Posts from the Pampas

Dispatch #6 Polo on the Pampas

We have not seen any gauchos so far, but we did get to tour the only polo club in this region of Santa Fe Province. It was founded around 20 years ago by Urbano Iturraspe, an internationally known polo player who came from a long line of polo masters. He grew up in the capital city of Santa Fe, where he learned polo at a young age. By the time he was adult, he was not only teaching polo but also playing on the international circuit. Many years, he spent three months abroad in such far flung places Malaysia, Singapore and Spain, as a contract player for foreign polo teams.

In the early 1990’s, Urbano bought a large spread of land on the edge of Santa Clara de Buena Vista, a small village about an hour outside of Santa Fe. He converted it into a polo field. It became the home field for Club Estrela. At the beginning, club members from the surrounding pueblos and would travel to Santa Clara to play. Upon arriving, they would divide into teams of four. Sort of like pick-up basketball with horses. After a number of years, the Club began hosting tournaments.

The game requires lots of horses. The matches generally last 40–60 minutes. They are divided into periods of seven minutes each called chukkers. (This is different from chucker, a contemptuous New York basketball slang for players who shot indiscriminately). Players change horses after chukkers and even sometimes in the midst of one. This is not surprising, considering that polo fields are several times the size of a football field.

The horses are susceptible to lower leg injuries from the vigorously swung mallets, so they wear something akin to a soccer shin guard on their lower legs. The guards are covered by fabric. The effect is that of horses in stylish leggings, as evidenced by the pictures below, including one of an aging novice (no, I am not referring to the Roman Catholic Church, to which nearly all Argentinians belong) about to strike the ball with the mallet.

Back to Urbano. He was passionate about polo. He continued playing despite a severe muscle tear to his biceps, an injury which doctors told him would preclude any further polo. Urbano’s vitality is evident from the picture below of him. Unfortunately, he developed lymphoma in 2011 and died in 2015.

The club is now run by his widow, Natalia, who met Urbano in 2003 and married him in 2006. It has some 25 members and includes one female player, Julia, who is 18 years old. Julia is one of the few female polo players in Santa Fe province. That’s not the case in Buenos Aires, where about 20% of the players are women. There is an entire league consisting of just women players.

This past August, in homage to her late husband, Natalia renamed the complex as the Urbano Polo Club. For its logo, she used a simple design created by Urbano.

Natalia Urbano is second from the left.

Take a look at the logo, which is at the top of the clubhouse. The sweeping semi-circle brings to mind the swinging of a polo mallet. The vertical line obviously represents a player. But the design also represents the letters U and I, the initials for Urbano Iturraspe. The letters are flanked by dual mallets. A classy and elegant design by a remarkably talented man.

A tournament was held this past weekend. The skies were clear; there was a pleasant breeze. The event featured not only a team from the Urbano Polo Club but also teams from Santa Fe and surrounding cities. Flags and posters listed the various sponsors, which were mostly local businesses and veterinary related products.

The players included women. Most of the female players come from Buenos Aires, where about 20% of the polo players are women. The competitor on the right is 23 years old. She began playing polo at age 17.

Zoom in and note the logo on the motorcyle.

We spoke with Mario, another competitor who was from Santo Tome, a city near the capital of Santa Fe. He was a genial, compactly built lawyer in his late 30's. Mario related that he had never ridden a horse, let alone played polo, until five years ago. Do you have any horses, Joyce asked. Yes, three of them, he responded. He related that he works at his office, exercises at the gym four times a week and plays polo. You’re not married, are you, asked my wife. No, he said. Well, Joyce responded, I didn’t think so. Your wife would ask why you have three horses. If my wife made an issue of that, Mario replied with a wry smile, she’d have to go.

One of the players was thrown from his horse on Saturday and took some time to get up afterwards. But he returned on Sunday to join his team in winning the cup. Here is a picture of the players just before the championship. If you look carefully, you will see that three of the players on the Urano Polo Club (the team in green shirts) are women.

As with many Argentine events, there was an asado (BBQ) during and after the finals. Once the asador (the barbeque pit) gets hot enough, the chef places a small pile of wood on the left side. As this turns into fuel, the chef shifts it over to the roasting meat on the right as needed. Most asados include small amounts of shredded cabbage or chickory salad. This did not. It was steak, then ribs, then another cut of beef, topped off by chunks of pork butt. There was some Italian bread (they call it French bread, but it bears no resemblance to the baguettes of Paris) to soak up some of the grease from the plate and the mouth. The meat was served on wooden platters.

Polo is a demanding sport. You need to have strong arms and hands to control the reins and swing the mallett. You need a strong core in order to lean over and strike the ball. Most of all, you need strong thighs so you do not fall off horse.

And then there is the Argentine sport of pato, known in English as horse ball. It has similarities to polo. It is played on horses. There are four players on each team. But there are no mallets. Rather, the players must lean downward from their saddles while their horses are moving to pick up the ball, which looks like a volleyball with circular grab rings attached to it.

The sport is called Juego del Pato, which translates as Duck Game. Its name stems from its origin, when there was no ball but rather with a live duck enclosed is a round basket. You have to wonder what the poor ducks made of this.