The words you will hear on the sidelines, from appealing to the zone, plus our Argentine phrasebook, rude words and all.
Most of the world’s best players, grooms and ponies come from Argentina, so Spanish is the real working language of high-goal polo, from Palermo to Cowdray. Stand near the pony lines at any big English tournament and you will hear more Rioplatense Spanish than English. Here is your phrasebook, from the shouts on the field to the words you should probably not repeat in the Royal Box.
¡Mía! “Mine!” I’ve got the ball, keep out of my way.
¡Tuya! “Yours!” Go on, it’s your ball.
¡Dejala! “Leave it!” Ride past and let a team-mate take it.
¡Pegale! “Hit it!” Usually shouted by someone who thinks you have waited far too long.
¡Llevala! “Take it!” Dribble on, carry the ball forward yourself.
¡El hombre! “The man!” Forget the ball, mark your opponent.
¡Marcalo! “Mark him!” Stick to your man like glue.
¡Dale! “Go on!” or “Come on!” The all-purpose Argentine encouragement.
¡Vamos! “Let’s go!” Shouted between chukkas, after goals and generally whenever morale needs it.
¡Cuidado! “Careful!” Something, or someone, is coming.
Petiso: A polo pony. Literally “shorty”, from the days when polo ponies really were small.
Petisero: The groom who looks after the ponies, and arguably the most important person on the team. A good petisero is worth his weight in gold.
Taco: The polo stick or mallet.
Taquero: The craftsman who makes and repairs sticks.
Bocha: The ball.
Cancha: The polo field. Palermo’s Cancha 1 is the cathedral of polo.
Palenque: The hitching rail where ponies wait between chukkas.
Estancia: A country estate or ranch, where most Argentine polo ponies are bred and made.
Mate: The bitter herbal tea passed around in a gourd at every pony line. Accepting one is polite; saying “gracias” means you have had enough.
Asado: The Argentine barbecue that follows almost any match worth playing.
Che: “Hey, mate.” The most Argentine word there is.
Parental advisory: the following are heard on polo fields every weekend. We take no responsibility if you use them on your patron.
Boludo: “Idiot.” Rude, but between friends almost affectionate. “Che, boludo” can simply mean “hey, mate”. Shouted after a missed penalty, it is definitely not affectionate.
Pelotudo: Boludo’s bigger, angrier brother. If you hear this, you have really messed up.
Choto: A milder put-down, roughly “useless”. Often aimed at a pony that refuses to turn.
Forro: “Jerk.” Reserved for the opponent who just crossed the line of the ball and got away with it.
¡Carajo! “Damn it!” The classic all-purpose curse after a miss.
¡La puta madre! Literally a remark about someone’s mother, in practice the Argentine equivalent of a very loud expletive. Heard after almost every missed goal at Palermo.
¡Qué hacés! “What are you doing?!” Said with outstretched arms to a team-mate. Usually followed by one of the words above.
Referí vendido: “The ref’s been bought.” The eternal cry of the losing side, aimed at the umpires.
Appealing: Players claiming a foul, usually by raising their sticks above their heads. Over-demonstrative appealing is considered bad form.
Back: The number 4 in a polo team is almost always called the back rather than by number.
Ball: Traditionally white, about 3.5 inches across and made of hard plastic (wooden balls were the norm for many years). On snow a coloured ball is used.
Bell or hooter: Sounded by the timekeeper to tell the umpires that seven minutes of a chukka have passed.
Boludo: A Spanish word shouted, generally by high-handicap South American players, at team-mates who have made a mistake. Loosely translated, it means “idiot”, and it is not a term of endearment. Choto is a milder rebuke you may hear just as often. English players copy both enthusiastically, if not always the polo skills that go with them.
Bump: A player may ride into an opponent to spoil a shot or push them off the line. The angle of contact must be shallow: the faster the ponies are going, the smaller the angle must be.
Chukka: A period of play lasting seven minutes, plus up to 30 seconds of extra time in which play stops as soon as the ball goes out or the umpire blows for a foul. High-goal matches in the UK have six chukkas. Players change ponies between chukkas. The word comes from the Hindi for a circle or round.
Divots: Lumps of turf kicked up by the ponies’ hooves. See treading in.
Ends: The back lines of the pitch. Teams change ends after every goal so that neither side benefits for long from wind, sun or slope.
Field: A full-size polo field is up to 300 yards long and 160 yards wide if boarded, or 200 yards if not. The goal posts are eight yards apart and are designed to collapse on impact.
