The West Article
Polocrosse made it into the ‘The West’ newspaper! This unique sport sparked a freelance writers interest after I did a short interview based my Polocrosse and my previous Australian selections which was featured in a friends Uni assignment. A short article on the World Cup and Polocrosse was printed in the News section of the daily paper and has certainly generated some publicity for the sport. Contact has been made with a television station in hope that it can also make the Nightly News! Below was the photo used in the article (Jodi Tiver and Rebecca Fraser).

Coastal Times
Keep an eye out for the ‘Coastal Times’ (Peel Regional newspaper) on Wednesday 7th July as there will be more Polocrosse news after the journalists at Rural Press contacted me once they had read the article in ‘The West’. More fabulous publicity for Polocrosse! Hopefully we will continue to maintain a good relationship with the media so we can see this sport featured a lot more often especially with the World Cup fast approaching.

2011 Australian World Cup Team
Very early this morning calls started going out to the members of the Australian Squad for the 2011 World Cup and 8 incredibly lucky and honoured people were told they had made the final Australian Team to defend our countries title!!

Women                                                               Men
Jodi Tiver                                                             Robert Sibley
Alison Mathie                                                    Cameron Shepherd
Sandra Weston                                                 Lance Anderson
Suzette Thomas (capt)                                  Will Weston (vice capt)

An incredibly strong team as expected with only a couple of changes from the victorious team that won the Quadrangular International Series in April 2009. Keep an eye out for the NEW Polocrosse Australia website which will have a dedicated page for the World Cup and bring you all the latest news and information on the competition and of course the Australian Team!

New Additions

We have ever so slightly extended our Qualia family with a couple of new chestnuts! See the Our Horses page for more details…

2011 Polocrosse World Cup – Australian Squad

Congratulations to the following players for making the Australian World Cup Squad –

Women                                                               Men
Jodi Tiver (WA)                                                 Robert Sibley (WA)
Suzette Thomas (WA)                                    Ben Thomas (WA)
Lizzie Lyster (WA)                                            Jared Martin (WA)
Jess Jolly (Vic)                                                    Cameron Shepherd (Qld)
Sandra Weston (NSW)                                   Will Weston (NSW)
Tanya Hollow (NSW)                                       Todd Weston (NSW)
Leanne Polglasse (NSW)                               Chris Anderson (NSW)
Alison Mathie (NSW)                                      Lance Anderson (NSW)

The Squad has now been separated in to 2 Open Mixed Teams consisting of 4 men and 4 women and they will play at  different venues in NSW as part of the selection trials. The first squad, which I was a part of, played at the Canberra Royals Tournament in Bungendore on the weekend of May 22nd and 23rd – a big thank you to the club for allowing us to be part of their weekend and an even bigger thank you to the teams we played and the squad members for donating their lovely horses. The second squad will compete at the Young Tournament in mid-June so make sure you get down there and have a look at these guys in the fabulous Lime Green shirts! Hopefully the final Australian Team will be announced very shortly after this trial, just so we can all be put out of our misery!

2010 Autumn Horse Show Breed and Performance Extravaganza – April 24th & 25th

In a very last minute decision, and to the shock of our unsuspecting horses, we decided to enter our first ever Breed Show at the State Equestrian Centre in Brigadoon on the Anzac long weekend.

There was a nice range of Australian Stock Horses classes offered, in both Halter and Ridden, and we thought it might be a good opportunity to gain a bit of experience in this type of arena. We decided to enter our stallion Hogans Tribune and also our young mare Stoneage Slips.

We were extremely under prepared so we weren’t too concerned with ribbons or placings, it was just a good chance to take the horses out and expose them to this type of environment. So after a lot of elbow grease, buffing and polishing through the week we set off and spent the short trip trying to memorise our Ridden and WSH patterns!

Under the watchful eye of judge Laraine McKenzie from Victoria the Halter classes began and we were definitely pleased when both Tribune and Slips won their individual classes and went on to take out the Champion sashes in their respective sections! This qualified them both for the Supreme Exhibit and Tribune, after a nice relaxed workout, was presented with the Reserve Supreme title.

