POLO ANYONE?

The Little Egypt Polo Club practiced Sunday near Egypt Mills.

EGYPT MILLS -- Dale Watkins went from Western to English nearly seven years ago and has loved every minute of it.

Watkins was a professional on the national rodeo circuit. He had done everything from bull riding to being a pick-up man.

Watkins love of horses, however, didn't end when his rodeo days did. A friend invited him to go to a polo match at Carbondale.

"They invited me to play with them and I fell in love with the game," said Watkins. "Polo is more fun than anything I have ever done."

Thought possibly to be the oldest team sport, polo may have first been played by nomadic warriors over 2,000 years ago.

The object of the game is to use a mallet to hit a ball through the goal posts at the end of the 300-yard field. This must be done while staying mounted on a thousand-pound animal running at top speed.

The game was found to be valuable for training cavalry, and by the Middle Ages polo was played from Constantinople to Japan.

By the 1860s the game was well established in England, following rules established by the British cavalry.

Polo debuted on American soil when James Gordon Bennett, a noted American publisher, balloonist and adventurer brought the game to New York in 1876.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Today there are more than 225 United States Polo Association member clubs with over 3,000 players.

Some of those players live in the region and play for the Little Egypt Polo Club. The group sometimes practices on a field at Egypt Mills, north of Cape Girardeau.

Sunday they were practicing in preparation for upcoming matches in September and October.

Doris and Charlie McBride of Carbondale have been involved with polo since 1988. The McBride family has always had a love of horses.

After participating in his first match, McBride too was hooked on the game.

Gordon Butler of Carbondale emphasized the club's concept of the game.

"We play first to be safe," he said. Everyone wears a helmet with face guard. Boots and heavy leather guards protect the shins and knees.

"Then we play for fun and finally to compete," said Butler.

Playing polo is asking something of a horse that is out of the ordinary. Going at full sprint, stopping and switching directions takes a lot out of a horse.

For this reason, players ride from three to six different mounts during a match. A match is divided into six seven-minute periods or chukkers.

Riders change mounts during the break between chukkers.

Originally ponies were used to play the game, thus the name "polo ponies." Today much stronger and faster horses are used.

Retired race horses are often purchased and trained for polo because of their speed and stamina.

"A well-trained horse is 75 percent of the game," said McBride.

"A good horse follows the ball down the field like a dog after a rabbit," added Butler.

Richard Hicks of Chester saw a television story on the Little Egypt club, and that was enough to get him interested. All members agreed that playing polo is like nothing they've ever done before.