POLO:Dashing Argentinian pin-ups in breeches, fiery ponies, and champagne on the sidelines . . . a day at the polo has much to recommend it, writes GEMMA TIPTON
IN THE FILM Pretty Woman, when Richard Gere wanted to make Julia Roberts cry, he brought her to the opera, but when he wanted to give her a thrill, he brought her to a polo match. I think I agree with him about the sheer excitement of polo, a game that is said to be the oldest team sport in the world. Players stress the skill involved, but then say with a smile, "when the whistle blows, it's like going into battle", and all agree that you only have to play a single chukka (the name for the periods into which a match is divided) to be hooked. So why, in Ireland, the land of the horse, is polo not our national sport?
Polo in England suffers from, or trades on (depending on your viewpoint), its associations with the British royal family. Then there is money: like most things to do with horses, it can be expensive, and at the top level it is almost prohibitively so. But getting started, and playing enough to feel the thrill for yourself, is not too much more costly than a regular riding lesson. Plus, each weekend until the end of September, watching it at Europe’s second oldest polo ground, the All Ireland Polo Club in Phoenix Park, Dublin (founded in 1872), is absolutely free. And don’t be put off by spectators who took Pretty Woman too seriously, even though on a recent trip there I saw some hilarious girls in pink and yellow cocktail frocks. Most people were sensibly dressed for watching an outdoor sport.
No one is exactly sure when polo originated. Nomadic warriors more than 2,000 years ago played, sometimes with 100 a side, and by the Middle Ages, it was being used to teach cavalry regiments the skills they, and their horses, would need in battle. Reaching from Constantinople to Japan, it became the Persian national sport (the first recorded match was in Persia in 600 BC), and you can still see Tamerlane the Great’s polo grounds in Samarkand. But it was an Irishman who first put the rules down on paper, and in fact, that most quintessentially English of games was played in Limerick in 1868, a whole year before it crossed the Irish Sea.
Officers serving in the British cavalry saw polo being played in India, and in the middle of the 19th century, Capt John Watson (the Irishman) set about writing down the rules. These appear complicated at first, but soon start to make sense: each team has four players with no defined positions, though generally there are two attacking, one midfield, and one defender. All you need to do is hit the ball into the opposition’s goal (and for fairness, although adding to the confusion, the ends change with each goal), while preventing the other team from scoring.
As the horses – in polo always called “ponies” whatever height they are – are zooming around at up to 30mph, the rules state you can’t go across the line of the horse that currently has the ball. That doesn’t mean you can’t knock that horse off its line, which is where the excitement begins.
As the game can be fast and furious, when each 7½-minute chukka ends, you jump off one exhausted pony and onto the next. Having to have more than one pony is a good reason why polo has acquired its elitist reputation, one that Siobhan Herbst of Polo Wicklow was keen to scotch when I arrived for my first lesson.
Polo Wicklow has a grass pitch, and an arena, so polo is played there all year round. You can bring your own horse or pony to learn with you, and they also lease ponies, so you can get started straight away. They have just launched a scholarship aimed at giving subsidised lessons and chukkas to two young players (aged between 18 and 25), to bring them into the game.
Herbst’s father Michael established Polo Wicklow after having watched a game in Phoenix Park. He rounded up 10 friends, got them all to put money in, and set off to Argentina, returning with 20 ponies and a passion that would endure over four decades. Argentinians dominate the sport, and they breed and train the best polo ponies.
I watch two of them warming up the ponies at Polo Wicklow, riding with an easy grace. One of them is Hector Medrano, who came to Ireland in 1997, having played in the US, UK and France. “I didn’t speak much English then,” he remembers. “I couldn’t even say ‘potato’.”
He had heard about the job through other polo players, which is how it works, and found he liked Ireland very much. “Polo here is easier, it’s more relaxed, more fun. In Argentina, the patron wants you to win all the time.”
Having read my Jilly Cooper, I know about patrons, the rich men (almost always men) who bankroll a team, which usually consists of themselves, a friend and two professionals. In the UK, a top-level patron can spend £6 million (€6.95 million) a year on his team, so it’s a bit like Roman Abramovich buying Chelsea but also playing for them. The professionals are nicknamed “hired assassins”, and their job, as Medrano describes it, “is to ride up behind the patron and score when he misses. You have to try to make him look good”.
In Argentina, the professionals are treated with the same reverential awe that, say, David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo would be among football fans. The top player in the world, Adolfo Cambiaso, is married to one of South America’s top models, and is used to appearing on TV and in the tabloids. So how did Medrano fare here? “I got lots of attention from Irish women when I came over, but I couldn’t understand a word they said.”
Having one professional on a team is the norm at the higher levels of polo in Ireland, and James Kennedy of Polo Waterford, who is also chairman of the Federation of Irish Polo Clubs, says the good thing about this is that it helps players “learn on the game, and brings everyone’s standard of play up”.
But he also points out that there are teams out there without professionals, and that you can go and play club games during the week. Herbst agrees with this attitude, saying: “When it starts being about money, it’s not fun any more.”
Having watched for long enough, and having been assured that there’s no need to go at 30mph when you’re starting, it’s time to begin the lesson. First up is a wooden horse, which seems a bit disappointing until you discover that everything about riding is different in polo. You hold the reins differently, and there are two sets of them to worry about, plus mallet, plus crop. The saddle is not the same either – there are no knee rolls to make you feel secure, as it’s all about having maximum contact with the horse.
Having worked it all out, and hit a few balls without bashing any wooden legs, it’s time to try the real thing. Herbst is a great teacher, but it still feels a bit odd. The ponies are so highly trained that they respond to pressure from your legs, and even turn in the direction you’re looking – so when I look over to see what Herbst is up to, my pony, Crunchie, follows too. By the time I’ve hit the ball a few times, and even achieved it at a canter, I’m on the way to being hooked. “You could be playing matches after two to three lessons,” Herbst says encouragingly.
Polo at Polo Wicklow is for players over the age of 18 only, and Herbst is keen to encourage Ireland’s pony clubs to take it up to bring younger players into the game (the under-14s can play with just one pony).
Kennedy says the federation is actively working with the Irish Pony Club, and that as the University of Limerick is now providing formal training for polo instructors, it has never been easier to get into the game at any of Ireland’s 11 clubs.
Meanwhile, if you like your thrills from the sidelines, the 10th International Ladies’ Polo Tournament, hosted by Polo Wicklow, is taking place this weekend, culminating in the big final tomorrow. Teams are coming from Australia, the US, and Ireland North and South, plus there’ll be an Argentine asado (barbecue, with roast lamb) all day.
It’s taking place at Ballyhenry, Ashford, or, in the event of rain, at the Polo Wicklow grounds, where there’s a nice dry clubhouse to watch the action from. It’s being held in aid of the Jack and Jill Foundation to support children with life threatening illnesses, and their parents. It should be a fantastic day out, though mud will fly, so ignore Julia Roberts, and wear some sensible shoes.
See www.polowicklow.com or www.polo.ie for listings of polo clubs. For details of the Polo Wicklow scholarship, contact Siobhan Herbst on 087-2869691. For details about the ladies’ tournament this weekend, tel: 086-2552138