Polo Argentino

We went to a polo match yesterday. First time I’ve ever been. I wish I had read up on the rules ahead of time. There’s not that many, but it would have been nice to know how fouls were caused.

The game is very interesting, consisting of 8 periods of 7 minutes each – they change horses every 7 minutes – it’s grueling on them, running back and forth all the time. I watched a video before leaving in which a player said that the game is 80-90% horse, and I can believe it. Those horses were very responsive to their rider, didn’t flinch at all when they were hit by a ball, and obeyed every command. We even enjoyed watching the horses which were about to go into the match be ridden and stretched as they ran alongside the field.

I can’t imagine what it would take to sponsor a polo team – four men, eight periods makes for 32 horses – plus a couple of backups. They say each team has between forty and fifty horses! Quite the expensive sport that caters to an elite world.

And what an elite world it is! I was amazed at the variety of people who showed up for the match. I heard more English – all types of accents – more there than anywhere else in Argentina. There were people dressed up, but others who weren’t, which surprised me. Between the two fields vendors have set up shop, offering all sorts of polo related paraphernalia for sale. And there were free samples of many items.

Polo has big name sponsors – BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz, famous wine houses, Rolex, private “countrys" (gated communities for the really rich), banks, jewelry companies, and OMINT, a health insurance company here in Argentina – our host for the day. 

Bryon last week had received an email stating that OMINT was raffling off two tickets for the polo matches, and you had to reply to enter, which he did. Two hours later he received an email telling him that he had won! The tickets arrived via courier mail the next day and we headed down yesterday afternoon to see our first polo match.

OMINT had a booth set up to offer food, drinks, promotional health aids – sunscreen, aloe vera, etc. And so we enjoyed a free coffee and snacks on the house. All in all it was an experience that I enjoyed and would love to repeat some day.