I played for several years with a local club in Iowa in my teens and early 20’s. I was the only female player in our club or any of the other clubs we played. Acceptance was not 100% but mostly other players were fine. It is wonderful fun. If you start with strong riding skills the rest comes more quickly. We had everything from seasoned horsemen to beginer riders in our club and everyone got to play in practices and skirmishs held 2x per week. Regular games were played by the better players some of who had USPA ratings. If you have access I highly recommend you give it a try.
I still have a few mallets and balls so will whack a ball around from time to time to give my horses something different to do. The club I plays with dissolved a long time ago.
I understand there is such a thing as elephant polo so getting a really long mallet must be possible.
Someone around here had an arena polo team.
They didn’t go at it as hard as real polo.
Smaller field, shorter chukkers and less horses per player.
I think they used to go to Colorado to play other teams.
It sure looked like fun.
In our riding center we used to play broom polo.
That was most times a wild all goes chasing a beach ball around, with a lot of laugher and fun.
If the club is well-known you should be golden. Most larger clubs have a bunch of very chill school ponies for beginners, and they provide all the tack. You will love it! I have been playing my entire life. If you have any questions feel free to send me a message. I probably know the people at your nearby club and can give you a few tips for your first day.
The most important thing is not to worry, and don’t be concerned with looking silly. I have watched countless polo lessons and every single person looks silly but has a great time. Have fun!!!
DO it! I’d always ridden H/J and took a few lessons for the heck of it when I needed some fresh inspiration. The polo ponies are super savvy and fun. It seems people are either ex-team sports players—like hockey—trying to get the riding part down, or riders trying to learn to use the mallet. Both of my own horses —a QH at the time and an OTTB—had no problem with the mallet and although they were green at polo, we had two lessons a week and a lot of fun. I rode in my H/J saddle, chaps, and barn boots and my own helmet. No need to spring for all the pricy big gear when you start. You’ll start at a walk and trot and learn different strokes. If you have a good H/J seat, you’ve got a lot of the control part licked.
I’ll tell you about polo. It’s a really good way to spend about 150K a year. The people I know who play polo have a pro, at least twelve horses and have a friend who has the same that they pair up with for matches. If you can ride with someone and not do that, kudos!
You don’t have to do that to take a few lessons at the club, though. They provide the pony, tack, and specialized equipment. It’s not cheap cheap at $150 a lesson. But that’s really not bad considering the level of specialization and that you’d pay almost as much for a lesson with good eventer.
They’re probably spending far more than 150k to have operations like that, haha.
There are are countless ways to play polo and not have to put in for a huge operation like that. Most large clubs have leagues and horse rentals for people who cannot/do not want to commit to owning that many horses or employing anyone full time.
Polo is super fun… I’m sure legit polo is even better. Since I moved to cowboy central, I have learned ‘cowboy’ polo… it’s bascially how the DH and friends make sure they have super ‘broke horses’ we use one of those kid blow up balls from Walmart…
Mallets are super heavy… at least for my weak self. I was riding my hubbys 16.2 draft cross too… about 10 minutes later I was over it.
I played a little indoor polo in college. At the time, I was a saddleseat rider, and another girl on the team was a hunt seat rider. We both actually had a harder time than the guy on our team who had never ridden. We were trying to equitate, and he just went bombing around! :lol:
