Polo and Hunters find common ground for Aspen Tinto

Watching the finals of the US Open Women’s Polo Championship in Wellington this winter, equestrian onlookers would have struggled to associate Aspen Tinto with the Hunter show ring. Her horse changes mid-chukker at the National Polo Center, reminiscent of the urgency of a Formula One car pit stop and her aggressive role in the team as a ‘space maker’ for her teammates, did not equate with the genteel qualities of the Hunter classes. But that is where Aspen, 18, started – and according to the up-and-coming women’s polo player, there is a lot to take away from her Horse Show roots.

“The biggest thing was the seat,” Aspen said, reflecting on her first foray into polo as she contemplated applying to Cornell – a university with a well-known collegiate polo team – for veterinary school. “I think that helped me with my [polo] swing a ton because I was used to standing up anyways. A couple of people I’ve given [polo] lessons to – their biggest thing is they’re scared to stand up on the horse.”

Show Hunters are a largely US phenomenon. The origins trace back to showing horses in a format that emulated the sport of foxhunting. Modern-day Hunter classes – where the horse is being judged and not the rider – require contestants to demonstrate, according to the USHJA [United States Hunter Jumper Associaton] web site, ‘good style over jumps, consistent pace throughout the course, and good manners.” The latter, not a prerequisite that comes in handy on the polo field.

But the ‘seamless flow’ that is the objective for the horse and rider is created by the Hunt seat, which as with the polo ‘half seat’ engaged to strike a polo ball, requires the rider to use their legs to balance above the saddle as the contact on reins is relaxed. “Either showing Hunters or playing polo, you want to be as off the horse’s mouth as you can,” said Aspen. “The less you have to pull on a horse, the easier your life is going to be.”

Aspen, started showing Hunters at six years old. When she took up polo, she was converted quickly from one sport to the other and has not looked back. Now with a win this year with Victory Polo/Eastern Hay in the US Open Women’s Polo Championship and the Women’s Gold Cup – she was awarded the Most Valuable Player in the finals for her tenacious defensive play – her women’s handicap went from two to three goals. As she continues on her upward trajectory in the sport, Aspen credits her Hunter background with giving her an important advantage in developing and managing her polo horses.

“All the skills I learned in Hunters – such as how to get a horse to move over, how to get them to relax – has really helped me in schooling my horses,” she explained. “Having that background has kind of given me a leg up with training my horses to be as best as they can be.”

As a young Hunter rider in Minnesota she was often given troubled horses to show. “Horses that were kind of slow,” she said.  “I would get on them and they would be a completely different horse. And kind of the same thing happened when I started playing polo. There was this Arena [polo] horse named Jetta that would not go for the life of her, and I got on her and she went amazing for me. And no one had ever seen her ride like that, and I thought that was really cool.”

Trained at Wellington-based Santa Clara Polo Club with former high goal player Luis Escobar, Aspen works closely with Rosie Elordi and has implemented a system that emphasizes schooling and one-on-one work with the horses over sets – one rider mounted, leading two to four unmounted horses on exercise.

“We don’t send them on sets twice a day. We don’t do what normal polo players do,” she said. “Instead, we school our horses, so we’re one-on-one working with them.”

Her early years in the Hunter barn also taught lessons that continue to serve her well. Growing up she handled nearly every aspect of horse care. “I had to do pretty much everything myself,” she recalled. “I cleaned stalls, I tacked, I groomed them, and had to retrieve them from a paddock in negative-three-degree weather.”

That experience, she says, provided invaluable grounding. “Knowing how to do all that stuff has helped a ton,” she said.

Despite her success in polo, Aspen says there are aspects of the Hunter world she still misses. She has a string of a dozen horses based in Wellington where she will return to compete next winter, while studying remotely at Penn State University. While she has favorites, she acknowledges that the relationship is different from the one-on-one partnership she experienced as a Hunter rider.

“In Hunters, it was you and your one horse,” she said. “That horse is your whole world, basically. I have a string of 12 horses. I can get to know each horse, but it’s not like I’m going to the barn and spending quality time with each and every one of them. Playing polo is a feeling that you can’t ever explain,” she said. “But I do miss the connection that I had with the one horse.”

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