My name’s Alika, I’m 26 and an Officer in the Army Reserves. I have always been a keen sports woman, but back in February finished rowing full time after 4 years with views to make Tokyo 2020. Unfortunately it did not work out the way I wanted it to and it took a long time to come to terms with the reality. I have now reverted back to my old passion, horses, and have found the awesome game polo, which has given me back my love for sport again. I have only been playing a few months, but have taken to it quite quickly and would now love to reach a standard in which I am able to get hired by teams to play for them.

During the Winter in the UK, polo is predominately indoor and therefore it is hard to practice the proper outdoor grass game. Over in New Zealand they offer excellent coaching twice a day, with a confirmatory match at the end of each day to imbed your skills learned and put them in to practice. I would love to be able to spend at least a month out there getting the best I could and be ready for the next Summer season in the UK. Getting to play here in the UK is tough anyway, again due to the cost, so I believe a solid block of training would put me at a whole other level!

This is the only time I will be able to do something like this, as I am intending to join the Armed Forces full time. Hopefully this will support me more in my polo dreams for the future as well.

In the future, I aim to have a few of my own polo ponies to be able to train on regularly and keep me company!