Recap: Polo Variations

Hi people! On today's blog post I decided to make a little recap in order to make it easier for you to find all the kinds of polo in just one post, and with fewer information. Well, first I need to define polo, which is an ancient equestrian sport originated in the Middle Eastern country of Persia, about two thousand years ago. In this sport you basically have to move the ball downfield with a long, flexible mallet and get it through the opposite’s team goal (Sport Polo). However, some people found it hard to enjoy this sport because they didn’t have horses, or because the weather in their countries wasn't good, etcetera. This is why they invented some polo variations, in order to keep enjoying this sport, but with little changes. This is how they created:

-Segway Polo: This is the "geek" version of polo, which is played with Segway PT’s instead of horses. It was invented in 2004 (BASEG).

-Bikepolo: If you want to stay in shape while you play polo, you should play bikepolo. This sport is played with bikes instead of horses, obviously. (Wikipedia, bikepolo).

-Elephant Polo: This sport is played with elephants instead of horses. Probably the weirdest polo variation I found. (WEPA).

-Snow Polo: This sport is played in places like Canada or Switzerland, where it snows really often. (WSP)

-Pato: Pato is a game played with horses that combines elements from polo and, believe it or not, basketball. It is Argentina's national sport (Wikipedia, Pato)

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Alejandra Treviño Lozano A01280206

BASEG. "Bay Area Segway Enthusiasts Group." Bay Area Segway Enthusiasts Group. 2008. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.

Sport Polo. "The Equestrian Sport of Polo." Equestrian Sport of Polo. 2011. Web. 16 Aug. 2011. .

Wikipedia. "Cycle Polo." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Sept. 2011.

WEPA. "Nepal, Travel, Elephant Polo, Adventure Sports, Chitwan, Tournament, World Association." World Elephant Polo Association. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

WSP. Aspen World Snow Polo Official Website. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.

Wikipedia. "Pato." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 Oct. 2011.

Polo Ponies

Have you ever wondered what makes a polo horse (or better said, polo pony) different from normal horses, like racing horses, or field horses? Well, on today's post I'm going to tell you the characteristics of a polo pony, or better said, what makes them different from regular horses.

In polo, the two most important things are the player, who needs to have great skills, and also the polo pony. Sometimes, the winner itself is the one who has the best horses.

First of all, it is important to understand that polo ponies are not recognized as a distinct breed. However, they are considered unique horses because they combine the traits of different breeds.

The equestrian sport of polo demands extremely fast and obedient horses, as well as strong. Arabian horses are normally preferred because of their intelligence that helps in the strategic part of the match. However, sometimes intelligence is not enough. That's why Quarter horses are also used because their agility. Also, for speed, Thoroughbred horses are chosen. This difference of skills in the horses is the main reason why people started breeding horses, an activity that started in 1893 in England.

In the United States, people usually breed Thoroughbred horses and Quarter horses to produce better ponies, which have more agility and speed. However, the best polo ponies in the world are produced in Argentina, since year 1930. The Argentines cross Thoroughbred horses with Criollo horses (the local horses).

It is important to add that polo ponies must be trained to create a perfect polo horse.

Alejandra Treviño Lozano A01280206

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Bibliography: Sport Polo. "What Is a Polo Pony." Equestrian Sport of Polo. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. .

Polo, Ralph Lauren

On earlier posts I've talked about Polo as a sport, and its derivations. However on today's post, to change things a little, I'm going to talk about the clothes brand Polo (Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation). Polo is a sport and luxury-clothing brand, company of the American fashion designer Ralph Lauren. This brand specializes in creating casual and semi-formal clothes for men and women. It also makes accessories and fragrances for both genders (Wikipedia).

This brand was made in 1967 by Ralph Lifshitz (later Ralph Lauren). Two years later he opened a store in Manhattan, and in the same year he made a line of women suits with a man style, which was made characteristic of the brand. However, these clothes were sold just in the United States until 1981, when the brand became global with its first international store, which was made in London. In 1933, the sports line was launched, and five years later the company went public (Wikipedia).

Then, the brand started producing accessories, fragrances, and furniture. As it was said before, the brand Polo was launched in 1967 and it was specialized in creating casual clothes, but it also created clothes for polo players. Since then, the brand has expanded to include some other types of clothing like rugby or golf clothes (Wikipedia).

Nowadays, the brand has over 35 stores only in the United States, and its revenues reach 4.2 billion dollars. The brand has sponsored some important events, like Wimbledon or the US Open (Tennis championships). It is also the favorite brand of some PGA and LPGA (golf) players like Tom Watson or Davis Love III (Wikipedia).

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Alejandra Treviño A01280206

Bibliography: Wikipedia. "Polo Ralph Lauren." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. .

Polo + Basketball = Pato

On today's post I'm going to talk about Pato, Argentina's national sport. But you may wonder, what does this has to do with polo? Well, Pato is a game played with horses that combines elements from polo and, believe it or not, basketball (Wikipedia).