We then quickly saddled up and moved straight in to the Open WSH class which was quite a difficult pattern that included cracking a whip (definitely not my strength!) hand gallops and haunch turns. It was a hard question to ask both of these horses to complete this pattern exactly as set out but we decided just to work to their strengths and take it calm and steady. This paid off quite well with Slips being awarded 1st and Tribune 2nd and we received some lovely comments from the judge in regards to their display which is always nice to hear. We then had a short break while the Hack classes were run and then went in to the Open Ridden once again with quite a difficult pattern, but we stuck with the same plan and once again Slips was awarded 1st and Tribune 2nd! Slips and I then rode off for the Overall Champion Ridden but after she just missed her second flying change in the workout and a flawless performance from the Hack winner, we were awarded the Reserve Champion – but I was still very pleased with her considering she had only had a handful of rides before coming here.

Sunday provided an opportunity for all the Halter Champions to compete for the Supreme of Supreme title which encompassed all breeds from the entire programme. It really was a lovely site to watch so many different types of horses parading around the indoor arena. We decided just to enter Tribune and striding out under the lights he really was a beautiful animal to watch. He unfortunately wasn’t selected in the top 5 but we did receive some very lovely comments. He was one of the few exhibits that actually took the whole atmosphere in his stride and stood casually while he was inspected and displayed the wonderful ASH temperament.

Also, unbeknownst to us, after our horses fabulous performance on Saturday they qualified in the top 30 exhibits for the Versatility Challenge which was to be assessed by all the judges from every breed in a Halter and Ridden class. After looking at the workout pattern we decided not to enter as there were a number of difficult manoeuvres which neither us or the horses were ready for!! But before this Challenge got underway we had the absolute pleasure of taking part in the Anzac Ceremony in which Adrian had been asked to carry the Australian flag on Tribune. All the Challenge competitors filled the arena and in came Tribune to the sound of the Last Post flying the Australian flag. He was the epitome of good behaviour and stood tall and to attention as the National Anthem was then played with the flag held high above his head. They then proceeded to gallop a lap of honour to a round of applause leading all the competitors from the arena, a gorgeous site to watch.

Report and Results - 2010 Australian National Polocrosse Championships – Ballarat, Victoria March 22-28

Overview

Firstly I would like to extend my congratulations to the Ballarat Polocrosse Club and all their volunteers, workers and helpers for putting together such a fantastic facility and most importantly wonderful fields for these Nationals. Too often people aren’t given enough recognition for the tireless efforts and having played at this venue several years ago I was sceptical of how they would pull it off – but they certainly provided a top class event and are to be hugely commended.

Now, on to the important stuff – POLOCROSSE! I have only reported on the teams Tivs and I played in but please keep your eyes out for the June/July issue of the Performance Horse magazine as there will be a huge article on the Nationals with plenty of coverage and photos!

What a week of ups and downs for our home state of WA. Some of our teams performed better than expected and others were quite a way off the mark. NSW once again proved to be the strongest state with their teams featuring in every final and many sitting upon some pretty handy horses, which should actually be expected seeing as there is a lot more polocrosse specific breeding history and a lot more depth and experience in their horsemanship. This is something that is becoming more and more essential for teams and players and it is certainly an area WA lacks a lot of strength in.

WA Womens Team

We had to sit around and try and calm our nerves until the 3rd day of play for our first game of the Nationals! We were up against the Victorians and on paper they seemed a pretty handy side but some well let’s just say, interesting, decisions on how their team should be played certainly worked against them. I was just that little bit extra nervous as this would be the first time I would be playing on Kelly in a competition game, up until now I had only ever had a few training runs. Our 1st chukka ran out with Me at No 1, Kerryn Parsons 2 and Suzette Thomas the 3. Although we hadn’t actually had a lot of training time together in this combination it worked really well and we got off to an ok albeit scratchy start. From there Liz Lyster, Trish Jones and Jane Cooper continued the good work with the horse power of Trish and Jane proving way too  much for the Vic girls. Although it wasn’t our best game, which I think was due to the lack of competition game time being out of season for WA, we got across the line to win 18-12.

Our 2nd game against Qld in our minds was going to be a real test for our team  as these girls pushed us right down to the wire at Perth and once again had some very good, fast horses under them. We made a slight change in our 1st chukka putting Kerryn to the 3 to combat Stephanie Thorsby and her superb Minstril II (Kelly Fraser’s ½ brother) mare Kildare Rumba and it worked a treat. Someone actually mentioned to me after the game it was a great sight to watch an Amazing Grace daughter and grand-daughter play against each other at National level! We took the 1st chukka 5-1 and had a very good feeling we still had more gas in the tank as well! Our 2nd chukka had also made some changes putting Jane Cooper to the 1, Rachael Martin to the 2 and Trish to the 3 which again worked in our favour and those girls put 5-0 chukka on the board. Half way through the 3rd chukka and we had a score line that read 12-1 so we could afford to ease off the pedal a bit. Many suggested that the Qld girls had actually won the next 4 chukkas, but it really didn’t matter considering our lot had managed to win the game in 2!! Our players rotated through really well keeping our horses fresh and we won this game 17-11 and secured our place in the final against NSW.

