South West		Montana Chapter
PO BOX 10394, Bozeman, MT 59719	(406) 587-4377	lazybow@montanadsl.net

recap - Cowboy Polo Demonstration, Lazy Bow Ranch, 17 Septemberl 2002, Tuesday Mike Ward and four of his Cowboy Polo teammates came over and showed us the rudiments of the game Tuesday night, September 17. They left the major part of their protective gear (caged helmets and body pads) in the trucks so as not to be too off-putting, and swatted the 10" rubber playground ball around a bit with custom mallets. Then they let us ride a couple of their horses so that we could feel what it was like on horses who weren't scared of the ball. I just rode Alex. She really got into it, except she tended to bow out when a bigger horse came thundering over to fight for possession of the ball. "You want to be here? No problem, help yourself, I wasn't really headed over here anyway." Chanelle looked like she was born to play the game .... when she swung the mallet she connected with the ball. Beth and I were great at being in the right place, but mallet skill and arm power were another story. After all of the OPRC arms dangled like limp noodles, the CP team took to the arena for a few minutes of high-speed play. An interesting thing: there was plenty of room for 6 players in the 70'x120' indoor arena when three of them were OPRC members, but it was way too small an area for five CP team players moving at speed.

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