Polo Anyone?

My husband was recently invited to a polo match at a high-society club in a nearby Stepford community. While he enjoyed his pseudo-work gathering, I watched a popular movie from 1990 with a famous brunette who buys new clothes, has a carpet picnic in the penthouse, and sings a song by Prince in the bathtub. In this movie, the famous brunette also attends a stereotypical polo match. While I watched, I thought I’d see what goes into planning a polo event.

While many of us might think of a polo match as something from this movie or from what we see on TV at the Kentucky derby, they’re not always a formal affair. However, the formal ones are steeped in tradition and a lot more fun to plan.

Overall, you will need a large, grassy, flat space for this game. A polo field is roughly the size of nine American football fields. Usually, these fields are dedicated and maintained specifically for this purpose. The polo pony is a horse specifically trained for the sport and is known for their endurance, speed, courage, and docility.¹ These animals sprint and stop on a dime and can turn around instantly to chase the ball.

There are other logistics and rules for the game as in any sport, but let’s talk about the fun part of planning. The traditions. You will often see women with amazing hats at these events. They range from large-brimmed and floral-trimmed to the gravity-defying fascinators miraculously suspended from the side of a woman’s head as seen on the crowns of audiences at the Grand National, Kentucky Derby, and Melbourne Cup.

At halftime, everyone participates in the traditional divot stomp. During the game, the field takes a beating as the horses run back and forth and chunks of earth and grass go flying. During the divot stomp everyone typically uses their toes to flip the divots into place then stomps on them to ensure they stay put. All the while socializing, walking their beautiful dogs, sipping on a refreshing beverage, and talking with riders and horses.

It’s not all fun and games. There are safety measures to put into place, regulation measurements for spacing between the goal posts, substitute ponies to ready for when the hard-working ones get tired, parking space for everyone, and more. Depending on the location of the field, if it is not close to a clubhouse, there needs to be tents or some type of structure for shade or rain protection, portable food and beverage stations, porta potties and hand washing stations, and bleachers or some other type of seating for the well-dressed spectators. Plus, just as in a rodeo (see my blog “Rhinestone Cowboy“) when working with animals, there are holding pens, equipment, feed, water, additional safety measures to take, and trailers to store.

Because the match my husband watched was at a hunt club, during the halftime break, besides stomping the divots, they got to visit with the horses and the hounds. We happen to live in a horse town so I have experienced a “running of the hounds” a few times – usually when I’m running late for work. If you’ve never seen a running of the hounds, it’s pretty spectacular. It is truly something right out of the olden days. Men and women in bright red jackets, tight khaki pants, and boots mount their steeds and release 25-30 hounds. The dogs run in a pack looking for pheasants, rabbits, quail, or the prey of the day while the gun-toting riders follow behind. The group at the riding club here is rather large. When crossing the street, they can stop traffic for a solid 10-15 minutes. But still, watching it, hearing their bugles and the sound of the many hooves hitting the dirt is mesmerizing.

All that to say, if you have never been to a polo match, it belongs on your “list of things to do one day.” If for nothing else than to experience a different type of event with a lot of moving parts containing logistics you may never otherwise encounter.

Have you planned a polo match? What one thing did you learn? Share it here or
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1. Information courtesy of Hickory Hall Polo Club in Whitestown, IN