Polo: The Sport of Kings

One of the world’s oldest known team sports, Polo, still holds up its charm and exhilaration to this day. The incredible display of collaboration between team members and synchronization between rider and horse, with horses going up to thirty mph will have you mesmerized by the intense sport dubbed the ‘Sport of Kings’. While the historically exclusive sport has yet to penetrate into greater pop-culture, we believe it is a sport that once was for kings and is now open to anyone.

Dating back to the 6th century BC, it was played by nomadic Iranian people, and is now played worldwide in over 77 countries and played professionally by men and women in 16 countries.

 With four mounted horsemen representing each respective team at one time, eight riders in total on the polo field, the concept is simple, but the game is hard. The objective is to score more goals than the opposing team using a long-handled wooden mallet while on horseback. Every time a team scores, the teams switch sides on the polo field so that no one team would have an unfair advantage or disadvantage with the sun and wind.

Uneku Atawodi (above)

So, what do you need to know before you attend a polo match and become a spectator?

These are the basics:

•           Polo is played on a grass field that is 300 yards in length and 160 yards wide. (An American football field is only 120 yards in length, including ‘end lines’, for reference)

•           2 teams, 4 players per team.

•           Each team member is mounted on horseback and has a long wooden mallet to move the ball down the field and into the goal.

•           Mallets are only allowed to be used on the right side of the horse.

•           Each polo match has 4 chukkas (periods), each one lasting 7 minutes.

•           Between chukkas, players often swap out their horses and horses that are bred to play polo are called ‘polo ponies’.

•           At halftime, it is tradition to invite the spectators onto the grass field to help stomp-out the divots caused by the players. (Think about Julia Roberts in the iconic scene from Pretty Woman, 1990.)

•           There are two umpires who oversee the match and consult with each other on game decisions and calls.

•           The team with the greatest number of goals at the end of the match wins!

•           A match typically lasts between an hour and a half to two hours.

•           Spectators take great joy in dressing up for the occasion, but if you are going to wear heels be sure that they are wedges or have a block heel as you will be walking on grass.