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<\/a>\u00a0 I’ll tell you about my trip to the desert two weekends ago to watch the polo matches, but if you’re not staying where we did, the home of the greatest host and hostess on the planet, Walter & Patty Schwartz<\/strong>, you’re not going to have nearly as good a time as we did.\u00a0 The ‘we’ is Jack & JJ Budd<\/strong>, Chuck & Linda Sager<\/strong> and Linda & me<\/strong>.\u00a0 The six of us were invited by the Schwarz’s to stay in their beautiful, magnificently-decorated home in the gate-guarded community of ‘The Polo Club’<\/strong> in Indio<\/strong> for the weekend, to attend the polo matches on Sunday at the Empire Polo Club<\/strong>.<\/p>\nWe arrived Saturday afternoon and were warmly greeted by the Schwartz’s.\u00a0 Walt is an interesting and engaging guy, who plays straight-man to Patty’s razor-sharp, dead-pan humor; they kept us fed, watered, entertained and in stitches the whole weekend.<\/p>\n
We arrived on Saturday at ‘Happy Hour’<\/strong>, although I’m thinking that every hour is happy in this place.\u00a0 I’m telling you, the Ritz<\/strong> doesn’t have this kind of food and beverage spread; we saw plate-full after plate-full of delicious appetizers everywhere we looked.\u00a0 Walt was offering us any and every drink possible, while Patty, who is an amazing cook, was preparing the most interesting and tasty meatloaf I’ve ever had.\u00a0 I took an oath not to say what was in it, truth is I don’t know, but it was delicious.<\/p>\n Getting ready to stomp divots<\/p><\/div>\n I know so little about polo that I rushed for a good seat by the pool.\u00a0 But in fact the matches, on Sunday, were on the magnificent ground where Stage Coach<\/strong> and\u00a0 the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival<\/strong> takes place each year.<\/p>\n On this day we were going to see two matches, the USPA (United States Polo Association) Amateur Cup Finals<\/strong> and the USPA Presidents Cup Finals<\/strong>.\u00a0 The festivities started with the Player Parade and Salute<\/strong> with a horse and rider racing around the polo field, which is about 300 yard long and 160 yards wide, streaming an American flag as the Star Spangled Banner<\/strong> was sung by someone with an amazing voice.<\/p>\n Tack Room Tavern<\/p><\/div>\n I could bore you with polo positions like Hustler<\/strong> and Pivot<\/strong> or the number of chukkers<\/strong> in a game or why even left-handers have to play right-handed, but I think I’ll bore you with some other little known and less cared about facts.\u00a0 There are four players on each team and they wear the numbers 1,2,3 and 4 – always!\u00a0 Did you know that they do not use the end of the ‘mallet’ to hit the ball, as you would in croquet, but rather use the sides of the mallet?\u00a0 \u00a0Polo horses are very highly skilled, high-speed Thoroughbreds<\/strong>, whose manes are clipped off and whose tails are braided in order to keep them out of the way of the mallet.\u00a0 OK, enough, but one of the more interesting parts of a polo match is halftime, when flutes of champagne are provided for all the fans to grab and go out onto the field to stomp divots.\u00a0 Who won?\u00a0 Beats me – the red and white team won the first game, the team in the dark jerseys won the second, I think, we left early to get a good seat at the Tack Room Tavern<\/strong>, a great place for food and drink not far from the field.<\/p>\n Ho, Zellweger and Phoenix<\/p><\/div>\n Sunday evening was back at the ‘Schwartz Chalet’<\/strong> for more food and drink and to watch the Academy Awards<\/strong> on their 700 inch TV, at least it seemed that big, although I may have been sitting fairly close.\u00a0 While I didn’t need a lecture on life from actors Joaquin Phoenix<\/strong> or Ren\u00e9e Zellwege<\/strong>r, I think it might have been fun to have gone “drinking until morning” with Parasite <\/em>director, Bong Joon Ho<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A big THANK YOU<\/strong> to Walt and Patty for a most enjoyable weekend.<\/p>\n Post Script: A few days after returning home, I received an hermetically-sealed envelope from Patty with a note that read, “Laundering fees are yet to be determined” – it was a pair of my underwear.\u00a0 Not sure where I left them, but our super hostess made sure I got them back . . .\u00a0 cleaner than I left them!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow \u00a0 I’ll tell you about my trip to the desert two weekends ago to watch the polo matches, but if you’re not staying where we did, the home of the greatest host and hostess on the planet, … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Polo-300x225.jpeg\")
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