Polo Day in Cañuelas
by Majo
Cañuelas town is located 60 minutes away from Buenos Aires city and 30 minutes away from Ezeiza’s International Airport. The place is known for being the hometown of Adolfo Cambiaso – best polo player in the world – and the area which host La Natividad and La Dolfina teams, both champions of Palermo Open Tournament. This is the only 40 goal tournament in the world and is played in the Campo Argentino de Polo in the neighborhood of Palermo in Buenos Aires.
Ten years ago I moved from Santa Cruz, where I used to work as a horse ride guide to this amazing polo club in Cañuelas. My new boss allowed me to come with my arab horse – Mrs Sol – and my dog. At the very beginning my new job was as a hotel manager. The club has a 10 room boutique hotel but as years went by I moved to the area I like the most: horses. Now, as polo manager, I have my office just beside my horse stable. As good as it gets.
The club offers many activities related to horses such as a Horse Riding in Buenos Aires tour (a 2 hour and a half private ride), glamping experience, Jumping holiday and Polo holiday. Of course, the main activity is Polo and there is no better place than Puesto Viejo. It has 8 polo fields, 2 stick and ball fields, and they do over more than 30 tournaments per year. Therefore, at this place visitors have always the opportunity to watch polo.
Polo Clinic in Cañuelas tour is an excellent option for those that want to taste a little bit of this sport in the country which has the best horses and players in the world. I mean, if you like horses you can’t leave Argentina without having this experience!
My experience
As you can imagine, during all these years working with polo I’ve tried to play many times. I have to admit that once you start hitting the ball you get a little bit addicted to it. At the very start it is difficult to do all at the same time: get the reins, the whip, the stick and over that being focused in riding and doing the correct swing to hit the tiny white ball. That is why it is very important to have school polo horses. These guys know their job and will make your learning faster than you ever imagined.
This last December I had the chance to join a family for its polo day. We had so much fun! The morning lessons were about learning a few riding tips for polo and getting used to hitting the ball. Then, after having a traditional Argentinian barbecue and enjoying a few dives in the swimming pool (it was a typical hot December afternoon) was when the real fun started. We played two teams: one team was with our coach (he was not allowed to score); and the other team was with me. We all started very shy but as we got confident and started doing good shoots at the goal then the game suddenly turned out to be very competitive.
We just couldn’t stop playing, and at the end when we broke even we decided that was enough and that it was time for some fresh drinks by the field watching the real players. In January, just a few days ago, I joined the lesson of a super nice couple, just married, who were enjoying a polo holiday in Argentina. Even though they did ride before, indeed she is an experienced show jumper, this was their first time trying polo. Now, we had better horses and we played a two against two game: girls versus boys. Surprisingly we were galloping all over the stick and ball field and passing the ball between us. We were winning but when we noticed the boys were getting mad we ve wicked an eye between us and let them do their last goal. They ended their holiday wanting to keep on playing and I ended wanting to join mini chuckers every time I got the shot to do it.
Long story short
Polo is just like this. It’s an addictive game. I’ve heard so many stories all these years but the story that always comes to my mind is one of a couple I know that a long time ago entered a polo shop to buy clothes and saw a brochure about polo day. They jumped into this activity not knowing what to expect and they loved it. So they kept on doing it and while they were learning and getting better they made many new friends and started buying their own horses and competing in different tournaments. Let me clarify this: they didn’t have any experience with horses, because for a polo day tour it is not required to have knowledge about this sport or horses. Time went by and one day they realized they liked polo so much that they bought their own club in Argentina, where now they offer this amazing opportunity of starting to play polo. This is an example of how addictive polo can be.