The NSW game was ‘dead rubber’ for us but it was decided that seeing as we had a day off on Saturday to recover we would give them a good hit out and keep the intensity up. We made a few strategic changes with Jane, Rachael and Trish running out first and then myself, Suz and Kerryn in the 2nd just so we didn’t give all our strengths and weaknesses away! For me this was possibly the game that Kelly and I started to get a real feel for each other and it felt like I went from 2nd gear to 4th!! I think there are still another few that I am yet to find which is a very exciting prospect for me. Personally, I absolutely hate playing these ‘dead rubber’ games and I was a little surprised the draw had been set so we would play NSW in the last round considering that these 2 states have been playing each other in every Nationals final except 1 since 2000!! And it was a game that did cause Alison Mathie to lose her horse to a tendon injury and Mandy Smith to damage her knee badly enough for her to leave the field, certainly not worth it considering the result meant nothing. Hopefully there were a few people taking note of this fact and the draw will be set a little more intelligently next time. All in all, it was a hard game as neither team was prepared to back off but we certainly felt we had these girls measure especially considering they seemed intent on keeping possibly their 3 strongest players together in the first section weakening their overall team balance. We won in the end by 4 and were keen to get them by more in the final!

The day off on Saturday was good for our horses, not so good for nerves! The final started Me, Suz and Kerryn against Alison (on a very handy, fresh horse), Tanya Hollow and Sandra Weston and we didn’t get our girls off to a good start unfortunately. We were just too slow to the ball and seemed to be taking a back seat watching them go past but they didn’t put in a big score and we finished 3-1. All I can say is thank goodness for Liz, Trish and Jane – those 3 girls handled the NSW section of Elissa Koch, Leith Pryor and Mandy Smith with ease. These 3 NSW girls didn’t seem to have quite the same determination and hardness as the others and with a brilliant performance from all 3 of our lot they piled on goals scoring 6-1 and giving us the lead we needed. From there our lead was never seriously challenged, although they got within a couple of goals a few times. Once again our rotation worked well for the No 1’s and Kelly and I finally found some form in the 5th chukka getting a lot more ball off the ground and then stepped up another gear in the 7th securing a good lead which the girls maintained in the 8th for us to win 28-21 – which meant WA retained the Australian Champion Women’s title.

WA Open Mixed

Tivs and Giggle had a massive job ahead of them, probably one she wasn’t quite ready for, with 5 round games scheduled but as per her usual style she tackled it head on and gave it everything she had. Luckily these guys had 2 easy games first up so they could all find their feet and blow out some cobwebs against Tasmania and South Australia. They won these games by 20 and 21 and gave them a good start heading in to the 3 harder games.

Their first test came when they went up against Victoria on Wednesday and it was very close from start to finish! The girls seemed a little slow to the ball and nerves were beginning to show and the boys were starting to find some form but never really took command of the Vics despite being the much more talented and well horsed section. Heading in to the 6th Tivs was put up the front, Doug Brown 2 and my brother Chris 3. These guys started the chukka playing some very inspired polocrosse. Tivs just seemed to be able to find the ball a lot quicker out of the packs and banged some fast running goals through and Chris intercepted 2 big passes across the line which were converted easily. But just towards the end the lead slipped and the Vics levelled the score just before the final bell! There was only one thing being talked about at the WA end as the girls were getting ready for the Golden Goal chukka – hit the bloody thing out to Sarah and Plukka!! This plan worked perfectly as Sar swooped on the ball, delivered to Alana and the goal was scored WA winning 15-14.

