# How to Try Polo in the UK
There's a persistent idea that polo is not for ordinary people. You need a string of ponies, a country estate and a surname that appears in Debrett's. None of that is true if you just want to try it — and the number of people who do want to try it has gone up considerably in the last year or two.
Most polo clubs in the UK run beginner sessions and taster lessons throughout the season. The club provides the ponies. You show up, and by the end of ninety minutes you'll have hit the ball from the saddle at a trot and have a reasonable idea of whether you want to go back. That's the whole proposition.
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What actually happens in a polo lesson
A beginner session at most UK clubs follows the same rough format. You'll spend twenty to thirty minutes on the ground getting used to the mallet — the grip, the swing planes, how you generate power without a massive arm movement. Most coaches use a wooden horse or a static block so you can practise the strike before you're dealing with a moving animal underneath you.
Then you get on a polo pony. These are not young or fresh horses. A good lesson pony is seasoned, steady and experienced enough to ignore a beginner flailing around on top of it. You'll walk, then trot, and your coach will feed balls under the pony's path so you can work on timing. Most people manage a reasonable forehand strike within the first session.
The last portion of time is usually stick and ball — riding at the ball in an open space and hitting it in the direction you want it to go. It's harder than it looks, considerably more satisfying when it works, and the reason most people come back.
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What it costs
Taster sessions at most UK clubs run from £75 to £150 for a ninety-minute lesson, including pony hire. Prices vary by club and location — a session at Guards Polo Academy in Windsor will cost more than the same session at a county club in Cheshire or Lincolnshire. For comparison, a ski lesson in the Alps is usually more expensive and the ponies are better behaved.
Beyond the taster, structured beginner programmes typically run over six to eight weeks and cost between £400 and £800 depending on the club. These cover everything from mallet technique to basic game rules to understanding the line of the ball, which is the fundamental rule that governs right of way in a match.
If you want to actually play chukkas — the seven-and-a-half-minute periods that make up a polo match — most clubs have introductory chukkas where all players are low-handicap beginners, ponies are provided, and nobody's taking it too seriously. These cost roughly the same as a lesson.
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You don't need your own horse
This is the main thing worth saying directly. For lessons, beginner programmes and introductory chukkas, the club supplies the ponies. Polo ponies are not cheap animals to keep — a well-trained playing pony is worth anywhere from £5,000 to well over £30,000 — but for a taster or a beginner programme that cost is entirely the club's, not yours.
Owning ponies comes later, if it comes at all. Plenty of people play throughout an entire career by leasing ponies for matches from other players, or by joining clubs where a pony scheme operates. It's worth asking each club what their arrangement is when you enquire.
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The season
UK polo runs from April to September. Most outdoor clubs are quiet or closed over winter, though some run off-season arena polo indoors. The main outdoor season gets going properly in May and runs through to the Gold Cup at Cowdray Park in July — the most prestigious domestic polo tournament in England, held at the club near Midhurst in West Sussex that has been the centre of English polo for decades.
If you want to watch polo before you try it, Cowdray Park or Guards Polo Club at Smith's Lawn in Windsor Great Park are the two places to go. Both run public match days through the summer and the atmosphere is nothing like the caricature — it's muddy in patches, good-humoured, and the polo itself is fast enough to be genuinely exciting if you know what you're watching.
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What to wear and bring
Riding boots and a helmet are the only hard requirements. Your own riding helmet is fine, though it needs to be a current standard. Long trousers rather than jeans, as the saddle contact area becomes uncomfortable quickly in denim. Some clubs provide helmets and knee guards for beginners; check when you book.
Knee guards are worth wearing from the start even if they're not compulsory. A polo mallet caught on the knee at trot is not something you want to experience.
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Where to start
Polo clubs are less unevenly distributed than most people assume. There are clubs in Surrey, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, West Sussex, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Essex and further afield. The Hurlingham Polo Association, which governs the sport in the UK, has a club finder on its website and lists all registered venues.
You can also find polo clubs near you on Saddl, with venues listed across England and Scotland. If you want to book a taster rather than just browse, the Guards Polo Club introduction session at Windsor and the Cirencester Park beginner lesson — one of England's oldest polo clubs, playing on the Earl Bathurst estate since 1894 — are both good starting points.
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One thing worth knowing before you go
Polo has a handicap system, like golf, that runs from -2 for an absolute beginner to 10 for a world-class player. The vast majority of club players in England sit between -2 and 2. The 10-goal players you see in international tournaments are a world apart from the Sunday morning chukka at a county club, and the two are not really the same sport in anything but name.
That's worth knowing because it recalibrates what you're letting yourself in for. You're not aiming to play like the people you've seen on television. You're aiming to hit the ball in the right direction at trot, which is entirely achievable inside a season if you put in the practice.