A Beginners Guide to Polo: Rules, Season and More

Every year in November Buenos Aires holds the Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo (Argentine Open Polo Championship). Games will be held every Saturday and Sunday through roughly early December when the championship match will be played. A day at the polo field is a real treat, with promotional freebies served before the game (did someone say champagne?) and great people watching to boot! Only problem for some is that this game can be really confusing for the first-timer.

So grab a ticket, and before heading out to the field, be sure to review this quick guide to the game of polo.

To book Buenos Aires polo tickets, lessons or an estancia experience check out the polo section-

Basic rules of polo

-Each polo team is made up of four players

-Polo teams score points for hitting the ball through the goal posts.

-The match begins when the umpire throws the ball into the field. The same happens after each goal is scored, as well as after each chukker (period).

-Polo matches are divided into periods called chukkers. Each chukker lasts 7 minutes. Each game consists of 6, 7 or 8 chukkers depending on the importance of the tournament.

-A bell is rung at the end of each chukker, but play continues after the bell until the ball either goes out of play, the umpire calls a foul, or the bell is rung a second time (30 seconds after the initial bell). This is true for all chukkers, except for the final period. In this last chukker, the final bell is just that.

-Teams take a 3 minute break between chuckers to change ponies. At halftime, this break is extended to 5 minutes.

-Polo matches are governed by 3 officials: two umpires on horseback, one referee at midfield outside who has the final say in disputes between the two umpires.

Polo fouls and penalties

-During play, there is an imaginary “line of ball,” which is the path of the ball in the direction it is traveling. Once a player has established position along that line of ball, it may not be crossed by an opposing player if there is any risk of collision.

-Any player who crosses the path of the player that has right of way, close enough to be dangerous, or that causes the player to slow down, has committed a foul.

-Players may push members of the opposing team off his course, whether he is playing the ball or not. But this must not be done by charging in at a dangerous angle.

-A player can hook an opponent’s stick, so long as he is on the same side of the opponent as the ball, or directly behind him, and provided the stick is below the level of the opponent’s shoulder.

-Penalty shots differ according to the severity of the foul, but are either shot from 30, 40 or 60 yards to the goal posts, from the center of the ground, or a free hit from the spot where the foul was made.

More confusing rules and fun polo facts
-After a goal is scored, polo teams switch directions, in order to compensate for potential wind and/or turf conditions.

-Players typically switch horses between chukkers (periods). In important matches, such as those placed at the Argentine Open, players may also change horses during the chukker. This is done in order to avoid any undue stress on the polo ponies. With each game consisting of as many as 8 chukkers and 4 players per team, players during this tournament use an average of 14 horses!