FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES DECEMBER 2013 103
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES JUNE 2012 3
H
andsome
H
eartfelt
By Sarit Schneider
B
randon Phillips is not only easy on the eyes; he is also an
extremely talented polo player. With almost 20 years as
a professional polo player and a 5-goal handicap, he has
captured some of the sport’s most coveted trophies. Yet, his life
has not always been perfect. In fact, Brandon has faced more in
his 36 years than most of us will in a lifetime.
Brandon was born in King City, Canada, just outside of Toronto.
Growing up, he was extremely athletic and could always be
found playing one sport or another. As most Canadian boys
do, Brandon loved iced hockey, but also split his time between
soccer, rugby, basketball and polo.
“Because polo is not very common in Canada, people are
often surprised that I play it professionally,” said Brandon. “It
was actually a natural fit for me because I was surrounded by
horses from an early age.” His father and brother played polo
as amateurs at the Toronto Polo Club, two of his uncles were
Olympic show jumpers and his mother foxhunted.
Brandon rode his first horse when he was only 18-months-old
and started working with stick and ball at six. At the age of 11,
he played his first match at the Toronto Polo Club, becoming the
youngest polo player there at the time. Everything seemed to be
falling into place for Brandon as he led a fun and busy teenage
life.
Then, everything changed.
In June of 1992, Brandon’s world
was turned upside down. He woke up one Sunday morning
with severe swelling and an aching pain in his right leg. Having
played a polo game the previous Wednesday, a rugby game
on Friday and an exceptionally rough game of soccer the night
before, he attributed the pain to a sports injury. Worried after
the swelling did not go down, Brandon’s parents took him to the
hospital. It turned out that they had more reason to worry than
they knew.
Twenty hours later, Brandon was diagnosed with stage four
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Doctors found a grapefruit-sized
tumor wrapped around his left ureter, the tube that connects the
kidneys with the bladder. It had shut off his left kidney and hit the
lymph nodes, preventing his leg from draining fluid. This buildup
of fluid was causing the aching in his leg. Though Brandon’s
parents did not tell him at the time, the doctor’s prognosis was
six weeks to live. He was only 14-years-old.
“I was scared like any other 14 year-old would be, trying to
process what was happening and the road I had ahead. But I
was determined to beat it,” Brandon recalls.
From that moment, Brandon was suddenly forced to grow
up faster than those around him. Soccer practices and
school dances were replaced by doctor visits and intensive
chemotherapy sessions. His friends and family were with
him every step of the way, and their encouragement and love
enabled Brandon to find the strength to keep battling. He lost
weight, lost hair, but never lost his spirit or hope for a better
tomorrow. “Through it all, I never accepted death as an option;
instead, my biggest grudge was missing soccer season,” said
Brandon.
After five grueling months, Brandon beat the odds and went
into remission. He was eager to return to the life of a normal
teenager and rejoined his school basketball team that November.
Though now physically healthy, the emotional effects of the
cancer lingered. Brandon was left with an altered outlook that
would change the course of his life forever. Those months spent
in a hospital bed fighting for his life made Brandon realize how
precious each moment was. Once he recovered, he made sure
not to take anything for granted and was thankful for every new
day. He vowed to dedicate his life to doing what he loved —
playing polo.
Brandon threw himself into polo as his participation in other
sports slowly dwindled. Todd Offen, a Canadian polo player with
a successful career in the United States, became Brandon’s idol.
When Brandon was 16, Todd invited him to New York to attend
the U.S. Open. This was his first experience watching high goal
HORSEMAN
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