Life is a road full of twists and turns, long and short journeys, bumpy and smooth paths and if we are lucky, many adventures along the way. On a perfectly perfect spring day, my FarmHer journey led me to the Strickland Ranch in Myakka City, Florida to meet Renee Strickland, a RanchHer who enjoys Polo Club.
As I pulled up I’m greeting by an empty horse trailer hooked up to a great big truck, and inside stands a lively woman, not much over 5 feet, cleaning out the trailer. It’s Renee Strickland and she is getting ready to load her polo ponies into the trailer to head out for a polo match.
RanchHer Turned Polo Club Rider
See, Renee isn’t your typical polo player, she’s really a RanchHer. But she’s a RanchHer who loves to play polo. She loads up her five horses and we are on our way to the Sarasota Polo Club.
As we drive there Renee explains to me that, while she grew up in ranching, she has fallen in love with polo in recent years.
She got her start by organizing “Redneck Polo” matches out in the pastures at their ranch and has since worked her way to play with a local club. We pulled into the field, Renee cranked up her country music, jumped out of the truck, and went to work getting her horses saddled and ready to play. She played the match with a competitive spirit, bringing the sweating ponies back to the trailer and hosing them down under the watchful eye of her dog Pete before loading them back up and heading back to the ranch.
Exporting More Than Livestock
While polo has fed Renee’s competitive spirit and horsemanship, it has also helped expand her other business – exporting. Renee used her love of ranching to start a livestock exporting business nearly 10 years ago.
Through her business, she works with countries around the world to ship high-quality live animals such as cattle, sheep or goats, to other countries looking to expand and improve their food production. On a recent trip to deliver dairy cattle to Pakistan – her first export to the country – Renee also got the opportunity to bond with her foreign friends over polo and even played in the country.
That led to an upcoming shipment of polo horses from the U.S. to Pakistan.
Preserving What Florida Has to Offer
Wrapping up the day we drove to Blackbeard Ranch, which is new to the Strickland’s. They are not only raising cattle on the land but also working to preserve the land through a series of conservation efforts. They explained the ranch was full of the richness that Florida boasts.
And they weren’t talking about the sandy beaches or big amusement parks, but rather about the land and wildlife that is so important to the state. They are working to preserve the land in its natural state for generations to come.
To bring the green grass of the polo fields, the long gravel roads, and the wide-open spaces of the ranch pastures full circle, we ended our visit with Renee over dinner at Ulele, a lively and popular new restaurant in Tampa. We enjoyed a dinner of Strickland Ranch beef, raised in the beautiful Florida countryside.
As I think back through my day with Renee at Strickland Ranch, from the care she has for her horses and her spirit of sportsmanship, to the commitments she has made to preserve her beautiful Florida landscape, and finally a lovely dinner in the good company of a new friend, it’s clear that this lifelong FarmHer is right where she’s supposed to be.
Watch video clips from RFD-TV here.
I love horses and this article teaches me about Polos, which I didn’t know anything about. This information could tell me what to expect if I were to go watch a Polo.
Hello! I live in the country too and this information is useful to me. I learned how to help the farm. I liked the article because I like to see what other people do on the farm. I also like to see how they farm. It’s pretty fun to see ladies farm as well. Thank you!
That is so awesome.I didn’t know about Polo but know I do. Summer 5 odd 6th Grade Health Class.
I liked this because it gave me a sense of spirit to go off of at the point in time. it helped me learn that you can help preserve things and places even if you start small. this information would be helpful when I grow up and would like to conserve things or places around the country or other countries.
I like how yo have good stuff in it and i also want to be a farmer.
Hi, I’m Nadera from Mrs. Arey’s 6th 4E Health Class. I have a horse ( Harley ), I was looking to see more about different activities you can put your horse in. This artical helped so much now I know more about Polo.
Hi, I’m Nadera from Mrs. Arey’s 6th 4E Health Class. I have a horse ( Harley ), I was looking to see more about different activities you can put your horse in. This artical helped so much now I know more about Polo. Thanks for your time.
I have horses of my own and this helped me understand more about polo. This can tell me what to expect if I ever go to a polo game.
I love horses, I used to do horse back riding but my teacher left for college. This article was interesting because I go to horse races but I have never seen a polo match or heard of polo matches.