Pato has been played since 1610, and originally it was played with a duck, which was put inside a basket and used as a ball. This explains why the game is called "Pato" or "Duck" in English. However, Pato was banned several times during its history, mainly because of its violence, not only to the ducks, but also because of the aggressions it generated in the players. In the 1930's Pato was regulated by the rules made by the ranch owner Alberto del Castillo Posse, who made some rules inspired in polo. In this rules, we can find protection of the players and the horse, the divisions of time, and some other rules that are similar to the original Polo regulations. In 1953 president Juan Perón declared Pato as the national sport of Argentina (Wikipedia)

In today's Pato, two four-member teams try to get possession of a ball (not a duck anymore) which has six handles, so they can catch it easily. After they get this ball, they have to throw it through a vertically positioned ring with a diameter of 100 cm and a height of 240 cm. The dimensions of the field are approximately the same size as in polo (Wikipedia).

However, this game is not very popular yet. It is estimated that 90% of Argentineans have not seen a Pato match in their lives; even this is the country's national sport (Wikipedia).

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Alejandra Treviño A01280206

Bibliography: Wikipedia. "Pato." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. .

Snow Polo

Imagine places like Canada or Switzerland, where it snows really often. Obviously when this happens, fields get covered in snow, so many normal activities like playing soccer or running get done, but quite differently. The same thing happens with polo, or better-said snow polo, the polo variation I'm going to talk in this post.

Snow Polo was introduced in 1985 at the resort town of St. Moritz in Switzerland. No one knows certainly who created the sport, but it was obviously someone who really liked polo, and who didn't let snow stop him from enjoying this sport. In Snow polo, is important to check snow is equally distributed along the field. Teams are formed of three players, like in regular polo, and the game is divided in four seven-minute chukkers. The horses are prepared quite differently, because they are shod with special cleated shoes to provide better performance. The Snow Polo ball is bigger and lighter, and also red so it can be easily seen in the snow (WSP).

In the United States, snow polo is exclusively played in Aspen, Colorado, due to the large amount of snow the place normally has. Every year, the World Snow Polo Championship takes place to join thousands of spectators and even celebrities who enjoy the sport of Snow Polo. This year, the 11th Annual USPA World Snow Polo Championship will take place in Aspen in winter. Fans and players besides snow polo can enjoy the multiple attractions of the place like luxury restaurants and skiing (WSP).

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Alejandra Treviño Lozano A01280206

Bibliography: WSP. Aspen World Snow Polo Official Website. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. .

Elephant Polo

Since I started this blog about polo, I have found that there are many weird and crazy ways to play this sport. To mention some examples of crazy polo variations we can find Segway polo, or even bicycle polo, variations that I mentioned in earlier posts. On today's post, I’m going to talk about another variation I found, and probably the weirdest one so far: ELEPHANT POLO. This sport was played in India since the beginning of the twentieth century, and is obviously played with elephants instead of horses (Wikipedia). However, it wasn't considered a sport until 1982 when the World Elephant Polo Association was founded. This association controls international elephant polo games and tournaments, because even though this sport was played before the association, it wasn't an organized sport (WEPA).

This sport is very complicated, even more than regular polo. This is because they use the regular size ball, and due to the height of the elephant, they have to use a nine-foot mallet to hit the tiny ball. Also, the field is smaller due to the slower speed of the elephants compared to horses. Each elephant is steered by two "mahouts" (the person who drives the elephant), who have to be extremely careful, because if they fall, even with protection they could suffer severe injuries because of the height of the elephant, not to mention its weight in a possible trampling (Wikipedia). The number of elephants in the pitch varies from four to six, depending on the field size (WEPA).

Alejandra Treviño A01280206

Words: 252

Sources:

WEPA. "Nepal, Travel, Elephant Polo, Adventure Sports, Chitwan, Tournament, World Association." World Elephant Polo Association. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. .

Wikipedia. "Elephant Polo." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. .

Bikepolo

On my last post I talked about Segway polo, which is one of the many polo variations that have been invented since the sport was made famous. In this post, I will talk about another interesting polo variation I found: Bicycle polo.

Bicycle Polo is a kind of polo that is played with bikes instead of horses, obviously. This was made because most people weren’t able to maintain a horse; that is because they require a lot of care and time to be healthy, and even more to be trained to play polo. Richard J. Mecredy invented this game in 1891. The first "Bikepolo" (that is the name the sport is usually given) match was played in Ireland in the year 1891, but people really didn’t pay attention to it until a decade later. It wasn’t until 1908 when the sport was made famous worldwide because it was shown as an exhibition game on the London Olympic Games. Since then, the sport was made popular in England, France, Canada, and specially the United States and India. The first international championship took place in 1996, in the United States. Most bikepolo fans say that the best country in the world when it comes to bikepolo is India.

The rules of bikepolo are basically the same as normal polo. However, evidently the outfit changes, because the riders no longer wear boots (which would be very uncomfortable) and instead they wear sneakers. Also, they use a different helmet, which is actually a regular biking helmet.

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Alejandra Treviño A01280206 Group: 301

Bibliography: Wikipedia. "Cycle Polo." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. .

