I went (was taken) to many polo matches growing up. I was thrilled by the horses.
I was thrilled as well that my mother wasn’t one of the ladies that dressed to the nines and insisted on going out in their high heels to press in the divots. Do one or the other ladies, or if you really want to help, put on some proper divot stomping footwear beneath your fancy dress (nothing wrong with that.)
I would never roach my horse’s mane so polo is out for us 
I’ve read some interesting articles (and even a lawsuit) regarding the use of cloning in polo, I’m curious if the series touches on that.
It does not. It follows a few players through the 2024 US open.
I’m actually enjoying the series. There are player who you root for and those you don’t really care for – like with most sports. Some have a love of the horses, and you can tell. All the family dynamics are interesting as well. I don’t know a lot about polo, so I’m learning as I watch.
I’m anxious to see this. Not a Big PH fan - we tried to listen to “Spare” on a long Christmas time drive last year and could only make it thru a few chapters. Came across as a whiner. And the picking of head lice at boarding school was bizarre.
My brother played polo in Colorado in the 90s. He certainly knew all his horses names, even had portraits painted of a couple of them. He was/is an immigration attorney and told me that the job of the professional Argentinian players that he helped get temp visas for was to set up the American players to score goals.
I loved watching it. I’m sure the league was more low key. His horses were boarded at a facility with stalls in the summer and then turned out for the winter on a huge ranch. They loved it. He also said the mates were much tougher than the geldings.
I love watching polo and also photographing it. The people I’ve known who played, took excellent care of their strings and were not uber wealthy. But I’ve never seen matches at the level this documentary features. I’ll have to check out an episode or two, but from what I’ve read, it’s not doing the sport any favors.
in the 60’s I kept a horse at Golden Gate Park at the polo field. I earned a little money ponying to hot walk the sweaty horses after a chucker…They guy I worked for used is horses for ranch work most of the time. He said ranch work was good training for polo ponies, but polo wasn’t so great for training the ranch horses…
I love that you referred to Uncle Tim as Timmy. 
I binged the entire series last night and I really liked it, and learned quite a bit about polo. I also liked the little clips of Harry towards the end, especially the short bits of him riding. After all, it certainly runs in the family, and I seem to recollect that Harry had quite the reputation of being an aggressive player. And these are his people. As far as the documentary being panned, I’m sorry because it is a good portrayal of what it sets out to be. Harry certainly seemed to be having a good time joking with the players.
This made me wonder whether at least part of this “rivalry” between William and Harry might have some aspect of jealousy intertwined in it. William, being the future king and all that, has always struck me as being sort of a bland, really upright and maybe more than bit boring sort, whereas Harry has always had that wild streak against authority that perhaps William would secretly like to have.
Anyway, here’s a thumbs up to Polo.
I believe Adolfo Cambiaso has cloned his best polo mare.
Cloning is common when breeding polo ponies. Big money available to pay for it.
Just finished watching this.
I think they missed a big opportunity on the horsemanship side—preparing/warming up a team’s horses, how to select the right horse for polo, explaining more about the tack, any therapies they receive in between meets, breeding, etc. Heck even just introducing some of the players’ favorite horses would have gone a long way.
In the era we’re in now where all activity with horses is so heavily scrutinized by the public, it would have been beneficial to focus a little more on the horses.
Any information on how successful it is or isn’t?
It seems like competitive personality and/or temperament is a key part of what makes a good polo pony. It would be interesting to see how the clones’ temperaments are relative to the original.
I just watched the trailer for this show, it popped up in my feed. Terrible. They may as well have called it “Real Horsewives of Wellington FL”. Spoiled vapid silly people. At least from the trailer.
Now I don’t plan to watch even one episode (was going to give it a chance). I hve friends who play polo. I’ve gone to local polo matches. I’ve thought about giving it a try myself. There is not one thing about that trailer that makes me even a little interested in watching it.
Pretty sad. H and M you have long worn out your welcome here. I think whoever owns the Julia Child cooking show reruns should air them alongside the “cooking” show M plans to try to rescue the Netflix deal with. I know which one I’d watch!
Here is an article from 2018 that talks about the cloning in Argentina.
Thanks! Fascinating reading!
I’m on the second episode and loving it! It is “Polo” brought to life. Louis is absolutely Bart Alderton to a tee.
Anyone in doubt, give it a go.
@Ponyplusaninch Last polo match I went to, it was apparent that the commentators had been told to offer more information, to engage the audience, to make the experience more inclusive etc. To paraphrase wildly, the commentary seemed to run along the lines of:
"This is [male first name] riding today as number two. I’ve known him for years, ever since we were in the Pony Club together. We were both in South Africa last winter and we had an absolutely fantastic season there. This chukka he is playing his fantastic bay pony, an 8 year old Argentinian mare called [insert appropriate name], by the amazing stallion [insert appropriate stallion name]. She was bred by the great [insert name of Argentinian professional player] who produces so many fantastic ponies on his Estancia. Most polo ponies today are either Argentinian or retired racehorses. The groom who looks after the horse is called… ummm… ahhh… ahhh… Juan?? Ahhh… Pedro???
@Virginia_Horse_Mom The Washington Post did an interesting article 29 December 2023 which gives some history and fun facts. Argentina has liberal rules on biotechnology and ponies have high worth.
I love that, and it needs to be present across all horse sport.
You know what questions I get asked about my horse by non horse people?
What’s his favorite treat?
How long did it take to train him to ride?
How fast does he go?
How tall is he?
Does he like to jump?
It’s real simple stuff but it makes a difference to speak to those little details and growing an audience. I love how COTG does those equine profiles every now and again. You can tell who really loves their horses in those; lots of details come out that show how much care is there.
Anywho maybe they’ll do a second season and offer some other perspectives. I didn’t think it earned the scathing review above but I definitely saw some room for improvement.
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