I love horses and this article tells me a lot about Polo, which I heard about it but never really understood how you would do it, but after reading this article I now know that Polo is played on a pony.
Hello! I fond this very interesting! I also live in the country and have some horses. I think this would help a lot of people that are planing on having a farm. I think I want a farm now! Haha! I am very interested as to how you do things. Thank you so much! Bye for now!
I love how you put pictures of what you were doing I also love this story!!
Hi,
I love horses. I have heard of Polo before but I didn’t know much about it. This article has helped understand more about the sport. This information is important to anyone who wants to know what Polo is really like. Thanks for your time!
– Eden 6th grade health class
Hello! I’m Graylie from Mrs. Areys 5E 6th grad class. I was reading your articles and found it very cool. I liked the article very much and I think it would help people who are interested in starting horse racing and planning on living on a farm. I learned a lot about playing polo on a horse!
Hi,
I love horses. I have heard of Polo before but I didn’t know much about it. This article has helped understand more about the sport. This information is important to anyone who wants to know what Polo is really like. Thanks for your time!
– Eden 6th grade health class Even
Hi,
I love horses. I have heard of Polo before but I didn’t know much about it. This article has helped understand more about the sport. This information is important to anyone who wants to know what Polo is really like. Awesome story! Thanks for your time!
– Eden 6th grade health class Even
I liked the article because it tells you not only how to take care of livestock but how to live. What I learn in this article is that not everyone is the same. I think this info is useful because it tells me that you don’t have to like a=everything other people like.
this is awsome i did not know about polo until now.
This article was really fun to read, and it taught me more about polo, and stuff you can do with horses.
This article was very interesting and fun to read. I like how it shows that even tho Renee is a rancher she also loves to do other things for fun. This shows that you can do more than one thing that you love.
I’ve never seen many horses nor met one actually, but understanding her life was very interesting, it sounds like she does the same things almost every day. People who have horses or hang out with them understand the struggle to take care of them, honestly, I don’t. I have friends who do and tell me about it so I feel like I understand but that will never be the same. So reading this makes me feel that her life is so simple it’s not, it really isn’t.
I find this tresting because polo is a game and you can play. I can find this useful if I ever wanna play the game I can know I learned it from here.
Wow! This article was very interesting to me. I feel like this would be very useful to someone looking to expand their learning on horses. Love it!
Hi! I found this very interesting! I love Flordia the beaches and farm land ever thing about it. I live in the live in country and have a farm my family has many animals. No horses though I’m interested in what it’s like having horses. This was a fun read and I love that it was about Polo.
I thought that it was cool that on your trip to Florida, you were most interested in the beautiful wildlife around you. I love horses and now I know more about polo.
I liked the article because I LOVE animals and her passion for them is inspiring. I have learned that it is true that you can have many passions at once. This is useful information because Horse riding can be really a lot of fun.
This sounds like an intesting game that would love to play but this can help me so I can know more about this game.
I liked this article because I like animals and it taught me that you can grow bigger and bigger, which will be important when I lose confidence in myself.
I absolutly love horses and this taught me a lot about what Polo is, which i have never heard about before this but now I understand it. This is also very interesting and full of facts because if I were to ever go to a polo I would understand what it is.
I liked this article because I got to know a bit more about Florida’s wild life. And something I learned is that they have horses in Florida. And this is useful is tat Pollo might be a cool sport.
I loved how she can manage a business and played polo at the same time! I found it interesting she can manage so many things at one time.
Hi, I’m Citlally from Mrs. Arey’s 6th Grade, 6ODD Health Class. I found this really interesting. I love how she enjoys polo and knows how to make us feel like we are there with her at that exact moment. She kinda made me feel like I should try doing it because of how fun its sounds. I also have horses and they’re so fun to ride. I feel like this would help someone that needs help deciding what to do in their free time.
I liked it because of the games she has with her horses. It’s also interesting that she has an exporting business.
I liked this article because I can tell that she loves her horse very much and takes very good care of her.
I i’m Elsie i used to barrel race with my old horse ruddy she was so kind and cool to have. You have to put so much effort into them and how much there supplies cost is hard to hold up all toether.