When Kareem Rosser looks back on his childhood in West Philly, he marvels at how a chance discovery off the beaten city block led to what is now a life of possibilities — as well as a love for horses, playing polo, and helping inner city youth see beyond the confines of poverty, violence, and hopelessness.
Polo in Philadelphia? It’s a thing, a thriving one at that thanks to efforts by Rosser and the nonprofit Work to Ride program, which provides horsemanship education and equine sports training to youth from under-resourced communities.
The sport is helping the less fortunate of Philly’s youth experience a new way of life formerly reserved for society’s elite, white, country clubbers, and Rosser has helped introduce polo to kids on the street — a category to which he used to belong.
“Horses for me have been my escape from poverty, my escape from struggle and stress and trauma,” Rosser told Pennsylvania Business Report in a recent interview. “In many ways, horses have been my therapist. Every time I walk into the barn, I get the sense of comfort that I can’t get anywhere else unless I’m at the stables.
“Horses just provide me that liberty that’s just not anywhere else, I think.”
Rosser’s story is intricately intertwined with that of Work to Ride, which was founded in 1994 to provide year-round, evidence-informed, equestrian programs that promote discipline, self-esteem, motivation, social development, life skills, academic achievement, and physical fitness.
Student participants work cleaning and maintaining the stables and caring for the horses in exchange for free lessons in various equine sports, including polo.
“This program is absolutely life-changing,” Rosser said. “Students who participate not only grow as athletes but develop life skills and learn life lessons that follow them into adulthood.”
Rosser came up on the city’s west side, a rough, devastated area where an average day — back then and still now — involves few opportunities and many challenges.
One day while playing in a wooded area of the city’s Fairmount Park, Rosser, his brothers, and a couple of their friends unexpectedly discovered a barn with some horses. They learned about the Work to Ride program being run there by founder and executive director Lezlie Hiner, who told them that if they would work in the stables after school, they could get free riding lessons. But they had to stay in school, she told them.
“She provided the platform for me to believe and to find a way out of poverty,” Rosser said.
Through his participation in Work to Ride, Rosser honed his street smarts and developed other beneficial skills that eventually led him to college, to being the captain of the first all-black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship, to national and international polo competitions, and to becoming the 2015 Polo Training Foundation Male Intercollegiate Polo Player of the Year.
He tells the story of his remarkable and inspirational polo journey in his 2021 published memoir, Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport that Changed Their Lives Forever.
“The Work to Ride barn has been a home away from home for young people from nearby dense urban communities for nearly 30 years,” Hiner said in a statement. “These young men and women are an inspiration every day.”
Now a financial analyst at Reath & Company in Philadelphia, Rosser, 30, is giving back to the program that forged a new life’s path for him and uncovered a passion for polo.
Joseph Manheim, managing director and founder of Reath & Company and Rosser’s employer, said he has never come across a person as impressive as Rosser. “Kareem’s integrity and dedication to his own development and success have helped him address all the business challenges that have come across his path. Kareem is an invaluable member of my investment team as well as a successful salesman in his own right. Critically, Kareem has been able to harness all his personal skills along with the business skills he developed so far during his career to institutionalize Work to Ride for generations of Philadelphia youth to come. Kareem’s work will provide immense benefit for the City of Philadelphia and its residents,” Manheim said.
Rosser is not only a board member for Work to Ride, he also co-founded the Philadelphia Polo Classic, the city’s first-ever polo event. Proceeds from the annual event held at Fairmount Park benefit the Work to Ride program.
Rosser’s focus as of late has been on raising funds for the multimillion-dollar expansion of the Chamounix Equestrian Center, the ‘barn’ he came upon unexpectedly during his youth that houses the Work to Ride program.
Thus far, Rosser said roughly $10 million has been raised of the $12 million that is needed to make the equestrian center a year-round facility.
“Originally, our goal was $10 million for the capital campaign and then recently we found out about the increased costs of construction due to COVID so we’ve raised the goal to $12 million,” he said, pointing to pandemic-related supply chain issues that pushed up the price of materials, labor, transport, and other items. “We’re experiencing a 20 percent increase in construction costs since we last received any sort of budget estimate.”
Nevertheless, the project is moving forward. Rosser said Work to Ride is getting ready to issue an invitation to bid to a selected short list of contractors for the project, which includes renovating the existing stables — that are leased from the city for a dollar a year — and building a new 45,000-square-feet indoor riding facility with seating. Ground is expected to be broken on the project this fall.
“Right now we just have our outdoor riding ring, which limits us during the winter months,” said Rosser. “So our priority is getting up the new indoor facility because that will allow the organization to function at a full capacity without any weather disruptions, whatever the time of the year.”
“In past winters, participants practiced in the outdoor arena in the dark with minimal lighting,” added Ruth Schemm, chair of the Work to Ride Board.
At the same time, Work to Ride will be able to serve more students. Currently, the various programs offered by the nonprofit reach between 300 and 400 kids on an annual basis, said Rosser, adding that the goal is to get that number up to between 500 to 700.
“The proposed indoor arena and renovations will allow us to expand our program to reach even more young people and transform more lives,” said Hiner.
According to Schemm, there are several planned upgrades to the existing barn, horse turnout and facilities, as well as specific student benefits that will include an improved area for riding and schooling horses, a newly designed tutoring and homework room, updated internet and computers, an area for visitors to watch competitions and schooling, enhanced horse housing and care areas, and a better space for Hiner and her staff.
The project’s successful path thus far is due to donors, city officials, program volunteers, Archer & Buchanan Architecture, and, of course, Rosser, who Schemm describes as an essential member of the fundraising team for Work to Ride.
“He entered the program when he was in grade school and has competed in polo matches in the U.S. and abroad — including Africa. He helps potential donors to understand how Work To Ride participants gain skills that go beyond the knowledge and skills needed to compete in equestrian sports,” she said. “He is able to articulate the impact of Work To Ride on his life and that of other program participants.”
Schemm herself has been part of the Work to Ride family since 2007. She describes the organization as “sticky.”
“Once involved a bit, people find that their involvement increases and soon Work To Ride becomes a home away from home,” she said. “I have watched the talents of participants expand as they become more accomplished in equestrian sports, school success and social skills. Seeing the development of program participants is powerful, especially when observed over many years.”
And though student participants may face some dirty stuff when they join the program — namely shoveling horse manure — the otherworldly experience they gain through Work to Ride lifts them above their environment of drugs, crime, violence, and hatred. And horses don’t judge you.