My Horse of a Lifetime – ‘Wrangler Lee’

In a new series following the horses of polocrosse, we ask our players to tell us about their ‘Horse of a Lifetime’. The first in this series is written by Caitlin Heagney, telling us about her horse Wrangler Lee and his polocrosse career…

Wrangler was born and bred in New Zealand in 1997. His dam was ‘Just A Helen’ and his sire was ‘Brandon (Lee)’. He was owned and trained for polocrosse by Errol Gloyn. Neil Bradley bought him from the Gloyns as a 2 year old. Who was to know then that this would be the start of a very long and successful career for Wrangler? He played polocrosse and polo with Neil for a couple of seasons in NZ and when Neil came back to England to live he decided to bring Wrangler home too. At this point Wrangler was 8 years old. Whilst in Alnwick he had a break from polocrosse and enjoyed hunting with Neil for a couple of seasons.

Wrangler was then sold to Lucy Shell (Lyster) and with her he played four seasons in A grade. He played in the following test matches:

• 2008 – UK v Australia
• 2009 – UK v South Africa
• All the Tri-Nations in the years she owned him

Wrangler was then purchased by the Rowley family, where he was used as a family horse to play various levels of polocrosse with them. He competed with Becky Rowley in B/C grade, her brother Alex also rode him and he was used as a pool horse for squad test matches.

After his time with the Rowleys his next owner and rider was Charlotte Kitching. Wrangler and Charlotte played C grade together and again he had another successful polocrosse career.

We got Wrangler purely by chance from Charlotte in 2015 and from the moment I sat on him at Rugby I knew he was the horse for me and the start of something special. He has since become a well-established member of the Heagney family and we couldn’t imagine our lives without him! He has taught me and my brother Ciaran so much and we can’t thank him enough. I moved into Open Juniors with Wrangler and it was a massive step up from PJs. In our first year together we played for Wales in the Tri-Nations in Ireland before being selected for the U16 squad in 2017.

We have done so much training and work together, so when we played our first game in C grade he looked after me impeccably, a true schoolmaster. For Wrangler’s last season at the grand old age of 21, my brother Ciaran progressed on to him and together they had an amazing 2018, winning Best Horse at GNT in D Grade. Then at the Nationals that year they were part of the overall winning team in lower C Grade, with Ciaran winning Best 1 and Wrangler awarded another Best Horse!

Wrangler has been through a few polocrosse homes along the way, taught and carried many people up and through the grades and has been loved by every person who was lucky enough to have him in their lives. He is now enjoying his ‘polocrosse retirement’ and has found his forever home with us. You may still see him umpiring the odd game though, gnashing his teeth pitch-side and chomping at the bit, he wouldn’t be happy to be left at home! He is a legend and I would like to say how privileged I feel to have him in my life as my best friend.

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