Segway Polo

Do you think it is essential to have a horse to play polo? Well, maybe it’s not. Many variations of polo have been created since this sport became famous. Overall, this happened because most people were not able to get or maintain horses.

One of these variations is the Segway Polo, which is played with Segway PT’s instead of horses. Although some people tried to play polo with Segways before, it wasn’t until July 2004 that this sport was made popular and official by the Bay Area Segway Enthusiasts Group, a unit that tries to increase knowledge and acceptance of Segway transports (BASEG).

The responsible of the creation of this sport is Jonathan van Clute, a member of the group before mentioned, who suggested they should play polo with Segways. To make this possible, van Clute needed the help of Alex Ko, who created special PVC mallets for the Segways (Folsom Breakout).

Soon enough, people who played Segway Polo realized they needed some rules to make the game more organized. These rules were made in 2007 and continue to be refined by the ISPA (International Segway Polo Association) Committee (Folsom Breakout). The basic rules of the Segway Polo are very simple:

• There are two teams of five players each, trying to get the ball through the opposite’s team goal.
• Each match is divided in four eight-minute chukkers.
• The mallet must be held only with the right hand at all times.
• The ball can only be hit with the mallet. Only if a goal gets scored accidentally with the body or the Segway can be counted. Also, goals are counted when the ball was hit with the mallet.
• A player can’t go in another player’s way if doing so could cause a collision.
• The size of the field must be 200 feet by 128 feet. Also, the goal must be 8 feet wide by 5 feet high (ISPA).

Polo Segway can be a young sport, however, there has been increasing interests in playing this sport in the United States, New Zealand, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria (ISPA).

Alejandra Treviño A01280206.

352 words.

Bibliography

BASEG. "Bay Area Segway Enthusiasts Group." Bay Area Segway Enthusiasts Group. 2008. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.

Folsom Breakout. "Historiy of Segway Polo." Folsom Breakout Segway Polo Club. 2010. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.

ISPA. "About Segway Polo." ISPA The Home of International Segway Polo. 2011. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.

The Perfect Polo Outfit

As we can all suppose, polo is a very elegant and traditional sport that was formalized by the British, who made it popular among the elites. That said, don’t expect to be taken seriously in polo (if you ever want to play it properly) wearing a typical sports outfit and sneakers. There are some etiquette rules you need to follow if you want to be taken seriously in this sport. Also, some of this equipment is strictly necessary for safety reasons.

The rider of the horse rigorously needs to wear a helmet and knee wards for protection. Also boots reaching the height of the knee are necessary, as well as mallets. The mallet is a 51-inch long bamboo handle with a woodenhead. The shape and color of the handle can change depending on the team’s preferences. As you may imagine, polo shirts derive from this sport. Polo shirts were made in the 1800’s especially for this sport, and began being long sleeve shirts. Then, it became sort of a trend and lots of brands surged using this clothing style.

The horse also has its own equipment needs. Every pony horse in a formal polo game must use bridles, blankets, wraps and one saddle.

The polo ball nowadays is usually made of hard plastic. However, on the beginning, they were made of wood. The size of the ball must be within the limits of 3 to 3.5 inches in diameter and 3.5 to 4.5 ounces in weight.

Remember, polo is not an easy sport. Knowing how to ride the horse and play it is just the first step. You need to buy all this equipment, in order to play it properly.

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Sources:

Sport Polo. "Characteristics of a Polo Ball." Equestrian Sport of Polo. Web. 23 Aug. 2011. .

Everything Polo. "Polo Equipment." Polo Sport. Polo Ponies, Holidays, Equipment Etc. Web. 23 Aug. 2011.

Alejandra Treviño A01280206 Group: 301

What is Polo?

Polo is an ancient equestrian sport originated in the Middle Eastern country of Persia, about two thousand years ago. The word “polo” means “ball” in Balti, a language that is spoken in Pakistan. The sport was introduced to Europe when the British colonized India and spread it around the world. In its origins, mostly kings and warriors who were preparing their horses for battle played polo.

The main purpose of the game is to move the ball downfield with a long, flexible mallet and get it through the opposite’s team goal. This may seem quite difficult, but the real hard work lies on the horses. “Polo ponies”, which is the name polo horses are given, start training at the age of two or three, and are selected for agility, speed, and above all, obedience.

Polo is normally played outdoors in a field that is 300 yards long and 160 yards wide, making it the largest field in organized sport. There are two teams of three or four people on a match. Each player rides a polo pony while holding a mallet, trying to hit a ball with the size of a small football reaching speeds of 110 miles per hour up to the other’s goal. Polo is played in periods called “chukkers” (or chukkas). Each chukker lasts seven minutes, and there are six chukkers per game. This may not seem much, but a regular polo match can last up to two hours. There’s also a half time in which spectators go down to the field and take part in a social tradition called "Divot Stomping".

265 words.

Sources:

Sport Polo. "The Equestrian Sport of Polo." Equestrian Sport of Polo. 2011. Web. 16 Aug. 2011. .

Wise Geek. "What Is Polo?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. 2011. Web. 16 Aug. 2011.