60 Fun Facts About Polo

How many players are on each team in outdoor field polo?

Arena polo, played on a smaller enclosed dirt surface, uses three a side.

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

Each lasts seven minutes plus up to 30 seconds of overtime, with a four-minute break between and a ten-minute half-time.

How long is each period of play?

Play continues for up to 30 seconds after the bell, or until the next stoppage, whichever comes first.

What are the dimensions of a full-size outdoor polo field?

At roughly ten acres it is the largest playing field of any modern sport, about nine American football fields.

How far apart are the goal posts on a polo field?

A goal counts no matter how high the ball passes between them.

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

It was a court pastime of the Sasanian Empire; Iran's chogan was added to UNESCO's heritage list in 2017.

From which language does the English word 'polo' come?

It means ball, and is cognate with the Tibetan pulu; the anglicised term was picked up in Manipur.

Which Sasanian emperor learned to play polo at the age of seven in 316 CE?

The game was part of the royal education for the Sasanian ruling class, and women played it too.

Which Byzantine emperor built the tzykanisterion polo stadium in Constantinople?

Emperor Alexander later died of exhaustion while playing, and John I of Trebizond died from a polo injury.

Which famous Isfahan plaza was built as a polo field by Abbas I in the 17th century?

The stone goal posts still stand at either end of the vast square.

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

Polo was so little known in Europe that the sticks were reinterpreted as batons or clubs.

Which Delhi sultan died in 1210 when he fell from his horse during a polo game?

He was impaled on the pommel of his own saddle; his dynasty is known as the Mamluk or Slave dynasty.

Women played polo in the capital of which Chinese dynasty, as tomb figures show?

They had to wear male dress to do so, and one polo-obsessed noblewoman was buried with her donkeys in 878.

In which Indian state did British tea planters learn the modern game from local players?

The local form, sagol kangjei, is played seven a side on ponies under 13 hands, with no goal posts.

Where is the world's oldest polo ground?

Its history is recorded in the royal chronicle from 33 CE; Lord Curzon measured it at 225 by 110 yards in 1901.

Which is the oldest institution of the sport still in existence, founded in 1862?

Founded by British officers Joseph Sherer and Robert Stewart, it hosts the Ezra Cup, the oldest polo tournament.

Which British cavalry regiment is credited with introducing polo to England?

Officers who had learned the game in India brought it home in the 1860s.

Which body wrote the first formal British rules in 1874 and still governs the UK game?

Most smaller national associations follow either its rules or those of the United States Polo Association.

Who organised the first formal polo game on the pampas, in 1875?

Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English immigrants on the pampas took the game up, and the gauchos soon excelled at it.

At which Games did the Argentine polo team win their nation's first Olympic gold?

They defended the title in Berlin in 1936, the last time polo was contested at the Olympics.

Between which years was polo an Olympic sport?

It appeared at five Games in all; the IOC re-recognised the sport's governing body in 1998.

Which newspaper publisher staged America's 'first' polo match in New York in 1876?

Texans in Denison had already formed a club and challenged him, and legend puts even earlier games at Boerne, Texas.

Which American turned polo into a high-speed long-passing game around 1909?

His teams used the fast break, sending long balls to riders galloping clear of the pack.

What is the range of the polo handicap scale?

Fewer than two dozen players in the world hold a 10-goal rating, and most of them are Argentine.

Who created the polo handicap system at the founding of the USPA in 1890?

It rates a player's overall worth to the team, not the number of goals they might score.

Which country has produced the most 10-goal handicap players?

Five Argentine teams have fielded four 10-goalers at once for a 40-goal line-up, starting with Coronel Suárez in 1975.

Which three tournaments make up the polo Triple Crown played around Buenos Aires?

The season runs from October to December, ending at the Campo Argentino de Polo in Palermo.

Since which year has the Argentine Open been played?

Held at Palermo in Buenos Aires, it was called the River Plate Polo Championship until 1923.

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

His first clone was produced in 2010; his celebrated mare Cuartetera has been cloned many times.

What was the record score in La Dolfina's 2005 Argentine Open final win over Ellerstina?

