Stonefield Polo

We thank all clients and patrons of Stonefield Polo for their ongoing support!

Welcome to Stonefield Polo Estate.

This world class polo facility is owned by Leo Baxter  who had the vision to develop this wonderful estate from nothing more than rough farm land!

Here he based his high goal team for the Cape polo season where he would compete in the most competitive professional polo South Africa had to offer.

Since 2005 Stonefield has been managed and run by Guy and Grace Watson, who have been involved in acquiring the best horses in the country and developing an outstanding  young horse programme as a feeder system into the playing string.

Stonefield is situated on the banks of the Bitou River which is a 5 minute drive to the town centre of Plettenberg Bay and also various different beaches. On the estate are three irrigated polo fields of top quality, there is a barn which houses 52 stables, tack rooms, feed rooms and various out buildings including staff accommodation, hay barn, workshop and helicopter hangar. There is a sand school, lunge ring and exercise track around one of the polo fields.
There are numerous cottages on the property which house staff, players and guests.

The estate has always housed the Stonefield polo team and facilitated the making of young horses destined for export to the UK and around the world.

Now on offer are polo holidays and tourism. Stonefield will be offering a unique opportunity for guests to enjoy some of the best polo facilities South Africa has to offer and tuition from local, resident and international professionals. Plettenberg bay has fantastic beach weather with warm days and beautiful sunsets.

There are many local activities to keep everyone busy including:

Hiking trails, biking, golf, water sports, bird parks, elephant sanctuary, bungy jump(highest in the world), great white shark cage dive, whale watching and many more.

Our Mission

We have made it our mission to follow the thoroughbred blood lines closely and identifying those that consistently show potential on the polo field from a young age. This is the basis of our young horse programme. It is a function of buying young horses off the race track and reprogramming them into dynamic polo ponies. In our pursuit of Excellence we have a strict policy of only retaining those youngsters who show great potential thus allowing us to consistently produce top quality horses to the South African market as well as the export market.

We have a small band of brood mares as we breed only with champion mares to reach champion results. We are fortunate to have some old mares that have been real champions over the years and we use a mix of embryo programmes and live coverings in our quest to reproduce foals of the same likeness.

“There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man” Winston Churchill

We thank all clients and patrons of Stonefield Polo for their ongoing support!

Welcome to Stonefield Polo Estate.

This world class polo facility is owned by Leo Baxter  who had the vision to develop this wonderful estate from nothing more than rough farm land!

Here he based his high goal team for the Cape polo season where he would compete in the most competitive professional polo South Africa had to offer.

Since 2005 Stonefield has been managed and run by Guy and Grace Watson, who have been involved in acquiring the best horses in the country and developing an outstanding  young horse programme as a feeder system into the playing string.

Stonefield is situated on the banks of the Bitou River which is a 5 minute drive to the town centre of Plettenberg Bay and also various different beaches. On the estate are three irrigated polo fields of top quality, there is a barn which houses 52 stables, tack rooms, feed rooms and various out buildings including staff accommodation, hay barn, workshop and helicopter hangar. There is a sand school, lunge ring and exercise track around one of the polo fields.
There are numerous cottages on the property which house staff, players and guests.

The estate has always housed the Stonefield polo team and facilitated the making of young horses destined for export to the UK and around the world.

Now on offer are polo holidays and tourism. Stonefield will be offering a unique opportunity for guests to enjoy some of the best polo facilities South Africa has to offer and tuition from local, resident and international professionals. Plettenberg bay has fantastic beach weather with warm days and beautiful sunsets.

There are many local activities to keep everyone busy including:

Hiking trails, biking, golf, water sports, bird parks, elephant sanctuary, bungy jump(highest in the world), great white shark cage dive, whale watching and many more.

Our Mission

We have made it our mission to follow the thoroughbred blood lines closely and identifying those that consistently show potential on the polo field from a young age. This is the basis of our young horse programme. It is a function of buying young horses off the race track and reprogramming them into dynamic polo ponies. In our pursuit of Excellence we have a strict policy of only retaining those youngsters who show great potential thus allowing us to consistently produce top quality horses to the South African market as well as the export market.

We have a small band of brood mares as we breed only with champion mares to reach champion results. We are fortunate to have some old mares that have been real champions over the years and we use a mix of embryo programmes and live coverings in our quest to reproduce foals of the same likeness.

“There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man” Winston Churchill

Plettenberg bay is one of South Africa’s premier beach holiday destinations. The climate is very mild with beautiful warm days through the summer months which makes for great beach weather, or one can enjoy the many other activities offered in the area.

These activities include:

Sky diving, bungy jumping, water sports, fishing, ocean safari’s, hiking, treetop canopy tours, beach rides and many more.