Game 4 for the Open Mixed team against NSW was one that had probably drawn most of their focus from when the teams were announced. On paper the blues were a very handy looking team and certainly well horsed. With steely faces these guys rode out and with focus and determination matched them goal for goal and the girls put a few extra on for good measure! As time and chukkas went on the atmosphere was crackling more and more as the possibility that they could roll this team and put a foot in the door to the final grew with every goal scored. The lead of 4 goals by the end of the 5th chukka was the result of a fantastic performance by all 4 of the girls for the entire game and the ability of our men to match the likes of Jeremy Thurkle, Pat French and Bernie Smith. With Tivs, Doug and Chris riding out for the 6th we were all still holding our breath, but after a quick snap out of the line up and goal from Tivs and then another goal scored similarly everyone let out a collective sigh. This may have come a little early as Jeremy really put his foot down and banged a lot of goals on to bring them within 1. He grabbed another and Chris did just enough in the area to make him turn around a couple of times and the bell sounded, along with a huge WA cheer, and they had won another game by a goal 16-15.

So far WA were the only undefeated team in this division but they still had a very determined Qld team to play, something I personally think took a back seat after their win against NSW. Qld admittedly bought in 2 fresh horses and in the end this factor accompanied with what seemed to be a slightly less intense attitude and some very tired horses was their undoing. They struggled from the start and just couldn’t find the same form that gave them such a brilliant win the day before. And things continued to go from bad to worse as hopes were dampened and the energy levels of the ponies wore increasingly down trying to keep up with fresh ones. Unfortunately the 10 goal deficit was not only crushing but with Qld still having one game to play, and only against Tasmania, the maroons got another win on the board and pushed our lot out of the final by 0.14%. A final they had travelled over 3000kms for and they had played so well winning every game but 1, on this occasion it was just not enough. In all honesty though, the WA horses were spent, especially the younger ones like Giggle and Chris’s horse Corona and even though they had performed admirably they probably wouldn’t have had the stamina left to go with the much fresher looking NSW team. Watching on during the week though I couldn’t have been prouder as Tivs and Giggle excelled at both No 1 and 2 and did everything, and more, that was required of them. Giggle herself never gave up and just did whatever was asked of her and for where she is at in her polocrosse career we couldn’t have dreamed about a better performance from her.

Awards and Results

See the Results page for a PDF of all the individual winners and grinners!

Breeding Programme - Update

We had a really successful, and busy, 2009 breeding season with Tribune achieving a 100% strike rate with all the Qualia broodmares and the visiting mares confirmed in foal. We would like to thank all the owners who sent their lovely mares to be covered by Tribune, we are certainly looking forward to seeing some more gorgeous foals on the ground later this year! We are already taking bookings for the 2010 season from repeat and new clients and some of the mares have qualified for our High Performance Mare discount. Please contact me if you would like to find out whether your mare is eligible.

Embryo Transfer

I have been spending the last few months, and a good deal of time before that, looking further in to the Embryo Transfer programme for a few select mares at Qualia. The ET process is an ideal set up for our polocrosse horses so we can continue playing them whilst having the benefits of progeny already on the ground ensuring we get a head start on continuing a quality future for Qualia.

Further to the ET programme I have also been speaking with Christie Hunt of Elite Equine Embryos, with whom we have registered my mare Kelly Fraser, in regards to offering the “Right to Flush” some of our more elite and proven mares. This will allow our clients and interested parties the opportunity to purchase an embryo from one of our top quality mares with the added benefit of using a stallion of their choice also. See the EEE website for more details on what they can provide.

This is something I will continue to research and discuss with Elite Equine Embryos and also Kellie Stewart of Saltriver Performance Horses.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss this option and what mares we have available.

2010 Australian National Polocrosse Championships – Ballarat, Victoria March 22-28

The draw is out, camping sites allocated and official functions organised – the reality of Nationals is really starting to sink in! Time has certainly flown by and we head off to the Nationals on Thursday March 11th to try and defend our Australian Champions title which we helped our respective teams obtain at the 2008 Perth Nationals – so exciting, and nerve wracking!

The 3 mares travelling are: Kelly Fraser, Stoneage Giggle and Riom Curlew. These 3 have had spent many weeks being prepared, pampered and playing to get them as fit and healthy as possible. They are now enjoying the slightly more relaxing process of being ‘let down’ a little before the trip and have been having a great time doing laps in the horse pool just down the road from us! There has been a slight change of plans with horses and Giggle, who was originally going as my spare, will now be played by Tivs in the Open Mixed with Curlie becoming the spare for both of us. Kelly and I are going to be playing our first ever tournament together, and what a way to start with it being the Nationals!

