74 SIDELINES JANUARY 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Ricky Bostwick with the Best Playing Pony “Valentina” at the
2013 U.S. Arena Handicap Championships and player Tony
Uretz. Bostwick Stables provided horses for the collegiate
players (Tony, Patrick and Wiley Uretz, and Nik Feldman) on
the 12-goal team sponsored by the USPA I/I program. They
went on to win the 2013 United States Arena Handicap, an open
tournament of mostly pro teams.
Photo by Amy Wisehart
Brothers Charlie and Ricky Bostwick accept the Silver Jubilee
Trophy from Queen Elizabeth at WIndsor Park, England after the
USA defeated England.
Photo Courtesy Bostwick Family
Team Agua Enerviva –
Wes Finlayson, Hugh
Dollard, Ricky Bostwick,
Raul Colombres –
wins the 2011 USPA
Delegates Cup, one of
the most prestigious
8-goal tournaments on
the circuit. Ricky played
in 20 Delegates Cups
before he finally won one
and said, “It was fun to
win with the kids.”
Photo by Jennifer Williams
“Larry The Cable Guy” gets ready to learn some polo basics
from Ricky Bostwick for an episode of “Only In America” for the
History Channel.
Photo by Christine Bostwick
Early Polo Mentors
Ricky cited several influences, especially his father, legendary
horseman and polo player George Herbert (“Pete”) Bostwick. “My
father lived to compete and had endless energy. He was highly
respected as a horseman,” Ricky recalled. “He saw where polo
was evolving when I was a teenager and always told me there
could be great opportunity as a polo professional in the future. He
gave me every opportunity before he passed away to prepare. I
was 19 and already running his polo operation. I knew it was what
I wanted to do.”
Two other players also helped to shape his horsemanship
and play. “My older brother Charlie was a more natural athlete,
which forced me to work harder to compete on his level. What I
lacked in skill, I made up with heart,” Ricky said. “Ricardo ‘Dicky’
Santamarina, my godfather, was a world famous breeder of polo
ponies in Argentina at La Fortuna. He had an uncanny eye for
quality and conformation in horseflesh. I learned a lot from him.”
Ricky’s standard by which he evaluates all polo ponies is
Christine, a horse imported from Argentina. “She had the best
mouth, lateral movement and smooth quick acceleration,” Ricky
said. “I was guaranteed two goals a chukker when I played her –
no one could take the ball away from me on that mare.”
Gazette, Ricky’s polo-playing equine partner of a lifetime, was
bred in the USA and sired by Magazin, the famous polo-playing
Thoroughbred stallion owned by 9-goaler Del Carroll and Best
Playing Pony of the 1972 US Open, out of Peggy Tipton. “I traded
Charlie Armstrong a well-bred green gelding for that mare – she
was green, but had amazing power,” Ricky said. “She was way
too strong and would lose her mouth the moment you pushed
her, but within a year she was the best horse I ever owned – and
always good for two chukkers. It was almost a joke how I would
run by other horses and how she would literally lunge out of turns
– she never ever seemed to get tired. I ended up selling her to a
high goal team for nearly six figures and she finished her career in
the high goal in England.”
Teaching Polo & Mounting Future Players
“I really enjoy teaching polo to new players and helping them
achieve their goals,” said Ricky, who runs Bostwick Stables with
his wife Christine. They also cater to hunters and jumpers and
offer boarding, stall leasing, training and sales. Their facilities
include three barns, 52 stalls, 10-acre bermuda grass polo field,
sand ring with jumps and a track.
According to Ricky, the bottom line is getting new enthusiasts
hooked on polo. “It’s so important to provide horses that suit the
individual so they can focus on whatever you are working on – safe
and steady builds confidence,” he said. “I always look at juniors
as if they could one day be potentially great players and I am a bit
more vigilant not to allow bad habits to form. You are building their
swing type that one day may lead them to greatness.”
David Strouss buys all of his playing ponies from Ricky. “I
bought my first horse from Ricky about 15 years ago,” David said.
“My whole string is from Ricky. The proof is in the pudding when
you keep going back to somebody. I’m a one-goal player, not a
pro, and Ricky has always been fair with me.”
Leasing polo ponies often harvests the PR advantage of having
one of the match’s Best Playing Ponies. “It’s a nice complement
that you can match a horse with a player in the short term and gain
that success,” Ricky said. “Our ultimate goal is to sell horses and
BPPs get everyone’s attention.”
