Polo is traces its origins back to ancient times.  In 1800’s, the British Calvary made it into a formal game with established rules and spread it around the world, although due the sport’s expensive nature, it has a limited following although is very popular in certain areas such as Argentina.

The basic objective in polo is to move the polo ball down the field and hit it through two goal posts to score a point.  Players ride on horseback and use long mallets to hit the ball on the ground.  Players are only allowed to hold mallets in their right hand as using one’s left hand was banned in 1975 due to safety reasons.

In outdoor polo, there are four, seven-minute chukkers while in arena polo (popular in the USA), there are four, six-minute chukkers.  Horses are changed after every chukker to prevent injury and exhaustion due to the physically demanding nature of the game.

Each team has four players, 2 of which focus primarily on offense and 2 that focus primarily on defense.  The player who strikes the ball last has the line of the ball and has the right of way.  This can be taken away by moving the player off the line of the ball by making shoulder-to-shoulder contact.  However, this player can be hooked, pushed off the line, bumped with another horse or have the ball stolen from him or her.  A player may hook or block another player's mallet with his mallet, but a player may not purposely touch another player, his tack or pony with his mallet.

Polo players ride on polo ponies which, despite their name, are full grown horses that exhibit a combination of traits of different horse breeds (usually Thoroughbred and Quarter horses).  Polo ponies are very important for the game and many times a pony is the single greatest determinant of the outcome of a match.  Players must change horses after each chukker due to the extreme demands placed on the polo pony.  Ponies play for a maximum of two chukkers per match.

Did you know that the first recorded polo game took place in 600BC between the Turkomans and Persians with victory going to the Turkomans?