Horses and humans team up during polo matches

The athletes pawed the ground nervously, huddling in the shade of their trailer before the start of the match. They tossed their heads and stamped their hooves in a show of competitive spirit as riders climbed onto their backs and trotted onto the field.

Whether horse or human, polo is a sport that gets everyone’s adrenaline pumping, said Bob Zelnio, 58, a Unionville, Pa., resident and Brandywine Polo club member.
Located in Kennett Square, the club holds matches every Sunday throughout the summer.

During a game, two teams of four players each try to score by hitting a ball with a mallet between goal posts at either end of the field. The field is the size of nine football fields, and the horses tear it up as their hooves beat the ground. The mallets are 50-inch bamboo stalks, and the players swing them in strong arcs to get as much speed and distance on the ball as possible.

While polo may seem like an obscure sport, people have played it for thousands of years all around the world. Today, it is most popular in South America, said Dixon Stroud, president of Brandywine Polo. It has remained popular locally because, with a farm on almost every corner, it is horse country. And it provides a competitive equestrian activity for horse-lovers, said Stroud, 62, of Kennett Square.

"Horses make the sport unique," said Stroud. Each one plays the game a little bit differently. Some back off when they approach a ball, others do not like turning a certain direction. A rider must be aware of a horse’s personality, or the game will be much more difficult, he said.

The difficult part of polo is maneuvering the horse into a position where the rider can hit the ball, said Zelnio. No rider can cross the path of the ball, so they must approach the ball from behind or from the side and drive it up the field with their mallets.

The game is a contact sport, which adds an interesting element, he said. Players are allowed to use their horses to push other players out of the way, use their shoulders to bump opponents and hook mallets to prevent others from hitting the ball.

Riders do wear helmets and horses wear shin protectors, but it is important to keep a horse out of a situation where it could fall or be hit by a mallet, Zelnio said. If horse and rider both stay focused on the game, no one should be hurt, he said.

Focus is important, but so is athleticism, said Martin Garzaron, who has played polo for 35 years. A rider must have excellent hand-eye coordination and near-perfect timing, and a horse must be fast and agile to be a skilled polo player, said Garzaron, 40, a Chadds Ford resident.

When everything comes together, Garzaron said polo is a sport like no other.

"It is a wide open field out there," he said. "Horses are beautiful animals, and in polo you can really enjoy them.”