My Horse of a Lifetime – ‘Fanta’

This is the latest article in our series following the horses of polocrosse, where we ask our players to tell us about their ‘Horse of a Lifetime’. The second in this series is written by Alice Kish , telling us about her little mare Fanta.

Fanta has never been and will never be a straightforward horse. She frets on the yard, she spooks, she’s so round saddles slide underneath her belly and she’s not the fastest in a straight line. Sometimes for fun she likes to pretend she’s never seen a polocrosse racquet before. She’s made me cry with frustration many, many times. Despite all of this, she’s priceless to me.

Born in 2007, this little bay mare is still in the prime of her career. I have never had huge Polocrosse ambitions. I realised quite quickly that I didn’t need a horse as good as Fanta, although it does make playing an absolute dream!

I firmly believe that the standard of UK Polocrosse will only improve with the increased availability of quality horses, and for this reason I am very willing to lend my little mare to help other players. My younger brother Charlie has played her this year, and she was in the South Africa pool for the U16 test matches this summer at Arden, where she demonstrated time and again the reason she is such a force to be reckoned with on the pitch. In 2016 I lent her to Mollie Edwards to play in the U21 tests against Zimbabwe, where again she excelled herself. Everyone who plays her comes off the pitch with a grin on their face and she’s won countless Best Pony awards with many different riders at C, B, A and International levels.

I am very lucky to have had a lot of help from Jason Webb and Hamish Gillanders. I’ve had to work hard to improve my riding to get the most out of Fanta, and it would have been so much harder on my own. This season I’ve absolutely loved watching Hamish play her; they make such a good partnership. It’s a credit to her natural ability and willing nature that he can play her at any position in A grade and still make it look easy. The way she takes on horses so much bigger than her makes me so proud, she’s a little powerhouse and gives you so much confidence when playing.

I’ve now put her in foal via surrogate to Haydon Oracle, an Australian Stock Horse stallion imported by the Bristows and Webbs. It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity to raise a ‘Fanta-foal’ from the start and bring her on ourselves. If we can get Fanta’s ability and spirit with Oracle’s fabulous temperament it’ll be tough to beat. As horses go, she’s pretty damn special, and with luck she’ll have plenty more years of playing with Hamish and myself before a well earned retirement. Horses like her don’t come along very often, and we should treat them like gold dust when they do!

Our ‘Horses of Polocrosse’ articles are kindly sponsored by Comfort Gut , a feed supplement designed for performance horses, those in high-stress situations, and those who are heavily travelled. Comfort Gut also support the UKPA National Championships.

Find out more about Comfort Gut and how it can help horses in hard work at www.comfortgut.com