The Hottest New Equine Sport You Haven’t Heard Of

by Brandon Enyeart

We can rightfully thank Australia for a number of things: AC/DC, Naomi Watts, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Waltzing Matilda--okay, well, some things more than others. However, you may not have heard of a relatively new sporting event from the land down under that is finally starting to catch on stateside.

Blokes and Sheilas, I present to you...polocrosse! This “new” event to the horse world actually had its first recorded game played all the way back in 1939 at Ingleburn Sports Ground near Sydney, Australia. Shortly after the second world war, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hirst of Sydney both paid a visit to the National School of Equitation at Kingston Vale near London, England. A few of the instructors there had been using early forms of polocrosse as an exercise to help teach young riders to take better charge of their horses. It was played indoors with two riders to a side, with elongated basketball nets hung at each end of the arena as goals. They removed the mallet heads from old polo sticks and replaced them with shallow string nets, much like what you see in lacrosse competition. Intrigued by the possibilities of turning polocrosse into an outdoor sporting event, Mr. and Mrs. Hirst returned to Australia with sticks, balls and rulebooks, all ready to bring polocrosse to life.

After hours of practice and rule revision, the couple finally came up with the modern day version of polocrosse, a game that could be played by a person of any age on any horse. Shortly after the inaugural game at Ingleburn, the first polocrosse club was formed; here, the book of rules was officially established.

Today the sport is played in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and, although still rare, it is finally starting to catch on in the USA. Given that it is both a simple and relatively cheap sport to play, many pony clubs are starting to introduce it to young riders across the nation. Polocrosse finally made its mark on the Northwest in 2005 when Ethel, Washington hosted the National Polocrosse Championships at Happ’s Inc.

This exciting, fun and even educational sport is waiting to be discovered by a new region of horse people, so what’s stopping you? Whether you would like to participate or simply become a fan, visit www.americanpolocrosse.org, where you can find out all you need to know about getting started. As they say in Australia, “I reckon you will find this sport bonzer--bonzer indeed!”