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.

Words: 252

Alejandra Treviño A01280206 Group: 301

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