Glossary

Polo-speak, decoded — enough vocabulary to follow any commentary and hold your own at the picnic. For the underlying concepts in more depth, see the rules, positions and handicaps.

The game

• Chukka (chukker) — one period of play, about 7 minutes; matches run 4–8;
• Line of the ball — the ball's path, creating right of way; polo's central law;
• Throw-in — umpire restarts play by bowling the ball between the lined-up teams;
• Knock-in — defending team restarts from the backline after an attacker sends the ball over it;
• Penalty 1–6 — the graded penalty scale, from automatic goal (1) down through hits at 30, 40, 60 yards and from the spot/centre;
• Sudden death — an extra chukka played to break a tie, first goal wins;
• Safety — a defended stroke that sends the ball out over a team's own backline, conceding a lesser restart to the attackers;
• Goal judge — the official stationed behind each goal to signal whether the ball passed between the posts.

The play

• Ride-off — legal shoulder-to-shoulder contest to move an opponent off the line;
• Hook — blocking an opponent's swing with your mallet;
• Bump — the moment of contact in a ride-off;
• Cross — cutting across an opponent's right of way, polo's most common foul;
• Nearside / offside — the horse's left / right; the offside forehand is the bread-and-butter shot;
• Neck shot / tail shot — hitting under the horse's neck / behind its rump — the crowd-pleasers;
• Backhand (backshot) — reversing the ball's direction; the defender's field-flipper;
• Stick-and-ball — solo practice; polo's version of hitting the range;
• Man-to-man — the loose defensive scheme where each shirt marks its opposite number.

The people and horses

• Patron — the (paying) amateur who fields a team and plays alongside hired professionals;
• String — a player's set of ponies for a match or season;
• Groom (petisero) — the professional horse-manager behind every string;
• 10-goaler — holder of the perfect handicap; the sport's rarest title;
• High / medium / low goal — tournament levels by combined team handicap;
• Made pony — a fully trained, tournament-ready horse, as opposed to a “green” one still in schooling;
• Whites — the traditional white breeches worn by players, regardless of the rest of the kit's colour.

The culture

• Treading in — the half-time divot stamp, spectators' contribution to the ground;
• The Cathedral — Palermo's Argentine Open stadium, polo's holy ground;
• Sport of kings — the old nickname, earned via Persian royalty and kept via Windsor;
• Zone — the flow state players describe when a chukka clicks into place, or informally, any section of a field near a goal.

Equipment terms

For mallet, ball, tack and protective kit vocabulary — cane, head, thong, martingale and more — see our dedicated equipment page, which explains each item's purpose rather than just naming it.