58 Fun Facts About Polo

In polo, what do the numbers one to four given to players stand for?

Positions: the star usually plays at 3, not 1, because Number Three is the tactical leader who feeds the forwards, while Number One leads the attack and Number Four guards the goal.

What is the name for a period of play in polo?

A chukka: riders swap tired ponies for fresh ones between chukkas, and sometimes during them, so each player brings a whole string of horses to a match.

Roughly how many American football fields would fit on one full-size polo field?

Nine: at 300 by 160 yards, about ten acres, it is often called the largest field in organised sport, with room for ponies to reach speeds of up to 35 miles an hour.

What do polo's goal posts do if a horse crashes into them?

Give way: the posts, set eight yards apart, are kept light enough to break or topple when a pony runs into one, and a goal counts however high the ball flies between them.

Which ancient equestrian game, played in Persia, is the ancestor of polo?

Chovgan began as battle training for Persian cavalry before it became the nobility's sport; UNESCO listed Iran's chogan, played to music and storytelling, in 2017.

'Polo' is Balti for 'ball', akin to pulu in which Himalayan land's language?

Tibet: Balti is a Tibetic language of the Indus valley, and English borrowed its word for the ball in 1872, later lending it to water polo, which needs no horse at all.

Which designer started his fashion empire in 1967 by selling neckties under the name Polo?

Ralph Lauren was working for a tie maker when he launched a line of his own under the Polo name, and the mesh shirt with its polo-player emblem only followed in 1972.

In The Great Gatsby, which character moves East with a string of polo ponies?

Tom Buchanan: the narrator can hardly believe a man his own age is rich enough to do it, and at a party Gatsby keeps introducing Tom as 'the polo player' over his objections.

Shah Abbas I watched polo from a palace balcony above the vast square he built in which Iranian city?

Isfahan: Abbas made it his capital in 1598 and laid out Naqsh-e Jahan Square, with the high balcony of the Ali Qapu gate-palace as his grandstand for the polo below.

Which playing-card suit did Europeans create from the Mamluk polo-stick suit?

Clubs: polo was an obscure sport to Europeans, so the card makers who copied the Mamluk pack redrew its polo sticks as batons or cudgels.

The former slave who ruled northern India and died after a polo accident in 1210 began which Delhi landmark?

Qutb Minar: Qutubuddin Aibak, once a slave in charge of the royal stables, began the tower but died of injuries from a polo game, so his son-in-law Iltutmish finished it.

Tomb figures show women playing polo around the 8th century in the capital of which Chinese dynasty?

Tang: polo was wildly popular in the capital, and Cui Shi, a general's wife buried in 878, took donkeys to her tomb, probably her mounts for a slower, safer form of the game.

Players from which Indian state taught polo to British tea planters in the 1850s, launching the modern game?

Manipur: planters in neighbouring Assam learned the game from Manipuri riders, who called it sagol kangjei, and founded the first European polo club at Silchar in 1859.

Which Swiss resort staged the world's first snow polo tournament, on its frozen lake, in 1985?

St. Moritz: the idea caught on, spreading to resorts such as Aspen and Cortina, and the original is played on the frozen lake each January.

The world's oldest surviving polo club was founded by British officers in 1862 in which Indian city?

Calcutta: two British officers founded the club in what was then the capital of British India, years before polo was first played in England, and its Ezra Cup dates from 1880.

British cavalry officers who staged England's first polo match called the game which sport 'on horseback'?

Hockey: the 10th Hussars and 9th Lancers lined up eight riders a side with almost no rules, and the name polo caught on only later.

British polo's governing body is named after which London club, where the game's first English rules were written?

Hurlingham Club: it wrote English polo's first rules in the 1870s, but its polo fields were compulsorily purchased for building after the Second World War, so the name outlived the game there.

Which British royal was an executive producer of Polo, a 2024 documentary series about the sport?

Prince Harry, a keen player himself, made the Netflix series with Meghan through their company Archewell Productions, following professionals through the U.S. Open Polo Championship.

The Argentine polo team won their nation's first Olympic gold medal at which city's Games in 1924?

Paris: the title came down to one match between the two favourites, which Argentina won 6-5, and the team took gold again when polo returned to the Games twelve years later.

Polo made its fifth and final Olympic appearance at which city's Games in 1936?

