Necessary Roughness with Kisha is a sports blog that focuses on football, both college and professional. However, no topic is off limits.

Before I go into my recent adventure to a polo match, I wanted to share with you guys one of the COOLEST things I’ve ever been asked to do in the name of sports: Film an aha moment.
If you guys aren’t familiar with what this is, I talked about it in further detail in the prior post.  In short, it’s a campaign created by Mutual of Omaha in support of people who follow their dreams and passions.  As you all know, I’ve always had a love affair with sports and this proved it.

Drum roll please!  Here it is everyone, my aha moment.  They even titled it so perfectly: sports fan woman.  (Click right on the picture to get to the entire video!)

Necessary Roughness: My aha idea!

Thanks to everyone who have ever listened to my rants, gone to a sports bar or been dragged to a sporting event with me.  I love you all

Now onto the polo match!

Living in the East Coast has introduced me to sports we never had growing up in South Texas.  Among lacrosse and sailing, polo was another sport that I have only heard about but never had the chance to ever really watch in person.  To my excitement, they still help polo matches in New England!  Early in the week, I received some enticing information about an International Polo match taking place in Portsmouth, Rhode Island which is only a convenient 45 minute drive from Providence. Turns out there is an actual Newport Polo Club and they hold matches every Saturday in the summertime.  With my sister Kara on board for actually attending the match, we started the preparation process.  Of course, being the planner that I am, I did research on the sport.  Ask me about spread offenses or the difference between a 3-4 or 4-3 defense and I could talk your ear off, but ask my what a “period” is called in Polo? I was clueless.  Thanks to YouTube and some awesome videos with heavy accents to help me get the gist of the sport.  Of course, I checked out Wikipedia to see how the site defined it.

[ from Wikipedia] Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team’s goal using a long-handled mallet. The traditional sport of polo is played at speed on a large grass field up to 300 yards in length, and each polo team consists of four riders and their mounts.

This was a pretty sufficient way to briefly describe the sport.  I was interested in the actual sport and how it was played, my sister Kara on the other hand was more concerned about our outfits and wanted to make sure that we dressed appropriately for the event.  As silly as it may sound, we legitimately googled “Polo match attire” and hundreds of photos came up of Prince Harry and Prince William and their lovely lady friends attending/competing in polo matches.  There were also various photos of people dressing terribly at polo matches. We tried to shoot for right in the middle: Fancy enough to fit in but not too bland.  This is what we came up with:

Classy but fabulous!

Not too bad at all if I do say so myself.  It was such a beautiful day on Saturday that we decided to head over to the match early to find a nice plot of land to set up camp for the match.  To my surprise we forgot to bring a blanket but since it was our first match, the wonderful sponsors of Lufthansa gave us a goodie bag with a very nice, waterproof picnic blanket.  We were impressed.

As we settled in with our Del’s in hand (a New England summertime specialty), the polo players came charging out on their mighty steeds to warm up.  This is where the entire ambiance of the sport really began to settle in.  I’ve become so accustomed to hearing loud, overplayed top 40′s hits as football players warm up that the calmness at this warm up came as a surprise.  There were some light clapping as each team came onto to the field but there were cowbells or air horns here.  Just waves of blankets, picnics and people enjoying a nice glass of chardonnay with their imported French cheeses.

Wicked fancy.

Before you think that only fancy, snooty people attend these events, you are greatly mistaken.  There were groups of families, friends and just curious visitors in attendance.  Not mention, there were so many dogs in attendance as well. It seemed to be a perfect activity for a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

The sport itself is an amazing thing to watch.  The sound of the ponies charging down a field with their riders swinging around a elongated mallet aiming for an almost miniature white ball.  What really amazed me was the fact that with eight riders on the field going after a single ball, there were no drastic collisions.   One of my favorite parts of the match was during halftime (after the third Chukka) the crowd is invited to get onto the field to take part in the traditional “Divot Stomping”..yes, just like in Pretty Woman.  It was such a  great time!

Stompin' them divots!

By the end of the match, I’ve become quite familiar with the sport and began to understand the offensive and defensive strategies and that’s when it became even more entertaining to watch.  I would highly recommend attending a polo match sometime in the near future.  It’s a great experience for any sports fan and also makes for a killer date   Just don’t forget the wine, cheese and blankets.

Some interesting things I learned during the match:

Chukkas – The 7 minute intervals of a match, there are 6 total in a match ( Similar to periods or quarters)

All polo players are right handed

The polo field is 300 yards long