It remains the highest-scoring final in the tournament's history.

What imaginary path governs right of way in polo?

It runs through the ball along its path of travel; crossing it dangerously in front of the hitter is the commonest foul.

What is a 'ride-off' in polo?

Similar to a body check in ice hockey, it is legal only when both horses are moving at about the same speed.

What is 'hooking' in polo?

It is legal only from the same side as the swing or directly behind, and never above shoulder height.

Why must polo be played right-handed?

Rules were rewritten around safety for both players and horses; umpires monitor every game.

What tradition invites spectators onto the field at half-time?

It replaces the mounds of turf torn up by hooves and gives the crowd a chance to socialise.

What is the shaft of a traditional polo mallet made from?

Bamboo is hollow and unsuitable; the cigar-shaped head is usually tipa hardwood, and the ball is struck with the head's broad side.

What was the outdoor polo ball made from for years before plastic arrived in the 1970s?

The British originally used a white-painted leather-covered cricket ball.

How tall is a typical polo pony?

Despite the name they are full-sized horses, often Thoroughbreds, weighing 900 to 1,100 pounds.

Roughly what share of a player's effectiveness is attributed to a well-trained horse?

Ponies are ridden with one hand on the reins and respond to leg and weight cues.

Why is a polo pony's tail docked or braided?

The mane is usually hogged for the same reason, and the legs are wrapped from knee to fetlock.

Where is the world's highest polo ground, at about 3,734 metres?

The annual Shandur Polo Festival in Chitral District draws enthusiasts from around the world.

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

The club plays at Smith's Lawn in Windsor Great Park; King Charles III became president in 2024.

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

Also called the International Polo Cup, it was played 12 times before World War II and only revived in 1992.

In which year was the Federation of International Polo founded in Buenos Aires?

Marcos Uranga and Glen Holden gathered eleven national associations, hoping to restore polo's Olympic status.

How often is the FIP World Polo Championship held?

Polo is played professionally in 16 countries and actively in 77.

Which is the only country with a separate women's polo federation?

Elsewhere teams may be all-male, all-female or mixed under the same association.

Which British statesman called polo the only ball sport he was ever interested in?

He played it as a Hussars officer in India in the 1890s.

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

He put a crocodile on the breast from 1927 after the American press nicknamed him The Crocodile.

In which countries is elephant polo chiefly played?

Two people ride each elephant: a mahout steers while the player swings a stick up to three metres long.

Where was cycle polo invented in 1891?

Retired cycling champion Richard J. Mecredy devised it; the game featured unofficially at the 1908 Olympics.

The Segway polo world championship is named after which tech co-founder?

The Woz Challenge Cup honours the Apple co-founder.

How many riders per team play arena polo?

The enclosed sand arena is 300 by 150 feet and uses a larger, air-inflated ball.

Which Byzantine emperor died of exhaustion while playing polo, in 913?

Basil I excelled at the game; John I of Trebizond later died from an injury suffered during a match.

Which sultan, famed for fighting the Crusaders, was known as a skilled polo player?

Ayyubid and Mamluk elites favoured polo above all other sports; Baybars also encouraged it at court.

The Bab al Halba, a 13th-century gate of Baghdad, was named after what nearby feature?

Abbasid Baghdad kept a large polo ground outside its walls; Mongol and Safavid rulers kept the game alive in Persia.

An archaic variant of polo still played in Central Asia is known by what name?

Also called kokpar, it survives from the Iranian roots of a game that both men and women played in ancient Persia.

Which British officer, 'the father of modern polo', co-founded the Calcutta Polo Club in 1862?

Sherer founded it with Captain Robert Stewart after playing on the ancient Imphal ground in Manipur.

Which Pacific island group had polo by the 1890s, according to the sport's history?

From the 1800s to the 1910s, teams from Indian principalities dominated the international scene.

Which university team won the first US Arena Polo Championship, in 1926?

The 12-18 goal tournament remains one of the highest levels of the fast arena version in the United States.

Cowboy polo, played in the western US with five riders a side, is played with what object?

Riders use western saddles on a dirt surface, usually in a smaller arena, with rules similar to regular polo.