Sara Cefelli
My name is Sara Cifelli. I am 17 and live in New Jersey in the United States.
I have been riding all my life and started playing polocrosse in 2001 through a clinic in Pony Club. I played on ponies occasionally for a few years as well as competing in other equine disciplines, but then decided to make polocrosse my main sport in 2005.
Marilyn Murphy lent me an amazing horse to play on and we had a great season, including my first APA Nationals in C Grade. My team won second place and I received Best #1, Best Player, and Best Conditioned Horse for my little mare. I generally play A grade in my local tournaments, and B grade at the larger ones such as Nationals.
During July of 2007 I played on the US Under 16 team against NSW, Australia on a three week tour in the US . I then played at APA Nationals in B Grade and my horse received both Best Horse and Best Conditioned Horse. My horse taught me the moves that were necessary for a great horse to be able to do in order to perform well in the upper levels.
In the fall of 2007 I bought a young TB mare who was an ex-racehorse turned broodmare the year before. Her foal had just been weaned and she was ready to start learning a new job. I worked hard on her all winter in the hopes that I would have her playing at least B Grade by the end of the 2008 season.
In March of 2008 I played my young mare, Charm, in her first tournament in C Grade to start her off slowly. She played amazingly well and had no problems all weekend. She had a while off while I was in NSW, Australia playing on the US Youth Team. While there I got to ride some very well trained stock horses and learn new techniques for training young horses.
I played Charm two weeks after getting home in her first A Grade tournament. She handled the increased pressure beautifully and kept up with the more experienced horses without trouble.I was unable to get her to APA Nationals that year, but I went out and borrowed a friend’s horse, and received the award for Best Under 21 Rider, as well as the Bomber Junior Horseman Award for my work with Charm.
