Polo is a hard sport, played usually by hard men. It is fast, dangerous and requires considerable aggression. The players wear stern expressions and their firm-set mouths are the source of regular expletives in both Spanish and English. The polo field is not a place for the faint-hearted.
So what happens when you run a ladies tournament as happened last weekend at Polo Escape? Well, first of all there was no bad language. In fact the ladies were unfailingly polite to each other.
“I’m so sorry, did I get in your way?’ “Gosh, did I just stove in the skull of your pony with my mallet?”
And they appeared to be generally enjoying the experience a whole lot more. As a photographer, this made the capture of expressions much more rewarding, as there was some variation compared to the “I’m going to rip out your eyes and eat them” look that is universally employed by the men. Some examples:
As for the actual polo, well they played almost as vigorously as the men. I have more than a few photos illustrating this, but in deference to Pete’s request not to publish “a gazillion pictures of some four-legged creatures who think they’re immune to fucking gravity”, here a just a handful:
But don’t think that’s the end of it, there’s another tournament starting tomorrow….