Polo Players' Edition is the official publication of the U.S. Polo Association. Dedicated to the sport of polo, it features player profiles, game strategy, horse care, playing tips, polo club news and tournament results.
Issue link: https://polo.epubxp.com/i/31965
Mushers who finish the 1049-mile race receive a belt buckle. Newton Marshall and former polo player Danny Melville the early history of the state and are connected to many traditions and legends commemorating the legacy of dog mushing. Rancher Ross Adam again: “In sections of the Iditarod you’re on the frozen ocean for awhile, sometimes with six inches of water on top and cracks in the ice a foot wide. That’s when I wonder, what in the hell am I doing out here?” For Oswald Newton Marshall, the self- reflection must have been even deeper. From Africa his ancestors had made the arduous journey to Jamaica—quite against their will—there to suffer the agony of separation from homeland and family followed by forced labor on sugar plantations that lasted for generations. In 1834 slavery was abolished in Jamaica but the plantations continued to provide employment for the newly-liberated ex- slaves. Later came the banana industry. Around the end of the 19th century visitors began to arrive aboard the banana boats and thus began the tourism that would become Jamaica’s most important Newton Marshall beat the odds and has even become a hero in Jamaica. source of income. There Marshall was born, dirt poor, and left by his parents to grow up and find his own way in the world. And somehow all this history had brought him to his present circumstances: bedded down in the middle of the Great Frozen North, in winter, Northern Lights flashing across a jet black sky, wind and wolves howling, sled dogs huddling to keep warm, with hundreds of miles of frozen wilderness between him and any reasonable shelter and food. And in every way it was beautiful, awesome, unbelievable—and cold. So cold! Cold enough to kill, quite easily, painlessly. “My God,” he recalled thinking later, “this could be the end. This is no way for a black man to die!” So, he got up, harnessed his dogs, and mushed on. On March 8, 2010, Oswald Newton Marshall made international headlines when he became the first Caribbean musher ever to finish the famous Iditarod race. He finished in 47th position out of a field of 71 mushers. His finishing time was 12 days, 4 hours, 27 minutes, 28 seconds. In 2010-2011 the Jamaica Dogsled Team will embark upon its most ambitious season yet with three mushers racing in Alaska, Ontario, and the U.S. Midwest. Back in Jamaica Oswald Newton Marshall has joined the ranks of his small island’s heroes, having distinguished himself against the odds and in a totally unexpected way. He still works at Chukka Cove and attends Shelly Kennedy’s classes. The film about his Iditarod run is in post production under the careful guidance of Danny Melville. Around them both the kettle of Jamaican life continues to steam and roil the national soul with the accumulated frustrations of generations of injustice, turmoil, and pathos. Danny Melville and Newton Marshall are both pillars of this tortured society, two particles of opposing polarities and social class who have found a way to work through the chaos together, to turn despair into hope, shame into pride, dreams into realities—and inspire Jamaica do the same. POLO PLAYERS EDITION 37
