Polo is played on horseback and needs one of the largest pitches in organised sport, big enough to fit several football fields inside it. It has a long history in India, where the modern game took shape in Manipur before spreading to Britain and the rest of the world in the nineteenth century, and it’s now overseen internationally by the Federation of International Polo, which recognises the rules set by long-established bodies such as the Hurlingham Polo Association, the United States Polo Association and Argentina’s Asociación Argentina de Polo.
Objective
Two mounted teams try to hit a small ball through the opposing team’s goalposts more often than the other side manages, using a long-handled mallet while riding at speed.
Rules and regulations
- A match is divided into periods called chukkers, typically four to six depending on the level of competition, with breaks in between to allow players to change horses, since a pony can only be ridden safely for one chukker at a time before it needs rest.
- Each team fields four riders, numbered one to four, with the two forward positions expected to attack, the third player acting as the pivot linking attack and defence, and the fourth mainly defending their own goal.
- Players may block an opponent’s shot or ride alongside them to push them off the line of the ball, but riding into another player at a dangerous angle, or hooking a mallet unsafely, brings a foul and a free hit for the other side.
- Every player carries a handicap, ranging from minus two goals up to ten, based on ability, and the combined handicaps of a team can be used to give a weaker side a head start in goals at higher levels of competition.
Equipment and playing area
- The field can run up to around 300 yards long and 160 yards wide, marked with boards along the sides in many venues to keep the ball in play.
- Players ride polo ponies, actually full-sized horses bred and trained for quick turns and bursts of speed, and use a cane or fibreglass mallet to strike a hard plastic ball.
- Helmets and knee guards are standard safety equipment for riders.
Scoring
- A goal is scored whenever the ball passes between the two goalposts, however it gets there, including if a defending player accidentally knocks it through their own goal.
- Teams change ends after every goal, partly to cancel out any advantage from wind or a sloping pitch, and the side with more goals when the final chukker ends wins the match.
