66 SIDELINES APRIL 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
much polo as possible and see what I can achieve in this sport.”
Tasha Harris, 23, wants to ride seriously again. She started in
Work To Ride in 2003 and when she graduated in 2008, she was
riding at least five times per week. For four years she played on
the Cowtown Dahlias (girls) Work To Ride polo team. She rode on
Temple University’s IHSA team for two years, winning a couple
times, and the team qualified for regionals once, but she decided
to put her education first. Now in her last semester, she’s earning
her B.S. in Geology and leaning towards a job in the field of new,
alternate energy.
“Horses and polo figure into my future, especially horses – I
would like to live somewhere near a polo club and make it my
hobby, but most of all I would like to own my own horse one day,
even if it wasn’t a polo pony,” Tasha said. “Lezlie and her program
definitely changed me. I was super shy as a teenager. If I wanted
to do something but hesitated, Lezlie would say, just go ahead
and do it! I don’t think I would have the confidence I have now
without Work To Ride. It changed me for the better.”
Brandon Rease played on the Cowtown Work To Ride’s team
that won two consecutive, 2011 and 2012, USPA Interscholastic
National Championships. “I don’t ever see myself not playing polo
and I’m looking to go professional one day,” he said. “Winning
those two national titles gave me more ambition to get educated
and to keep going as far as I can with polo. When I started Work
To Ride, it was more just me trying something new, but the pro-
gram gave me a good way to get out of my neighborhood. I was
never afraid of riding or horses, not even the ones that acted cra-
zy. When I met Lezlie, she was too different and that’s been good.
A lot of kids couldn’t handle it, but I am here because of Work To
Ride and Lezlie.”
Working with kids, aged 7-19, is like training horses from
scratch: it takes time, patience and skillful handling, plus knowing
when to push and when to let things ride. Lezlie had to be a hybrid
combination of modern-day fairy godmother and stern taskmas-
ter. Her desire to do something to help the local kids find a way off
the mean streets onto a better course in life all springs from her
own passion for horses and her love for polo.
“I kept playing polo for a while, but we never had the resources
for me to play and for the kids to play,” Lezlie said. “I had to make
the choice to support them or to have them watch me play.”
The program doesn’t run on sacrifice and hard work alone.
Chamounix Equestrian Centre (CEC) was built in 1973 to house
the Fairmount Park Mounted Police – on 3.5 acres. By necessity
Lezlie feeds hay all year round, and the hay bills are enormous for
the 35-stall barn. CEC programs accommodate beginner to inter-
mediate riders, and the basic philosophy focuses on the horse-
human relationship. Chamounix offers riding lessons, summer
camp, boarding, Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Discovery
Day programs as well as Work To Ride.
Under the supervision of knowledgeable and conscientious
staff, the kids learn to cope with rules, discipline, and the routine
of mucking stalls, cleaning tack and learning to control a half-ton
of horsepower as well as attend school and maintain their grades.
To become one of those dashing players, galloping back and forth
in the arena or up and down the huge expanse of grass field on
which 10 football games can be played, has served as the most
powerful incentive, their ticket to staking their claim to a future full
of possibilities.
In 2011 Cowtown Work To Ride’s Brandon, Kareem and his
brother Daymar Rosser became the first all-black team to win the
USPA National Interscholastic Championship. In 2012 Cowtown
Work To Ride did it again, this time with Daymar, Brandon, and
Julia Smith, one of only two girls to play in the nationwide tourna-
ment. Work To Ride won in double overtime “sudden death” at
University of Virginia, thanks to the goal scored by Brandon. Julia
started in the Chamounix riding program when she was seven,
made her mark in the girls polo team and just kept going. Now
19, she attends University of Virginia and has played on many
championship teams.
While playing polo is in itself a reward at Work To Ride, winning
and proving themselves against some of the best teams in the
interscholastic league, their peers, is a huge achievement. Twenty
years of Work To Ride, a registered non-profit in Pennsylvania, 25
graduates of the program and 10 have gone on to college – that’s
a success story, but Lezlie isn’t resting on her laurels. Actually,
she’s planning on the next 20 years and a way to reach more kids
year round.
“I’m working on a fundraiser, developing a capital campaign to
build an indoor – my next big project,” said Lezlie. “I’m looking for
some donors. We need to raise a half million dollars to build a
nice facility. We could hold arena polo games for interscholastic
and intercollegiate leagues. I would love Chamounix to become
the regional polo training center for the northeast. USPA has only
three in the country. I think the public is here to support it. We pull
from New Jersey and Delaware and a lot of polo clubs in a 100-
mile radius. It’s a great ball sport – that’s why there are so many
clubs, and the interest in polo keeps growing.”
For more information, visit
About the writer: Lauren R. Giannini is an award-winning writer, specializing in
stories about the equestrian world. Crazy about horses all her life, she craves more
stable time, especially in the saddle. Right now, she rides her beloved MacBook, a
genuine work-pony, and reads voraciously to escape the everyday world. Her plans
for 2014: do more teaching and thereby share her love of books, reading, writing and
telling stories. Big goal: to become a published author in the not-too-distant future.
Kareem Rosser rides off Nacho Figueras at Colts Neck Polo
Club, New Jersey.
Photo by Lezlie Hiner
2011 USPA National Interscholastic Champions, Cowtown/
Work To Ride VS Riverside during an exciting match at Great
Meadow’s Twilight Polo.
Photo by Lauren R. Giannini
