The Game of Polo

History

Polo is though to have originated in China and Persia around 2,000 years ago. The first recorded game was played between Turkomans and Persians (the Turkomans won) in 600 BC, by the 16th century the game was played from Persia to Japan.
In the 1850s, the British discovered the game in Manipur on the Burmese border with India; they founded the world’s first polo club at Silchar, west of Manipur. Other clubs followed and today the oldest in the world is the Calcutta Club, founded in 1862. British soldiers quickly took up the sport and spread it to the West, starting in Great Britain and it continued on to the United Sates, Australia and Argentina, where the first official match took place in 1875.

The Field

The field is 300 yards long by 160 yards wide if boarded (the area of nine football fields). Being boarded means the field has a 12 inch upright board bounding the perimeter.
If the ground is unboarded, it is 200 yards wide and marked with a white line.
The goal posts, positioned at each end, are 8 yards apart.

The Game

Each polo match consists of 4 to 8 chukkers (periods), depending of the handicap of the game. Each chukker lasts seven and a half minutes with a warning bell at seven minutes and a final bell thirty seconds later (unless a team scores after the warning bell which stops the chukker immediately).
To score the player has to hit the ball between the posts, no matter how high. After each goal, the teams change sides. Two mounted umpires accompany the players and a third man sits near the middle of the field to referee in case of a disagreement between the mounted umpires.

The Players

Two teams of four compete on the field. The four players on each team are assigned positions, designated with numbers worn on the team jerseys. Number 1 is the offensive forward player. Number 4 is the back and his responsibility is defense. Numbers 2 and 3 are usually the highest rated and most experienced with number 3 often being the quarterback or field captain, and number 2 being responsible to push the play both on offense and defense at all times.
All players are rated on a scale of -2 to 10, with 10 being the best. There are many factors that determine a player’s handicap, including his or her horsemanship, hitting, quality of horse, team play, game sense, and sportsmanship. The team handicap is the sum of the player’s handicaps.

Polo Ponies

Polo ponies are the most essential part of the game. They can be of any size or breed, and are well trained equine athletes. Able to stop and turn on a dime, they are considered faster then racehorses over short distances. The most common breeds used for polo today in the United Sates are the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse. The breed of the polo pony used for each player depends on that player’s personal preference and skill level. The sport of polo is played at many different skill levels and each one requires a specific type of horse to meet the demands. Top notch ponies will sometimes be shipped around the world with their professionals in pursuit of prestigious tournament titles.

Fouls

To the average spectator, fouls in polo are very hard to see. A foul is basically a dangerous play, mostly stemming from crossing in front of the man with “line of the ball”. The “line of the ball” is the imaginary path the ball travels on, and it represents a right-of-way for the last player striking the ball. Penalty shots are awarded depending on where the foul was committed, or upon the severity of the foul.

Polo Traditions

The Divot Stomp: Perhaps the most widely known polo tradition is the ceremonial stomping of the divots. During half-time of a match, spectators are invited to go onto the field to participate in a polo tradition called “divot-stomping”, which has developed to not only help replace mounds of earth that are torn up by the horses hooves, but to afford spectators the opportunity to walk about and socialize.
The Tailgate: The polo tailgating party is slightly different from others, because it lasts all throughout the game. Spectators park their vehicles around the field and create their own environment, decorations and menu.