Page 67 - Puissance Euro 1

The Belgian fashion brand SCAPA, which is run by Arlette Van Oost and her son Michael Redding, conspicuously shows a passion for polo. This is not really astonishing as the discipline is one of the most noble sports around. Itis played in full nature and cares very much for tradition and life quality, basic values supported by SCAPA. Moreo- ver, polo plays an important part in the family history.The only polo pitch of Belgium lies in a preserved area in Ka- pellen, the Antwerp suburban village, where Arlette Van Oost lives. This particular pitch was first developed and laid out for the Olympic Games held in Antwerp in 1920. It was destroyed during World War II, but was re-constructed in 1986. As soon as they had paid a visit to the pitch again, the Redding kids, Michael en Patricia, were instantly under the spell of polo. In the mean time the Scapa family has been organizing Scapa Sports Beach Polo on the beach of Knokke-Heist for almost 20 years now. It is one of the very few polo tournaments on the surface of beach sand. “It’s bloody fantastic”, we can still hear the words echoing through the microphone of the renowned commentator Michael Hobday at the games. At the same time he insinuated you do not need to be able to ride a horse to play polo. We went to find out about one thing and another through a chat with the organizer of SCAPA SPORTS BEACH POLO, Michael Redding.Michael, is it actually true you do not need to be able to ride a horse to play polo?What the speaker really meant, was it does not matter never having been on a horseback before if you want to learn to play polo. Playing polo requires indeed an entirely different style of riding.I actually did notice your feet are deep into the stirrups, you hold your hands very high and you keep a tight rein.We ride the horses the polo way in the Argentine style, be- cause as a polo rider you need to be very flexible and be able to move sideways quite far out to both sides of the horse.Which other abilities should a polo player possess?In order to play polo well you should form an entity with your horse. I have become such an entity by riding the horse with- out a saddle. It can last a while before you learn to play polo well. You shouldn’t easily be frightened, I never was really. The first year I used to fall quite often. I wanted to go fast early and switch to competition too quickly, but I was lucky. I never fell badly.makkelijkt de communicatie met de verschillende spelers en toeschouwers uit Duitsland, Zuid-Afrika, Frankrijk, Engeland, Spanje, Uruguay.Polo is een heel intense sport, vooral voor de paarden. Aan welke eigenschappen moet een goed polopaard voldoen?Het moet snel zijn, wendbaar en vlug kunnen accelereren. Op hoog niveau werken we met volbloedjes. Wij kopen ze poloklaar in Argentinië. Zoals ik zei is dat hét pololand bij uitstek. Een wedstrijd wordt er gespeeld in een stadion, trekt al gauw 20.000 toe- schouwers en wordt bovendien liveop tv uitgezonden. In Argentinië isna voetbal en basket, polo de meest gevolgde mediasport.65