Arena Polo, played at Polo Wicklow, is one of the ways players and fans are trying to popularise the sport. Played on an all-weather pitch, surrounded by wooden walls, the game includes the added element of snooker or squash, as players use the walls to bounce the ball into play.
In the UK, model Jodie Kidd (right), and her brother Jack are at the forefront of a group intent on opening up the game with their Polo in the Park tournaments, where the aim is to do for polo what Twenty20 did for cricket.
Naturally there are those who aren’t keen on the idea of simpler rules, cameras on players’ helmets and – heaven forbid – “just anyone” coming into the sport. But as Jack Kidd says: “Polo is really stuck in the Dark Ages and misunderstood as elitist . . .
It is an exhilarating sport that so many people are playing around the country now, and we want to take away the stuffiness and make it exciting to watch on TV.”