Black woman set to make polo history in top-tier event

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Shariah Harris says the stares, the inappropriate comments and the whispering that comes with being a black woman playing polo can be discouraging at times, but it won’t stop her from riding.

The 19-year-old from southwest Philadelphia, who plays collegiately at Cornell, will mount up Friday for the Postage Stamp Farm polo team in the Silver Cup tournament at the tony Greenwich Polo Club.

Brenda Lynn, a spokeswoman for the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame, said Harris will become the first African-American woman to ever play in the top tier of U.S. polo, known as high-goal polo. High-goal doesn’t refer to scoring, but rather the handicap (like in golf) of the players.

“If me playing will mean opportunities to play for other kids like me, then I’m perfectly happy to be breaking down doors,” Harris said. “I just keep quiet, put on my boots and go out and play.”

Harris said she would not be playing polo or even riding horses if her mother, Sharmell, had not made a wrong turn while driving in Philadelphia 12 years ago. She ended up on a dead-end road at a barn and riding ring in Fairmount Park, where other minority children were on horses.

It turned out to be the home of the Work to Ride program, a nonprofit organization that teaches urban kids from low-income homes to ride and gets them involved in equestrian events. To be part of the program, the kids work in the stables, muck out the stalls and groom the horses.

“As a mother of three children on a single income, I saw it as an opportunity to make their lives better,” said Sharmell Harris, who had moved her family from southwest Philadelphia a few miles away to Upper Darby for the same reason. “Instead of a soccer mom, I became a barn mom.”

Lezlie Hiner, who runs the program, said Shariah Harris, who had never seen a horse in person before, eventually became a star pupil. She was a “tough as nails” kid who would literally fall off a horse and get right back on.

“And she actually does fall off a lot,” Hiner said. “She takes some headers, but she just goes for it and keeps on going.”

Harris, who was named the U.S. Polo Association‘s 2016 national…

Please read original article – Black woman set to make polo history in top-tier event