A Saturday with Pam and Brent Part I

The highlight of my parents’ visit to Buenos Aires was our day together two Saturdays ago split between going to Tortugas to see a polo match and that night going to see a tango performance!

My parents had wanted to see an Argentine polo match for two reasons. First, none of us had ever seen polo before and second, we’d heard that the best polo players in the world come from Argentina. So my parents treated us to tickets to the match and an English-speaking guide to explain this very strange sport to us. Ezeqiel spoke to my parents and other guests in English, but explained the game to me in Spanish, which I appreciated.

So here’s the interesting stuff I learned about the game. Two teams were facing off on a field much larger than a football pitch on horseback, four players against four. The object of the game is to put the bolcha (white wooden sphere the size of a baseball) through two posts on the opponents’ side. The four players each bring as many as TEN horses with them that are bred and trained to play polo! Each horse comes with a taco (the mallet made of cane) of the appropriate length for that horse’s height above the field. So when players switch horses, they change mallets too. Swinging the tacos can be dangerous, so the referee on horseback tending to the game is the judge of which player has called “the line.” When a player has the linea or line, no opponent can cross the path ahead where the player will strike the bolcha. 

The level of play of this semi-final match was the highest in the world – the handicap system ranks players internationally on a 1 -10 scale (10 being highest). The team in black jerseys was made up of all 10s, and it showed – their agility with their horses and long shots with the bolcha were impressive. Seated right on the side of the field, it was absolutely thrilling to be hear the hooves of the horses converge on our side of the field to chase after the bolcha as the shouts of the players grew louder. As beautiful as the horses were and interesting the game were, I think I’ll remain more of a basketball spectator… Would rather wear my HOYA SAXA shirt to a sporting event than an oxford.