Berlin: Argentina beat Great Britain 11-0 in the final, and polo then stayed the last sport dropped from the Olympics for 72 years, until baseball and softball followed.

Which New York Herald publisher, who sent Stanley to find Livingstone, staged what was billed as America's first polo match in 1876?

James Gordon Bennett Jr. brought the game home after seeing it played, staging it first indoors at a Manhattan riding academy before his new club took it outdoors to Jerome Park racetrack.

After American players swept England aside in 1909 with fast, long passing, English polo abandoned which rule?

Offside: the English rule made for a game of short passes, while Harry Payne Whitney's Americans, who played without it, hit long passes to riders galloping ahead of the ball.

In a polo handicap match, what does the lower-rated team receive before play begins?

A head start in goals: each player carries a rating, the four are added up, and the weaker side begins with goals already on the scoreboard to cover the gap.

How did Sue Sally Hale play in US polo tournaments for nearly two decades before women were admitted in 1972?

Disguised as a man: she taped her chest, tucked her hair under her helmet and wore a moustache from film make-up artists, entering as 'A. Jones' until the USPA gave in.

Which Disney character leads a polo team against Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy in a 1936 cartoon?

Mickey Mouse: Walt Disney's own love of polo inspired Mickey's Polo Team, in which caricatured film stars take on Disney characters until the horses end up riding the players.

The Argentine Open, final leg of polo's Triple Crown, is played at the 'Cathedral of Polo' in which Buenos Aires neighbourhood?

Palermo: the Campo Argentino de Polo, opened there in 1928, earned its nickname as the sport's most important stadium, and a team that also wins the two earlier Opens takes the Triple Crown.

Argentina's Open polo championship was founded by an association named after which river?

Plate: the River Plate Polo Association, formed in 1892 among the English-speaking settlers who had brought the game, created the tournament a year later, and Argentina's own polo association took it over in the 1920s.

Which Argentine 10-goaler co-founded La Dolfina and pioneered polo horse cloning?

Adolfo Cambiaso had skin cells frozen from his dying champion stallion Aiken Cura, which was later reborn as a clone, and his favourite mare Cuartetera has since been copied many times.

What do the two teams do after every goal in a polo match?

Switch ends: the teams change direction after each goal, so that neither side keeps the better of the wind or the state of the turf for long.

What imaginary path governs right of way in polo?

The line of the ball is simply the path the ball is travelling along, and it works like lane markings on a road: riders following it have right of way, so cutting across in front of them is the commonest foul.

What is a 'ride-off' in polo?

A shoulder-to-shoulder bump: a rider may steer a pony into a rival's to push him away from the ball, but only at a similar speed and a shallow angle, so that neither horse is knocked off balance.

What is 'hooking' in polo?

Blocking a rival's swing: a player may catch the other's mallet with his own, but only while the rival is striking at the ball and with the stick kept below shoulder height, for safety.

Why must polo be played right-handed?

To prevent head-on collisions: every player must carry the mallet in the right hand, so natural left-handers have to learn to play right-handed, and left-handed play has been banned since the 1970s.

Which polo tradition invites spectators onto the field at half-time?

Divot stomping: spectators stroll the field treading back the clumps of turf torn up by the ponies' hooves, which smooths the ground for the second half and doubles as a social outing.

Unlike a croquet mallet, a polo mallet strikes the ball with which part of its head?

The broad side: the cigar-shaped head sits crossways on a springy cane shaft about four feet long, and its small ends are never used for hitting.

What were outdoor polo balls made from for many years before plastic took over?

Willow root: the Indian riders who taught the British used balls of bamboo root, and willow became the Western standard until high-impact plastic replaced wood.

Until just after the First World War, polo's rules limited which feature of a pony?

Its height: mounts had to measure 14.2 hands or less and pass an official measurer, but the cap was dropped after the war, which is why today's 'ponies' are full-sized horses.

'High-goal' polo, the sport's elite level, is named not for scoring but for what?

Top team handicaps: players are rated in 'goals', a measure of skill, not of scoring, so a high-goal match is one between teams whose four ratings add up to a large total.

Why is a polo pony's tail braided up before a match?

So it won't snag the rider's mallet: a loose tail could catch in a full swing, and the mane is clipped short for the same reason, while the leg bandages guard against knocks.

