After 5: Springfield women's polo team wins tournament title

As the workday ends, a group of local women trade their power suits and high heels for barn clothes and riding boots.

Those ladies are members of the Springfield Polo Club, and they brought home the city's first female-tournament title on Aug. 2.

One of the competitors, Janie Rogers, works as a paralegal and acts as the polo club's manager: After shuffling papers in the morning, she tends to 65 horses and often tackles an intense game of polo after that.

A veteran racing jockey and lifelong equestrian, Rogers describes the sport as "soccer on horseback."

"The game is going all the time, and you have to be thinking all the time," she says. "It's a rapid, challenging, adrenaline-rushing game."

Typical matches consist of six 7-minute periods called "chukkers." During each, teams of four race up and down a field 300 yards long and roughly 180 yards wide - that's three times the square footage of Bass Pro Shops. To score a goal, a player must hit a ball the size of an orange between two posts placed eight yards apart at either end of the field.

And with riders running at full gallop, swinging mallets and sideswiping one another atop 1,200-pound animals, scoring goals can be a chaotic business.

Robin Melton, owner of consulting firm Environmental Works and another member of the title-winning team, first encountered the sport at the Springfield club in 2005. At the time, she hadn't saddled up since riding for pleasure as a girl and didn't have a pony to her name.

Four years later, Melton owns 15 horses and has played in nine tournaments so far this year. She's also the only female from the club who has hired a professional player to train her and play alongside her during the polo-heavy summer months.

"Playing is exhilarating and frustrating because you constantly want to improve," she says.

Polo is a male-dominated sport, and women typically only play as part of co-ed teams. The recent tournament, played at the Blackberry Polo Club near Chicago, was the first all-female event that the Springfield club has entered.

Rogers thinks their group was especially competitive against all-female teams because ladies from the Springfield club are used to practicing and playing alongside men.

Ann Heidemann, manager for marketing services at American National Property and Casualty Co., also made the inaugural trip.

"It was great to play with just the ladies," she says.

Ann's husband Craig Heidemann, an attorney who plays with the club and is a photographer for Apple Studios, took pictures at the event. He says their accomplishment was like winning an NFL division championship in the women's polo world.

The Springfield club is owned and run by property developer Ron Stenger and his wife, Lezah. Members typically play three times per week on their two fields located off of Highway NN between Springfield and Rogersville.

Despite visions of aristocrats often conjured up at the mention of polo, starting to play can be done on a budget, Melton says. She estimates that low-end polo ponies can be bought for $3,000, and though more competitive players need multiple horses - rules require a new horse for each chukker - one is enough to start, she adds.

According to Rogers, playing polo in Springfield is cheaper than doing it elsewhere, too, partly due to the Stengers' efforts to minimize club costs, which runs between $1,000 and $5,000 a year. Prospective members or curious equestrians are always welcome to go by and check out the game, she adds.

"You're always at a canter or a run; it's not a laidback sport," Rogers says. "When you come off the field, you know you've played."[[In-content Ad]]