SHELLEY GEILER

How did you get started with horses?
My earliest memory of being on a horse was on a gentle old quarter horse on my great uncle’s cattle ranch in Arizona. I was about 3 ½ years old and I think I rode that poor horse from dusk until dawn. It was definitely love at first sight I started riding hunter jumpers when I was 7 years old. After a while, my dad couldn’t take being on the sidelines any longer, and donned the breeches and velvet hat and joined me on the local show circuit. 

How did you get involved in polo?
When my dad first started playing, I was in junior high school and still riding my hunter/jumper horse. But I would love to go to the polo barn with him and help tack up the horses and “warm” his horse up for him. This usually entailed me getting on and galloping around the arena as fast as I could until someone came out to stop me before I wore the horse out for the chukker. It was so exhilarating and not something you got to do in my world, so it was very tempting. It wasn’t long before I was spending more time at the polo barn and less at the show barn. It took me awhile to learn how to hit the ball though because I am left handed and you have to play polo right handed. We used to drive up to the LA Equestrian Center to watch the high goal professional games and it was magical to watch them play at such high speeds. There would be thousands of people there to watch the games, and the stars that came to along to see the show. 

What do you enjoy most about polo?
One of my earliest and funniest memories was playing in a polo tournament out in the Desert with Mickey Dolenz of the Monkeys, when I was about 13 years old. I was so star struck. I think he found it very amusing that a teenager in the 80’s knew who he was.