Philly Teens 'Work To Ride' And Change The Face Of Polo
For 25 years, a group of inner-city kids in Philadelphia has been breaking down barriers of class and race in the traditionally exclusive sport. The concept is simple: they work to ride.
It started with a wrong turn while driving in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park.
That was how 8-year-old Shariah Harris and her mother found the stables of an equestrian program called "Work to Ride." Growing up in a West Philadelphia neighborhood where crime rates are high and graduation rates are low, Harris never dreamed of playing polo.
"Polo wasn't something that was in the cards for me," she says. "I couldn't afford riding lessons, or a horse for that matter. I never even thought about riding horses until I got lost in the park that day," she says.
But after finding the barn, Harris was hooked. Within days she was mucking stalls and grooming horses. By the age of 12, she was competing against some of the
