Current Campaign
Camp or Day Course.
2016 marked the second successful camp based at the Royal County Berkshire Club (RCBPC) and Fifield Polo club, with the final tournament held at the RCBPC. Joined again by 3 of the injured ex-servicemen and women we ran a full programme staying at the Combermere Barrack and this time including a music workshop encouraging the young people to express themselves and share. The Guards Polo Club also hostd the group again with huge enthusiasm for the tour as usual. Watch this space for the song!! We look forward to future programmes and our partnership with the Polo Clubs moving forward.
Equine therapy for children with disabilities such as autism and cerebral palsy has widely been studied and reported to be beneficial to those children affected. However, there is also a growing body of evidence to suggest that children with difficult socioeconomic backgrounds and those with varying psychological issues can also benefit from interaction with horses.
“This experience can change our perspective on the way we think, because this sport comes across like it’s not for everyone, so obviously now that I’ve tried it and they’ve welcomed me here, and the people that do the sport they’ve welcomed us. So it’s an open sport now innit? I feel privileged to have done it’”
Power of Polo has set up a brand new programme, focusing on making a change for disadvantaged young people.
In order to provide proof of concept to our funders, we ran a week long pilot programme in the summer of 2015. The participants of the pilot underwent an intensive four-day course including lessons in polo, grooming and tacking up, mucking out, a vet session with Mark Emerson and a faradic therapy session with Petra Sones. Housed at the Comberemere Barracks they also had a tour of the museum there and met serving soldiers. They were lucky enough to be given a tour of Guards Polo Club and watch a match hosted by Anthony Fanshawe.
All the attendees found the programme valuable and felt that it can offer a fantastic opportunity to change perspectives. Since that inaugural course we have successfully run one to two camps a year and multiple day course experiences. We have also now included 4 polo clubs as partners and continue to build our links with community charities. The injured ex-soldiers remain our mentors and attend each course to share their experiences with the participants.
We are hugely grateful to the polo community and the youth work community for all their support without which these programmes could not take place.