$5 Tournament Tickets, Horse-Actors and Wine Tastings: LA Equestrian Center Brings Polo to Griffith Park

Angeleños looking for a unique night out now have an unexpected option: watching polo in Griffith Park. The Los Angeles Equestrian Center will be hosting a “challenge” — or polo tournament at the site’s Equidome on October 4th.

In addition to polo, the evening will feature contributions from entertainers across L.A.. “Instead of just having it be an equestrian event, we really wanted to extend the reach out to the community,” Madliene Clowry, one of the organizers, told LAPost.com. “So we had an art gallery, and we had vendors, and we had a barn, we had a food experience and music.” 

Building off of the success of their first event in July, the organizers have also added swing dance lessons, an installation from The Hive Art Gallery, and an appearance from Bradley, a horse which recently appeared in the film Horizon, starring Kevin Costner.

The LAEC’s management hopes the tournament will draw a diverse crowd. “The beauty of polo is that it's for all ages,” says Kaelya Sommer, the site’s Executive Director of Equestrian Operations. “We want you to bring your kids but we also want you to use it as a date night.”

July’s event marked the return of professional polo to the Equidome after several decades of absence. While the center was built in the 1980s, it has not always gotten the attention that its users believe it deserves. The building was built at the center of an existing equestrian area, featuring stables and a network of trails that reaches the Hollywood Sign.

According to Clowry, “celebrities used to play, professional teams played, and they would fill the 3000-seat stadium every Saturday.” At the July event, some fans, and even one player, were able to recall fond memories of the Equidome in its 80s heyday. Unfortunately, the center was brought under new management in the 90s, and polo was sidelined.

ASM Global, which took over management in February, hopes to change that. “We really want to make sure that we're kind of the hub throughout the equestrian community,” Sommer explains. In addition to the polo tournaments, she says the center has been adding a host of activities. “We do really unique events that weren't here previously. So street food, cinema — we're partnering to do movies out on the lawn.”

Sommer and Clowry say they have gone to great lengths to keep equestrianism accessible to the whole community. “In an environment where absolutely everything is expensive, the price to get into this event is five dollars,” says Clowry. “We wanted to make it accessible to all. I know there's some ideas of what polo is like, but here locally, polo is for everybody — and it's fun.”

The financial challenges presented by the sport have been a formidable obstacle to community engagement. While tickets to the challenge are affordable, playing polo is not. The game’s reputation as a pastime for those with inherited wealth is something the LAEC would like to change.

Clowry herself is a polo player, and says she got started through a discounted lesson. “I responded to an ad on Facebook for a $50 intro class, and I went, and I did the class. I've never had more fun in my whole life.” Eventually, she picked up a second job in order to afford the horses the sport requires.

She says readers who are interested in the sport should come out to the challenge in October or book a lesson at the LAEC. “Please come join us next Friday. And really see what it's about because we can sit here and gush about it. But unless you see it for yourself, it doesn't do it justice.”

Tickets to the October Polo Challenge are available on EventBrite.