Horsey Set
May/June 2005
photograph ©Mark Ostow
On the ground in this photo of Yale's polo team playing Cornell last February can be seen a white inflated ball about the size of a grapefruit. When the players try to drive the ball into the goal with their mallets, it can reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. Team captain Robert Burk '05, a Coloradan who has spent much of his life on horseback, calls polo "scary and addictive."
In indoor, or "arena," polo, three riders per team play in an area about 100 yards long by 50 yards wide. (Outdoor polo involves four riders per team and a much larger expanse of real estate.) The arena shown here is Yale's Polo and Equestrian Center, an armory that opened for equestrian use in 1916 as a training ground for World War I cavalry.
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