic Clydesdales—around his 600-acre Folded Hills ranch.
Written by Joan Tapper
Photographs by Erin Feinblatt, Edward Clynes
Tucked between Santa Barbara’s mountains and the Santa Ynez Valley, Folded Hills is a postcard of ranch life. White fences edge sprawling lawns and a plantation-style estate house is outfitted with a long deck and rocking chairs. Heritage pigs play near the chicken coop—where fresh eggs are gathered each morning—and those iconic Clydesdales roam the fields.
Riding on the ranch.
Owner Andy Busch—who, as a 5-goal player, served as captain for the U.S. World Cup team for the Federation of International Polo—retired from professional-level polo after 28 years and loves his horses. Looking forward to the high-goal games this season, he says, “I plan to be there watching friends compete. I love to see the professional players and the incredible horses perform on the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club fields—there’s nothing like it.”
The table is set for dinner alfresco with wildflowers and wineglasses.
Now, the patron of Grant’s Farm polo team is devoted to life on the farm. He and his wife, Kim, have poured love into every inch of their property (which a few lucky guests get to visit each year), and a vineyard seemed like a natural extension of the land. “When we started working on wine five years ago, we put together a team of professionals to assess the soils and ocean-influenced microclimate,” he says. The environment proved to be well suited to Rhône varietals, which was “a perfect fit” for Angela Osborne, the New Zealand-born winemaker and general manager who is known as a “guru of Grenache.” The grapes are grown with a common interest in sustainability, adds Busch, who has planted the vineyard organically, just like his row crops.
Busch’s organic vineyards.
“Angela Osborne, the New Zealand-born winemaker and general manager is known as a “guru of Grenache.””
A winery and tasting room are envisioned for 2018, set near the Farmstead, an idyllic produce stand that sells organic crops grown on the ranch along with baked goods. In the meantime, the first vintages include Lilly Rosé, an estate rosé that’s an homage to Busch’s great-grandmother, Lilly Anheuser Busch and six generations of family women down to his granddaughter Lilly; Grant Grenache, which recalls President Ulysses S. Grant, previous owner of the ancestral home, Grant’s Farm, where Andy grew up and was manager for two decades; and August Red, a blend of Grenache and Syrah, named for his father and grandfather. Ballard Canyon Grenache and Syrah are following in late summer with more estate wines planned for 2018. Each bottle is a true reflection of the ranch and a tribute to the family and the legacy.
Close friends gather for dinner among the grapevines.
See the story in our digital edition
Great Shot
Polo—in one form or another—has historically been what I do when I am not shooting or making art.
Photographer Catherine Erb’s eye on the ball
“Polo—in one form or another—has historically been what I do when I am not shooting or making art. For years, the polo photos I took were for fun, family, and friends. I didn’t realize I was capturing that much information. One day I realized I had a decade of polo photography that told countless stories.”
“The summer of 2017 will mark the 15th I have spent in Santa Barbara. They’ve become special markers by which I measure my own and my children’s growth both physically and spiritually,” says Erb. “I use my time in Santa Barbara to reconnect and center, and more often than not I leave with a wave of new ideas, with new work already started, or ready to begin as soon as I get to the studio.” Michalita #1, mixed-media photo encaustic, 36 x 48 in. Opposite: Untitled polo #15, photo encaustic, 48 x 36 in.
“I began experimenting and replaced my sharp Nikon lens with homemade lenses that allowed me to capture the sport in an ethereal, layered, painterly manner. Some of the photos have made it to the studio, where I print them on watercolor paper, attach them to birch panels, and then apply layers of oil pigments and encaustic wax. Each finished panel represents a memory or dream of Santa Barbara, polo, and our special summers spent here.”
Clockwise from top: Untitled polo #18, mixed-media photo encaustic, 24 x 24 in.; Untitled polo #17, mixed-media photo encaustic, 36 x 36 in.; Untitled polo #20, mixed-media photo encaustic, 40 x 40 in.; Untitled polo #16, mixed-media photo encaustic, 24 x 24 in.
Untitled horse study, black-and-white pigment print, 17 x 22 in.
See the story in our digital edition
Young Americans
Old school meets new school with Jake and Luke Klentner teaming up with Kasimira Miller
Old school meets new school
with Jake and Luke Klentner teaming up with Kasimira Miller
Photographs by Michael Haber
Styled by Shadi Beccai
Elisabeth Franchi jumpsuit, $735, Allora by Laura. Closed belt, $125, Whistle Club. Boots, $295, ROMP. Hoops, from $70, silk ribbon, $8, bracelet, $225, bangle, $200, and rings, from $60, Kendall Conrad.
Luke Klentner, 16, attends Bishop Garcia Diego High School and is a 0-goal on grass and a 1-goal in the arena. Luke balances playing high school football, volleyball, and polo with his family—his father is Justin Klentner, a 1.5-goal player and patron of the Klentner Ranch team.
Model: Kasimira Miller, Next LA. Makeup by Geoffrey Rodriguez using Chanel Beaute. Hair by Dritan vushaj. Interns: emily Calkins and Meghan Campbell