Dans Papers - June 8, 2007 - Frank MacNamara - President, Southampton Polo

It's hard to imagine summer in the Hamptons without the big white tents of weekly polo matches, the pounding of hooves and the exciting smash of a goal-scoring mallet and ball. However, before 1989, the only polo players in the Hamptons were embroidered on Ralph Lauren polo shirts. The man to thank for the arrival of this exciting facet of Hamptons summer life had never mounted a horse before then and had not even thought of playing polo before his wife, an avid equestrian, took up the sport. That man is Frank MacNamara and the club he started with his wife and their friends, the Southampton Hunt & Polo Club, has grown to be "probably the largest polo club in America," according to Frank. What started as a gathering of a few of Frank's closest polo-playing friends has blossomed into a beautiful stable with more than 200 horses and three playing fields where young colts and rescued horses are trained for their careers as top-notch polo ponies.

One of Frank's favorite aspects of the training component is the club's ability to rescue horses bound for slaughter and give them the chance to become "made" polo ponies. "We just brought in two horses off the track and they are going to be polo ponies," explains Frank. "They came from the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Hopefully, in the next week or so, we'll get two more from them." The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation is a horse rescue that takes in all registered thoroughbreds when their owners no longer want them. The Southampton Hunt & Polo Club's first adopted horse, Belle, came from a slightly different but no less hopeless background. Frank explained that, "she is what we call a Premarin foal." Premarin was a fertility drug made from the urine of pregnant mares. Since the mares used to make the drug had to be pregnant, thousands of foals were born with nowhere to go but the slaughterhouse. Frank adopted Belle, a registered Paint, when she was just a baby and immediately put her in training with a "horse whisperer" named Brad who was the trainer at the Southampton Hunt & Polo Club at the time. "He would take 45 minutes just to get her used to having one foot in the stirrup. It was amazing to watch him work with her." Now, "the horse can walk across wooden slats with just a lead rope on." And while she is playing polo, "she doesn't flinch or change the position of her head, even when a ball is coming straight at her." And the most miraculous part of the story? "She literally just graduated last year as a polo pony." Success stories like these are testaments to the effectiveness of Frank's methods when training his ponies. His patience and understanding are also evident when he trains his players, from the most novice players to those looking to brush up on their game.

Frank's player-training program is also unique. "The whole program can be completed in a week," says Frank. "The idea behind the ten-hour introductory program is that, after ten hours, the students should be able to safely play in a game against other beginners." Although, "to play in other more advanced chukkas takes about two years." One of the most exciting aspects of the novice-training program that Frank did not anticipate was the formation of the new Women's League. "Polo has always been considered a man's sport," explained Frank. "But this year, we have had nineteen beginners and sixteen of them were women." As a result, "this year, for the first time, on the Fourth of July, we are having our first Ladies' League." This is unique in that, most of the time, "the matches are mixed."

When asked if the Southampton Hunt & Polo Club and the Bridgehampton Polo Club, based at Two Trees Farms, are ever in competition, Frank explained that his club has an entirely different purpose than the Bridgehampton Polo Club. "The Bridgehampton Polo Club is really professional polo and represents the best polo you can see in America. Three quarters of the players there are superb, world-class players. Our polo is strictly club polo and recreational polo." The Southampton Hunt & Polo Club is also a year-round event, with matches in Florida during the winter season, while the matches at the Bridgehampton club are only held on weekends in July and August. The result has been that "the Patrons of five out of the six teams at the Bridgehampton Polo Club are members" of the Southampton Hunt & Polo Club. That means that no matter how well the Patron's professional teams play, the real score is settled on the fields of Southampton. Even David Walentas, the owner of Two Trees Farms, is a player at the Southampton Polo Club. This friendly competition is the highlight of many Hampton-goers' summers, yet, as Frank explained, "years ago, the Group for the South Fork said we were 'recreating on agricultural land.'" Luckily, after seven years of exile on the North Fork, "in 1999, the courts and the state of New York allowed us to come back." Now, of course, horse farms are more than welcome on agricultural land. But in the early 1990s, the East End was still covered in potato fields, which made polo fields seem more like a playground for the rich than an agricultural endeavor. But, as one of their main businesses is "raising, training and making polo ponies," the Southampton Polo Club is not only a Hamptons institution, but a place where the agricultural nature of the East End continues to flourish.

The Southampton Polo Club's season is now one of the most anticipated sporting events in the Hamptons. And it all started because Frank wanted to play polo with his wife.