Goal: Scored whenever the ball crosses the line between the posts at any height, whoever or whatever knocks it through, including a pony.
Handicap: Every player is rated from -2 to 10 goals, 10 being the best. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with goals scored: it reflects horsemanship, hitting, speed, tactics and game sense. A team’s handicap is the sum of its four players. In handicap matches over six chukkas, the lower-rated team starts with the difference in goals, so a 22-goal team gives a 20-goal team a two-goal start. Over fewer chukkas the start is scaled down proportionally.
High-goal: The top level of the game. The leading English tournaments are played at up to 22 goals, while teams at the Argentine Open can be rated as high as 40.
Hired assassin: Slang for a professional player.
Hook: A player on the same side of an opponent’s pony as the ball may block their swing by hooking the opponent’s stick with their own.
HPA: The Hurlingham Polo Association, the governing body of polo in the UK and Ireland. Its officials are called stewards.
Intermediate, medium and low goal: Rough bands below high-goal. Low-goal teams total around 8 goals or less, medium-goal around 12 to 15 and intermediate somewhere in between. Exact bands vary by country and tournament.
Intervals: Short rest periods between chukkas, with a longer break at half time.
Judges: Goal judges stand behind each goal, wave a flag when a goal is scored and signal when a shot has gone wide. Hard hats are advisable.
Knock-in: If the attacking side hits the ball over the back line, the defending side restarts with a free hit from the line, rather like a goal kick in football.
Line of the ball: The imaginary line along which the ball travels. It gives right of way to the player following closest to it, and crossing it in front of that player is the commonest foul in polo.
Mallet or stick: A cane or composite shaft with a hardwood head. The ball is struck with the long side of the head, not the end as in croquet. Sticks are usually 48 to 54 inches long, depending on the height of the pony.
Millionaire’s shot: A shot played very close to, or under, the pony’s legs or belly. It needs great timing to avoid hitting the pony, and the joke is that only a millionaire with plenty of spare ponies would risk it.
Near side: The left-hand side of the pony.
Neck shot: Hitting the ball under the pony’s neck.
Off side: The right-hand side of the pony. There is no offside rule in polo.
Out of bounds: When the ball crosses the side line or boards, the umpire bowls it in between the two teams lined up at the point where it went out.
Patron: A wealthy amateur who funds a team, usually playing alongside two or more professionals. Teams are often named after the patron’s house, company or a passing whim.
Penalty: A free hit awarded for a foul, taken from a distance that depends on how serious the foul was. A Penalty 1 is an automatic goal; Penalties 2 and 3 are hit at an undefended goal from 30 and 40 yards; a Penalty 4 is from 60 yards with defenders; Penalty 5 is taken from the spot or the centre of the field.
Ponies: Always called ponies, although most are horses, typically 15 to 15.3 hands high. Many are Argentine-bred thoroughbreds or crosses, prized for speed, stamina, quick turns and a cool head. Players say the pony accounts for most of their performance.
Positions: Number 1 is the main attacker, number 2 a hard-working forward, number 3 the playmaker and usually the strongest player, and number 4, the back, the chief defender. Polo is fluid, so players swap places constantly, but they try to return to their roles.
Ride off: Two players riding side by side, shoulder to shoulder, each trying to push the other off the line of the ball. The ponies do most of the pushing; players may use their bodies but not their elbows.
Ringer: A player or pony performing far above their rating.
Safety (Penalty 6): Awarded when a defender hits the ball over their own back line. The attacking side takes a free hit 60 yards out, opposite where the ball went over: polo’s version of a corner.
Side boards: Low boards along the side lines that keep the ball in play. Not every ground has them.
Tail shot: Hitting the ball behind the pony and under its tail.
Third man: The referee on the side line who settles any disagreement between the two mounted umpires.
Time out: Called by the umpire for a foul, an accident or at their discretion. A player may ask for one for broken tack or injury, but not to change ponies or sticks, which they can do at any time without stopping play.
Treading in: Stamping the divots back into the pitch at half time. Spectators are invited onto the field, and it is one of the joys of a day at the polo.
Umpires: Two mounted umpires, one in each half, usually in black and white striped shirts.
Extra time: If scores are level at the end of the last chukka, there is a short break and then a sudden-death chukka: the first goal wins. The goals are often widened for it.
Your line: Shouted to a team-mate to tell them they have right of way to the ball.
Zone: The safety area around the pitch where spectators may not stand during play.