Alabama

Alabama, a gray gelding owned by Steve Gose and played by Joe Barry, won the Hartman Award for Best Playing Pony in the U.S. Open in 1977 and ’79, the first horse to repeat. “He’s just a freak of nature,” Harold ‘Chico’ Barry once said. “I knew in a week or two I had a winner. He had the conformation and the right disposition and he thinks right. We gave him a winter of ranch work in Texas and then put him right into polo.” Alabama was known for being very fast, having a beautiful mouth, and being so comfortable to ride that it was like “riding air.”

Foaled in April 1971, Alabama raced under the name Ask the Victory before being purchased as a 4-year old by Harold Barry. Alabama’s groom, Suzy Beeman, recalled Alabama’s first official polo game at San Antonio Park. “He’d never been away from home and had only played in practice games on the ranch. He really flipped out at the first sight of the kites flying and all the activity at the nearby riding academy, but he played fine… His mouth is beautiful. And even though he’s a big mover, he’s so smooth and comfortable to ride that you can feel it… he can really fly!”

Winning the Hartman trophy was only the beginning of an outstanding career. Joe Barry commented on the horse’s performance in a Michelob World Cup by saying, “It was the first time I had asked him for more than one period of polo in a game, but when it comes to that kind of polo you go with the best you’ve got. He came through for me. I played him in the fourth and then came back on him in the overtime period. If there was going to be a chance for a penalty shot I wanted to be on him.” That is the kind of confidence Alabama inspired.

Watercolor portrait of Alabama (top Photo) by artist, Melinda Brewer; www.poloart.ca