How high goal polo got to Bridgehampton
Bridgehampton Polo: how it all happened
A polo horse can go from zero to 35 miles per hour in 3 seconds. A polo ball, made of willow root or a synthetic plastic material, can reach a velocity approaching 100 miles per hour. Bridgehampton Polo, made up of some of the best horses and highest ranked players in the world, has, three years after being created, become one of the most important events—or series of events—in the Hamptons. Talk about speed!
It began with Peter Brant, one of the foremost high-goal polo players in the country, and his White Birch team. After being involved in polo leagues in Greenwich, Saratoga Springs and Palm Beach, he realized the potential for polo in the Hamptons, and with his friend, Neil Hirsch, began the process that resulted in Bridgehampton Polo. The site was found at David and Jane Walentas’ Two Trees Stables, and Leighton Jordan laid out the field. David Schembri of Mercedes Benz saw the marketing opportunities almost instantly, and he brought the carmaker in as the major sponsor.
It all fell into place, and, in retrospect, it seems logical to have introduced polo to a community with equestrian interests, one where we are used to world-class show jumping at the Hampton Classic. But at least one of those organizers must have wondered if it would catch on. After all, polo is not all that accessible for most people. We don’t grow up knowing polo rules, the way we do football or baseball. And one senses that the game is played not for the audience as in other spectator sports, but for the players. The field is too massive—the size of nine football fields—and you can’t really see that 3 ¼ inch ball all the time. Yet, somehow, polo draws us in. We are there for the sport, but we are also there for the romance. And, if you start to look at it in the right way, polo becomes accessible to all of us.
The ambience is alluring. We all like an elegant afternoon gathering, and, like the Grand Prix at the Classic, it’s a great party. Under a tent in late afternoon, after the beach, before dinner and evening activities, it’s a snapshot of a summer afternoon when we all relax, when our conversation skims along on the light subjects of summer. The quality of local corn this summer, our progress at yoga class, who else is with us in the tent—that’s really quite enough to talk about while we are looking out at a field of athletes bathed in the extraordinary golden light of the Hamptons. We have a glass of champagne, some of the Nick & Toni’s hors d'oeuvres, we watch the game and we chatter. We are the heirs of the folks who drank Southsides at the Meadow Brook Club in the twenties—even if we don’t know where the Meadow Brook Club was located or what a Southside tastes like. We are not duplicating their world—we are reinventing it for this time and place.
But for polo to function over six Saturdays in July and August there has to be substance. Even good parties wear thin and don’t hold up well to repetition. We come back because there’s something about the game of polo—the more you see, the more interesting it becomes. It’s dazzling and it’s dangerous. The horse are large (they’re not ponies) and amazingly fast. They stop, turn, maneuver—at a breathtaking pace. The players do what other athletes do—except they do it full speed on a horse, and they have no protective gear outside of a helmet. They generally change horses after each chukker—and a good horse is worth tens of thousands dollars. Rules permit slamming into your opponent in certain ways, at certain angles. Collisions occur. Horses fall, riders tumble. You clench your fists. This is bold, high-risk activity. It engages your fears, your hopes, your imagination, the way perilous games do. When you start watching, it’s hard to stop. The bottom line is that Bridgehampton Polo is a good sporting event. And even if we came for the party, we stay for the sport.
