A full-size polo playing field should be about 300 yards long and 175 to 200 yards wide, and it should have boards on the side that are six to 10 inches high. Discover the importance of a level and lush playing field with help from the secretary of a polo club in this free video on the polo playing field.
Hi, I'm Cyrus Confectioner, Secretary of Calcutta Polo Club, one of the oldest polo clubs in the world. I'm going to give you a little bit of background about the polo playing field. A full size field is about three hundred yards long and either two hundred yards to around hundred and seventy five yards wide. There are boards on the side and these are between six inches to ten inches high. The field should be absolutely level and absolutely lush so that the horses and the riders stay protected and firm while this fast-paced game is going on. In the ancient city of Isfahan in what was those times in Persia a polo field was built in front of the Ali Ghapu Palace by Shah Abbas the Great, who ruled around 1585 to around 1630. Today, it is still used as a public park and is the same size as a modern polo field with its original stone goalposts still in place. You can see the field, lush field at the back. At the end of the two sides of the field are the goalposts. The goalposts are approximately ten to twelve feet in height, as you can see, and they are tall collapsible goalposts at each end of the fields spread about eighty yards apart. The object of the game is simple. It is to score most goals by hitting the ball between these posts. Ends are changed after a goal is scored, generally. The game has four quarters. You can use four ponies, you know, one in each quarter because it is a very tiring sport and the ponies are pushed to their limits. There are typically; therefore, about four to eight ponies per players. The group of ponies given to each player are commonly referred to as a string of polo ponies, with a minimum of two to three ponies in local matches. Locals are the slightly lesser matches, and four or more in a medium goal, and even more in the maximum highest level of competition where the maximum goals can go up to eight and ten. The sides of the field, as you will observe, have got a board which is ten to twelve inches high. This keeps the ball in play and doesn't allow it to go out from the side, making the game much more faster. Thank you.