After a day in the sun or the polo field one can enjoy the beautiful sunsets with a sundowner followed by an evening in one of the many quality restaurants in the area.

It is now possible to stay on a beautiful polo estate on the banks of the Bitou river 5 minutes from town and beaches yet still enjoy plett’s finest!

Stonefield polo is now offering polo holiday packages tailor made to suit the client’s needs. With some of the best polo facilities South Africa has to offer this unique opportunity is designed for guests to enjoy coaching from resident professional players.

Polo, Passion, Perfection. We strive for excellence!

The polo packages are based on a morning stick and ball session or lesson and practise chukkas in the cool of the afternoon. This allows for plenty of time to enjoy the warm days or a long lunch.

In terms of accommodation there is a 2 bedroom en suite self catering cottage with an upstairs loft which sleeps four. This comfortable cottage looks over one of the polo fields where one can enjoy the beautiful setting.

All prices on request

The Stonefield experience is one based on comfort, relaxation and enjoyment, however, we never take our eye off the fact that polo is the driving force behind all this and at heart we are all a little competitive to say the least. We rely heavily on our staff and quality horses to allow clients to be able to reap the best rewards in terms of their polo development.

It is possible for players of all levels to enjoy the amazing fields on suitable horses with the appropriate tuition?

The importance of tuition and sound advice is hugely valuable. We realise that  with a little help on the technicalities of the sport clients are able to make rapid improvements in not only their polo skills but also their horsemanship. It is the affinity with a horse which is often the major limiting factor with such development.

It is also possible for clients to rent horses for organised chukkas on the estate as well as official tournament polo. The rates vary according to the level of polo being played.

Kids tournament and match playing at Stonefield

The inaugural Stonefield tournament was a great success having six competitive teams and great  weather allowed for players and spectators to enjoy the event.

The concept of having the top players auctioned into the different teams was well accepted and the whole auction dinner was very well supported by our local patrons and guests, we thank them very much for their generosity. The idea was also to provide something slightly different from the regular run of the mill tournament, the auction concept, running commentary and DJ as well as having the drinks tents and food stalls all helped with creating an exciting tournament. The fact that the games were all closely contested and the exciting final was a testament to the competitiveness of plett polo.

Many thanks to our premium sponsors Equine-Librium, Tuinroete Agri , Hobday Equine Enterprises, Mitchells brewery and ShowMe Plett for their contributions.

The Grand café and rooms hosted the most wonderful auction dinner for the players and guests and also donated some very generous prizes. Prizes also came from Enricos Ristorante and Scottys restaurant.

It was also great to have Bitou Horse Welfare and NSRI on board, it was good to have polo putting something back into the community.

We would like to thank Leo and Katherine for providing the facility and we hope all those that came to watch the polo had an enjoyable experience and we hope to see you back next year.

Guy and Grace Watson

Plettenberg Bay Summer Polo

As the 2012 season draws to a close we want to take the opportunity to thank all our clients, guests and patrons for a wonderful season of polo. We are delighted with the new friendships that have been made and we are especially pleased to have shared the joys that Stonefield polo has to offer.

After a very successful Stonefield tournament the summer season built momentum with some very good polo being played. Our highlight was to host Guy Schwarzenbach and his Black Bears team for the 12 goal and we congratulate them for winning a very hard fought and competitive tournament. It was also great to have one of the old Stonefield legends “Arabian Jewel” winning best pony.

After a short break we had the pleasure of hosting a group of 8 English pony club children. We had a lot of fun with this young and talented group and we were encouraged by their horsemanship and riding skills. It was also pleasing to see how the HPA are promoting polo development from a young age.

After a successful trip to Cape Town in March we returned to plett for the Easter tournaments. It was our pleasure to host Kassem Shafi and Vieri Antinori in the 10 goal where they won the Subsidiary final and we look forward to their return at the end of the year.

It was great to have the return of 18 goal polo in Plett with some of South Africas top players making the trip down from Natal. We look forward to this being the pinnacle of our season in years to come. The Stonefield flag was flying high with Guy Watson winning MVP for this tournament and as chance would have it the old machine Arabian Jewel walking away with another best pony award, she truly is special!!!

With the season wrapped up and the horses taking a well deserved break we look to the UK where four of our horses have just arrived in time for the high goal season. They will be with Pelon Stirling and we are confident they will excel in the English conditions.

Another special thank you to our friends who have horses here with us on livery, with their day to day support we can enjoy a magical vibe where everyone can enjoy polo the way it should be.

Leo and Katherine Baxter have made another huge effort to keep polo strong and providing a world class facility  for South African Polo to  benefit. Many thanks to them.