Both our teams have secured some fantastic sponsorship which every player is hugely grateful for. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those that have been so generous.
WA Women’s Team sponsored by: Summit Fertilisers, Stanbee Stockfeeds, Europa Mandurah, Pinjarra Veterinary Hospital, Saltriver Performance Horses, Topstock and Chapman Animal Hospital.
WA Open Mixed Team sponsored by: Commonwealth Bank, Geraldton Turf Farm, Stockyard Stock Supplies, National Australia Bank, Ian Walton, Diab Engineering, Minirigs and Nufab Industries.

I look forward to reporting back to you all with news and results from the Nationals, and hopefully it will all be good news for our wonderful WA Teams!! (Thanks to Sarah Marriott for the photo.)

L-R Kerryn Mickle-Manager, Suzette Thomas, Kerryn Parsons, Rachael Martin, Trish Jones, Jane Cooper, Liz Lyster, Jodi Tiver, Troy Henry-Coach

Australian Performance Horse Article

A feature article on Qualia Sport Horses has been published in the April/May issue of this fantastic magazine! Make sure you grab your copy and check out all the other articles and features. Keep an eye out for the June/July issue as there will be plenty of Polocrosse coverage from the Nationals and Barastoc competition.

Australian Stock Horse WA Championships
January 30th & 31st 2010-02-01

What a wonderful site it was at the new Murray questrian Centre with such quality Australian Stock Horses representing WA at the State Championships. This was the first time the Championships has been held at this venue, normally being located a fair bit further south in Mt Barker, so it was great to see the event well supported with competitors coming from as far as Esperance and Geraldton.

Paul Vary from Riverview Stud in NSW was the invitational judge, along with his lovely wife Penny, and they did a wonderful job throughout the entire weekend. Karen Mori stepped in to judge all the Hack Classes as well which were very popular! A big thank you to the judges, the ASH Central branch and their volunteers, the sponsors and every other person that had a hand in putting this event together – thank you sincerely for your efforts.

Qualia News

Well what a weekend for our wonderful Qualia Sport Horses! We were hoping to use this occasion to get an idea of how these type of events ran and how everyone else prepared their horses. This was our first time competing in an ASH Show so we weren’t really focused on winning ribbons this time round but needless to say we were absolutely overjoyed at the success our horses had in each class. We had our resident sire Hogans Tribune competing in the 3yr Old Futurity, Stoneage Slips in the 4yr Old Maturity, Barnetts Lady Jane in the Mare (5yrs and Over) Led, Ridden and Working and Kelly Fraser and Stoneage Giggle in the Working Stock Horse Mare.

We would like to extend our congratulations to Kelly and Heath Stewart of Saltriver Performance Horses who also had an outstanding weekend with their 2 horses.

Qualia Full Results Hogans Tribune Overall 3yr Old Futurity Champion 2nd Led – 1st Ridden – 1st Time Trial Stoneage Slips Overall 4yr Old Maturity Champion 1st Ridden – 2nd Time Trial - =2nd Cattle Section Barnetts Lady Jane 2nd Led Mare (5yrs and Over) Runner Up Overall Led Exhibit 3rd ASHLA Ridden 2nd Ridden Mare =3rd Working Stock Horse Mare Stoneage Giggle 1st Working Stock Horse Mare 3rd Overall Working Stock Horse

Perfect Pony Photography

Qualia Sport Horses would sincerely like to thank Brooke from Perfect Pony Photography for all the wonderful new photos she took of our horses. She was friendly and professional and just genuinely a lovely person to work with. We certainly recommend visiting her website: : http://www.perfectponyphotographics.com.au and we are sure she will be able to help you out with any events or stud profiles.

Brooke also took photos at the WA ASH Champs and will have photos from Saturday available shortly. You can email Brooke at: perfectponyphotograpics@live.com.au if you have any questions or queries.

*2010 Equestricare Sponsorship – Jodi Tiver*

I am very pleased to announce that I have been offered one of the few places on the Equestricare Sponsored Rider Team for 2010. Qualia Sport Horses have been using this fantastic company for a few years now and Jessica Blackwell and her team have been a very professional and friendly outfit to work with. They have helped with all kinds of issues from little niggly back problems to torn muscles and ligaments, all with wonderful results. You can immediately see the positive effects this treatment has on the horses.

It is a very cost effective and beneficial treatment, especially in a sport like Polocrosse which demands so much physically and mentally from the horses. If you think you are sore and bruised after a weekend, imagine what your horse must feel like! I highly recommend Jess and the Equestricare team to all Polocrosse players.