Sunday the 28th of June arrived. This was the day my adventure started. After applying for the Junior Scholarship, with the New Zealand Polocrosse Association, I was lucky enough to be one of the three to go to Australia. My scholarship was to visit Warwick, Queensland, Australia for a month of carnivals and training.

I left a wintery Auckland and arrived to a far warmer Brisbane, to be greeted by my host family Tonya Carew and her son Jack. I spent my first week settling in and preparing for the following weeks carnival at Wondoan. Tonya and Jack were great and everyone from the club made me feel at home.
Wednesday I arrived – we packed our camping and riding gear loaded the horses and headed for Wondoan 5 hours away. First pit stop was Dalby to let the horses rest over night. I was treated to a chariot cart ride into town (5 Km odd) we contemplated going through the drive threw at “Hungry Jacks” but was too concerned about the horse standing still. Leaving Dalby town early morning on Thursday and heading for Wondoan polocrosse grounds.

Being one of the first to arrive at the polocrosse fields we had the pick of the camping spots – well placed next to the ablutions and power. Later that afternoon I tried out a horse that I was going to ride for the weekend. What a machine – I was later told Sue Gower rode her in the recent Quadrangular series.
Early morning Friday, we had to get ready for a coaching clinic run by all the top Queensland players. The first half of the day, we spent on our horses and the second half of the day we had a presentation by Jodie Hall on health and motivation towards the sport. Late afternoon we did the beep test…. I came second out of the girls.
I played for the Junior Out Back Team in the Junior B Grade - we lost all our games, by 3 or 4 goals. I played every position during the weekend giving me a chance to improve through out the weekend. The number of players and the standard of play blow me away!  

Week 2 - We picked up a 6-year-old carthorse that hadn’t been ridden for 6 months with no polocrosse experience. This was to be my week’s project – stick and ball and general playing …It was quite a task but with the help of Andrew Phillips we achieved heaps. I learnt heaps on how to work the area as a 1 and as a 3. After a lot of intense training with this young horse, it went great and I was excited to play on it on the weekend! Then I got a call offering another horse so I took that one instead.

After a long week with intense coaching, we headed down to Killarney for the Gold Coast Carnival. I was selected to play for the A grade junior Warwick team on a nice little mare. We won our 1st game 20- 3 against Killarney, 2nd game we narrowly lost against Cunningham. Sunday morning we played our first round against Gold Coast and lost in the last couple of seconds. This put us through to the Beaten Final against Tansy - and we won. Before the game started, a team players horse went lame so we made a quick change in positions in our chukka putting Tom Cobon to a 2 and Jess Lawrence to a 1 and myself to the 3 making the chukka stronger. In our 1st chukka, we were very weak. However, after some coaching on the sideline from Colton Preston and Jess Osborne we sorted things out quickly. We went on the field down by 5 goals and coming off we were winning by 5 goals. What a fantastic weekend of polocrosse!

Early Monday I packed and got ready to catch the bus up to Mara – 8 hours away from Blacksoil. Arrived late afternoon- Picked up by Jen Byriel my host family for the week on their huge ranch.
During the week at the Byriels, I had some intense training with whole family. Ron Byriel instructed me on horsemanship skills, general riding skill and positions of play in polocrosse. During my stay with the Byriels I was able to ride a number of horses to further my education. 

Friday morning - leaving to Chinchilla carnival.
I was playing for Warrick junior 1st team in the B grade. Playing the number 3 we lost 2 games and won 2. I had a blast, and all my practice had paid off. We got runners up on the weekend and received the BEST prize ever…a torch.

Monday – the day before I left Tonya treated me (again) to a lovely day and evening in Brisbane…seeing the sites, shopping and dinner.

Tuesday – tack cleaning and packing. I was exhausted! I think all the excitement, fun, learning new skills and meeting new people was finally taking its toll….time to go home for a much needed recovery and recharge.

On this fabulous trip I learnt, practiced and met people that will be lifetime friends.
My host families were fantastic making me feel right at home.

I would like to thank the New Zealand Polocrosse Association for letting me have this great opportunity to further my education in Polocrosse and horsemanship. I would also recommend this once in a lifetime experience to any aspiring young polocrosse player….and if you are not a polocrosse player but love horses, riding, having fun and meeting outstanding people you should give Polocrosse a go. To find a club near you go to www.nzpolocrosse.co.nz

Kristy Reiche
Queensland 2009

KENDAL TE AKAU MCNAUGHTON’S SCHOLARSHIP REPORT – NSW 2009

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the New Zealand Polocrosse Council for the opportunity to travel to NSW Australia for the Scholarship. Without the support of our Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board, Mighty River Power and other organizations in our Turangi Community and