PLAYING FOR KEEPS

At their Barrington Hills equestrian property, the Lueders family has built a life around family, friendship, and a shared passion for polo.

It’s a rainy morning, but Frauke Lueders can still see the beauty of the day.

“We are all healthy and that’s the most important thing,” Lueders says from her Barrington Hills home, where she has lived with husband Jan-Dirk Lueders for more than 20 years.

Certainly, it’s a lovely place to live a lovely life––a life the couple has enjoyed since moving to the area with their two horses and two dogs.

“My husband and I grew up in Germany with horses and with competition, but never polo,” explains Lueders, who had already established herself as an accomplished equestrian before moving to the States. “Friends invited us over the years to the Kalaway Cup in September, a fundraiser for the riding club and polo club in Barrington Hills. And then we really got sucked in.”

Eventually, that newfound love of polo found a home of its own at Cauthorn Farm, the couple’s nearby 42-acre equestrian property.

“In 2013, we did the spring polo school in Barrington Hills and we liked it,” remembers Lueders, who joined the Riding Club of Barrington Hills with her husband in 2007 before attending Barrington Hills Polo Club’s polo school in 2013. “That’s how it all started.”

Today, both Lueders and her husband play polo, along with their 25-year-old daughter Stefanie and 15-year-old daughter Emma as part of their aptly named Passion for Polo team and facility. And while their son much prefers playing soccer to polo, the sport allows the family plenty of opportunities to enjoy time together.

“Everybody is involved, enjoying the company of one another,” she says. “After every practice or game, we always have food or barbecue and sit together and spend time together, and that’s the most important thing for us. It’s nice to win tournaments and to be good, but being together is why we started it and that’s why we keep going.”

Today, Passion for Polo stands out as one of the most beloved privately owned facilities in the Midwest, with its team traveling to compete all over the country and around the world. “Polo players tend to ‘travel with the sun,’” Lueders explains. “Everybody wants to play outside on the grass, so many players go to South Carolina or Florida or Tennessee––wherever the weather is.”

Not surprisingly then, much of the winter months is spent ensuring that Cauthorn Farm maintains all of its splendid beauty. “Over the years we have renovated here and there,” says Lueders, perhaps largely underestimating their efforts in creating the complex, which included the restoration of the original farmhouse on the property that dates back to 1834. “We’re always trying to improve the property.”

This is in addition to the regular maintenance that it takes to keep Cauthorn Farm flourishing. “Just when you start thinking you are done, you have to start over again,” she says with a smile. “The field has to be mowed almost every day on the tractor, and the polo field is the size of nine soccer fields, so it’s a lot of grass. Plus, we sand the field four times a year to get the footing right.”

Luckily, it’s not a job they take on all alone.

“Thank goodness we have an awesome team behind us who really works hard to keep it up,” she says. “This time of the year, I sort of get back to my normal life and paperwork and all that stuff. For the girls, they’re always sad when everybody is gone and it’s slowing down.”

But for the horses, it’s another story.

“Most of the horses have enough time over the winter to recover and get fat and happy again in the pastures,” she laughs.

And for as long as the horses are happy, Lueders says she hopes her family will be there. “We really hope that the kids take over one day and that it will not end, and we can always enjoy it,” she says. “So, we are hoping it will keep going.”

Lueders is not one to look too far into the future, though. She much prefers to enjoy the present––whether that is spent standing on the highest point between the pastures and the field looking out at the property or sitting on the patio enjoying the sunset.

“But my favorite time is when everybody is gone and I can sit in the barn and hear the horses smashing their hay,” she concludes. “Horses are amazing animals and they’re always watching out for us.”

And she will forever watch out for them too.