Constructed in 1936, the Lake Oswego Hunt Club is an important landmark in our city. Originally, the land was for a polo field, but when the depression hit, Portland Polo lost interest. The field was transformed into a stable and the club focused mainly on trail riding. While not an official team of the Hunt Club, the practices still take place there. The coach, Brandon Alcott, is an experienced rider who has been playing Polo since the age of ten. He is immensely talented and was offered scholarships to Stanford to play polo. He currently trains the Oregon State University polo team. Many of the Oregon State Polo players are at the practice. The experience of playing polo at the club is awesome.  

The sport is played in chuckers (periods) of 7 ½ minutes, and typically there are six of them in a professional match. Each team consists of four players who line up against each other at the beginning of the match. A ball is thrown in and either side tries to scramble for the ball. At actual games there are two referees on horseback. The field is 300 yards long and both teams are trying to score the ball. The goal is two posts eight yards apart with no net. The lane rules can be confusing for newer players, essentially a player cannot cut off the line of the ball. If a player is dribbling the ball on their right then the defending player has to ride next to them and hit the ball on their left. Most people would assume this would be a no contact sport, but that’s not the case; it’s legal to push somebody off the ball by ramming your horse sideways into them. Sports like football have tackles, so imagine tackling somebody with a horse. 

Another satisfying defensive play is hooking somebody’s mallet to prevent them from taking a shot. Breaking away with a ball is one of the best feelings; cantering with your horse leaving everybody behind is really exciting. The best thing of all is that anybody can get into the sport; there’s only a small prerequisite to know basic riding.