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Talk about speed! A polo pony can zoom to 35 miles per hour in 3 seconds. A polo ball can reach a velocity approaching 100 miles per hour. Bridgehampton Polo, with some of the best horses and highest ranked players in the world, is one of the most important social and sporting events—or series of events—in the Hamptons. It never slows down.
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Polo saddles stacked on a rack, mallets (which weigh as little as 7 ounces) lined up and ready for action. Polo mounts (though called ponies, they are full sized horses; weight restrictions were abandoned many years ago) anticipating an exhausting 7 ½ minute chukker. These are the iconic sights on the sidelines at Two Trees Farm during Bridgehampton Polo Club season.
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You might come for the party, but you stay for the sport. Bridgehampton is high goal polo—bold, risky, competitive. It engages your fears, your hopes, your imagination, the way perilous games do. The horses are 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.
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After the beach, before dinner and evening activities, under the tent or in the bleachers, watching a match at Bridgehampton Polo is a snapshot of a summer afternoon in the Hamptons. It’s when we all relax, when our conversation skims along on the light subjects of summer while we look out at a field of equestrian athletes bathed in the extraordinary golden light of the East End.
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The polo fields at Two Trees are 300 yards long and 160 yards wide, about 10 acres of dense green grass, each larger than nine football fields. The polo ball measures only 3 ½ inches and weighs 4 ounces. It does not sound like a good formula for a spectator sport, yet somehow polo draws us in. You don’t have to see the ball or know the rules. The band of horses racing down the field captivates the audience.