Free polo lessons in London this weekend

Chestertons Polo In Park are encouraging spectators to give it a go this weekend – so David Ellis did 

The eighth annual Chestertons Polo In The Park has returned to Fulham’s Hurlingham park for the weekend, with three days of horsey fun, first rate food and everything from a Mahiki pop-up club to a champagne garden from Lanson.

Among the attractions offered are free polo lessons, which will take place on Saturday morning, where anyone can head to the pitch to hop on a wooden horse and learn the basics. Matches will follow after, from 2pm.

To launch our new video series, How Hard Is It Anyway?, the Standard visited Ham Polo Club in Richmond for an afternoon in the sun with top international Juan Cruz Guevara. Watch how we got on in the video above.

Chestertons Polo In Park runs from June 9 – 11 at Hurlingham park, SW6 3RH. For tickets and more information, visit polointheparklondon.com

So... how hard is polo, anyway?

“You… don’t… ride?” asks Juan Cruz Guevara, an Argentine International who is looking increasingly saddened that he’s agreed to teach me polo. Just once, I say. He pauses: “It’ll be ok if you’re not scared.” Given last time was in Arizona with a cowboy who ‘jokingly’ threatened to shoot me, this seems like a breeze.

We start on a wooden horse learning technique; Juan says it’s much easier to teach a batsman to ride than a horseman to bat. While I’m left handed, and polo can only be played with the right, things seem to just about go my way and of course, Juan is gentlemanly with his praise. 

On the real horse, it’s a different matter: Oxfords, I find out, are not appropriate for stirrups and with a mallet in one hand and reigns in the other, I’m clinging on for dear life with just my thighs. Hitting the ball is bloody hard work from up here, and I mistakenly put too much power behind one shot – in general, it's better to let the mallet do much of the work – so the mallet flies up by the poor horses’ head, and I come too close to a day in court on animal cruelty charges. Still, we get there in the end, I tell myself I've just about got a goal, and begin to think polo is a prince among sports. Until the next morning, that is, when my legs no longer work. 

If you have an idea for a challenge the Standard can take on for How Hard Is It Anyway? please email david.ellis@standard.co.uk or tweet @dvh_ellis

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