Did You Know Houston Has a Polo Club?

Fun fact! They do! So if you’re looking break out the Ralph Lauren and legit polo jerseys and head out for a match, you’re in luck because Houston continuously is throwing surprises at us.

The Houston Polo Club is nestled into Memorial Park. You’ve probably driven past it a million times. If you pay close attention you can see some groomed fields and goal posts peaking behind the bushes as you rushed down I-10. The fields are located right where 6-10 and I-10 meet and you access the park off Memorial Drive (8552 Memorial Drive, to be specific).

Yes those are some Veuve Cliquot umbrellas

Champagne goes so well with polo

I went to a work party event on a Sunday afternoon to watch a polo match. Having played water polo for 8 years, and hearing the joke “But how do the horses swim?” a zillion times, it was enlightening to see the elusive sport happen in person. Spoiler: it’s nothing like water polo.

Our pre-match instructor

Before the match started, we got a quick crash course in the rules of polo and some fun facts about the sport, including:

A polo field is 9 times the size of an American football field
Each team consists of 4 players (can be male and female)
Polo must be played right-handed
Instead of quarters or periods, polo is played in four to six “chukkers,” and the game lasts about two hours
Each player will bring one horse for each chukker and one to three “spare” horses that stand on the sidelines in case a player’s horse gets tired

I can only imagine how expensive it is to maintain 4+ horses just for a 2 hour game…. Jackie Kennedy played this sport. #americanroyalty.

Thanks to the work event, I enjoyed the match with champagne and little hors d’oeuvres (Ruth’s Chris caters). They encourage women to wear flats because to get through the parking lot / seating you walk on rough gravel and uneven grass. At half time, everyone got to walk onto the field – per tradition- and stomp the divots made by the horses. I think the divot stomping to selfie taking ratio on the field was about equal.

The game was surprisingly high scoring with a final score of 13-8. I expected it to be way more difficult to hit a tiny ball on a moving horse and aim it through goal posts.

If you’re interested in going, you can purchase tickets from the Houston Polo Club starting at $15. The Spring Season has matches on Sunday afternoons throughout May and June.