Where is the world's highest polo ground, some 3,700 metres above sea level?

Shandur Pass, Pakistan: every July the mountain rivals Gilgit and Chitral meet there under freestyle rules, and fans who have walked or hitch-hiked up camp beside the ground.

Who was president of the Guards Polo Club from its founding in 1955 until his death?

Prince Philip gave up playing polo in 1971 for carriage driving but stayed on as the Windsor club's president for 66 years; King Charles III accepted the role in 2024.

Which trophy, created in 1886, pits American polo teams against English ones?

Westchester Cup: England won the early meetings, but from 1909 the Americans took nearly every series until the Second World War halted the matches.

Unlike owners in most professional sports, what does a polo team's patron often do?

Play in its matches: polo is rare among team sports in letting amateurs, often the patrons who pay the bills, ride alongside the professionals they have hired.

Which author's story 'The Maltese Cat' follows a polo final in India through the eyes of a pony?

Rudyard Kipling: his hero once pulled a vegetable cart in Malta and now coaches the ponies of a poor infantry regiment to out-think a richer team by playing 'with our heads'.

Which shirt feature did Brooks Brothers copy in 1896 from English polo players, who wanted less flapping at a gallop?

The button-down collar: John Brooks noticed players' collars fastened to their shirts at a match in England, and the 'polo collar' shirt he launched became an American staple.

Which future prime minister sailed back to India in 1898 chiefly to play in a polo tournament?

Winston Churchill: he rejoined the 4th Hussars for the Inter-Regimental tournament at Meerut, where they won the championship, weeks before he left the army for politics.

Which tennis champion designed the modern piqué polo shirt in the 1920s?

René Lacoste designed it for the tennis court, to replace the stiff long-sleeved shirts players then wore, and added the crocodile that the press had made his nickname.

What does a polo umpire award the other team for a dangerous foul committed to stop a score?

An automatic goal: under Penalty 1 the fouled side is simply given the score the foul was meant to stop, with no shot taken, while other fouls bring free hits from 30, 40 or 60 yards.

A version of polo invented in Ireland in 1891, and shown at the 1908 London Olympics, replaced the ponies with what?

Bicycles: retired racing cyclist Richard Mecredy devised the game in County Wicklow, and Ireland beat Germany 3-1 when it was demonstrated at the 1908 Games.

The Segway polo world championship is named after which of Apple's early leaders, himself a keen player?

Steve Wozniak: the 'Woz Cup' has been contested since 2006, and Apple's co-founder has turned out in it for his own team, the Silicon Valley Aftershocks.

Arena polo swaps the outdoor ball for one that is what?

Inflated: three riders a side play in a walled arena a fraction of the size of an outdoor ground, where the larger, leather-covered ball rebounds off the walls and stays in play.

Emperor Alexander, who fell fatally ill during a polo game in 913, ruled which empire?

Byzantine Empire: the game, known there as tzykanion, was a court passion in Constantinople, where emperors kept a polo ground inside the Great Palace; Alexander died within a day.

How does play begin in a polo match?

A throw-in between the teams: the players line up facing each other at the centre and an umpire bowls the ball down the gap between them; the same happens after each goal.

The Polo Grounds, named for a polo field of the 1870s beside Central Park, became the long-time home of which baseball team?

Giants: only the first Polo Grounds ever saw polo, yet the name followed New York's National League club to three later ballparks uptown, where it played until 1957.

Which Central Asian horseback game, sometimes likened to polo, is fought over a goat carcass?

Buzkashi: mounted players wrestle a goat or calf carcass from one another and carry it to a goal; it is Afghanistan's national sport, and Kyrgyzstan's version is on UNESCO's heritage list.

A polo match level at the final bell can go to a shoot-out or be settled how?

The next goal wins: in a sudden-death extra period the first team to score takes the match, as Brazil did to beat England 10-9 in the 2004 World Polo Championship final.

How do a polo match's two umpires follow the play?

On ponies of their own: with play moving at up to 35 miles an hour, the two umpires have to ride with it, while a referee assists from the sideline.

In polo, where is the ball when a player takes a 'nearside' shot?

On the pony's left: the right is the 'off' side, and because every player must hold the mallet in the right hand, a nearside shot means reaching across the pony to hit.