Equiery World Travelers
Adventures Down Under By Alex Harvey, Sandy Spring
T e American Polocrosse Association
(APA) has a youth development team program (YDT) where kids of certain ages can travel to various countries on polocrosse tours, staying with host families and competing in tournaments. I was a part of the YDT U21 team from 2014 to 2016, one of the best opportunities of my life. I currently attend Davidson College, a small liberal arts school in North Carolina.
I’ve
ridden most of my life and started competing when I was 11 in dressage schooling shows and some local hunter and jumper shows. Once I joined Pony Club, I participated in almost every discipline from games and tetrathlon to eventing on a great Norwegian Fjord named T under. We even started playing polocrosse when I was 16 and my fi rst tournament was in September of 2011. Unfortunately,
after my fi rst several
tournaments, I realized that because the game requires high agility and maneuverability, I would need a more suitable horse and I bought Dancer, a T oroughbred mare. It was quite a jump from a Norwegian Fjord so it took a little while to settle down a mare with attitude, but after some practice, we learned to get along.
Polocross in New South Wales
My fi rst YDT U21 tour was an inbound tour in 2014. T e team played in a quadrangular tournament in Harvest, Alabama between the U16 team, World Cup Team, and the Australian U21 players from New South Wales (NSW). Both the 2015 and 2016 trips were outbound tours and I was part of the Ambassador tour to NSW with two other U21 players. We stayed with host families, who were all part of the Tumut polocrosse club, and we played with their club.
“small”
My host family had a 100-acre sheep
station in Eugowra, NSW. Some stayed with families who had over 7000 acres. T e mother of my host family was an equine dentist, the father was a painter and trained horses, and they had two children; one was away
Alex (center) with U.S. Youth U21 teammates at the Tumut Carnival in Australia
at university and the other was at home helping work the horses. We played in two tournaments, which they
call carnivals over there, and were mixed in with the Tumut players. We played in A reserve in the fi rst carnival at Harden (just a notch below the top grade) and in the intermediates division in the second at Tumut (17- to 21- year-olds). T e Australians were very gracious in that they provided some of the best horses they had for us, their Yankee guests. We ended up switching horses almost every game, so I ended up riding up to six horses in just two carnivals, not to mention the horses I rode while with my host family. I appreciated every moment of that tour
because every person I met was so welcoming and had so much helpful advice to give. Being able to learn from Australians, and even just watching them play was the best thing for me, especially in my transition to A grade back in the U.S. Along with acquiring great experience and horse knowledge, carnivals were just a great time to have fun with evening bonfi res, lots of talking and enjoying the weekend. Australians defi nitely know how to have a good time.
Field Studies in Queensland
After the tour was over, I
Alex taking a study break in Paihia, New Zealand
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left NSW to go up to James Cook University in Smithfi eld, Queensland. I took a marine biology and ecology class specifi c to their unique location. We got to do fi eld research in diff erent ecosystems around the Great Barrier Reef, specifi cally in a mangrove system on nearby Green Island and at Cape Tribulation, both on the rocky beach and in the rain forest mangroves. At each of these locations we recorded observations of diff erent organisms, plant and animal, and studied the biological and physiological layout of the ecosystem.
Alex playing polocross at the Kaikohe Carnival in New Zealand
which climbs almost to the top of Mt. Bonpland up the Bryant Glacier. We were feeling a little adventurous once we got to the base of the glacier, which was a big opening where a very steep rocky incline led up to a ledge. Most of this incline was covered in fi ve feet of snow, which made for diffi cult climbing. Once we made it to the top, where it was snowing heavily, we enjoyed the view and got a well-deserved rest. T e most effi cient way to descend was to slide very slowly, rather than sink through the snow with each step. During our descent, T omas injured his shoulder and had very limited mobility. I was able to give him fi rst aid so we could get back down the mountain. T at was defi nitely the most
continued... OCTOBER 2016 | THE EQUIERY | 29
Australia • New Zealand Outside of studies, I would go hiking,
sightseeing, and swimming, being careful of the saltwater and freshwater crocodiles, plus snorkeling and scuba diving in the Great Barrier. I even made it back down to my host family in NSW a couple times to visit and play polocrosse, playing A grade at the Warren Carnival. T ey were so welcoming and happy to have me back after the tour, it was like I had a second home in Australia.
Hiking in New Zealand
T omas from my fraternity at Davidson was on the program to Cairns so we made a trip over our mid-semester break to see friends from Davidson who were studying on the South Island of New Zealand. We stopped with our friend in Dunedin, surrounded by smaller mountains that were really big hills, which was a good warm-up for all the hiking we were about to do in the big mountain ranges at Queenstown, next to Lake Wakatipu. T e lake similar to most other lakes in NZ, is such a bright blue color that is almost impossible to describe its beauty. We hiked every day, but the most eventful hike was a six-hour trek on the Glacier Burn Track,
906030-161016
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