t the annual student organizations fair in his freshman year, now-senior Luke Lawson came across a particularly unique table: one for the Harvard polo team. Knowing very little about the organization, he figured that he would give the unique club a shot.

“I saw they were having tryouts that weekend, and I thought I should try it at least once,” he said. “It’s going to take up one afternoon, I might meet some people, might have some fun, so I went out to the Harvard Polo Barn up in Hamilton, Mass., and went to the tryouts.”

Growing up on a farm in Maine, Lawson has always loved riding horses. His brother-in-law, a former collegiate polo player, urged him to give the sport a chance, noting its competitive yet immensely enjoyable nature.

Three years later, the sport took him halfway across the world.

The Club’s Structure

From the tryout stage, the club ensures that its members understand the nature of horse riding. Students test different horses to gauge fit, comfort, and skill level, regardless of their equestrian background, or lack thereof.

“A lot of people will be very scared on a horse, or around a horse, somewhat rightfully so,” Lawson explained. “They are pretty large, powerful animals that even when they’re well trained can be pretty unpredictable.”

“If people are able to remain calm and listen to the coaches and compose themselves on the horses, it’s a pretty good sign,” the senior added.

The club is divided into a men’s varsity team, a women’s varsity team, and a co-ed JV team.

The team owns horses, often thanks to donations from alumni, practices once a week, and competes against other schools in the fall, with matches usually occurring a car ride away or at its home arena at Myopia Hunt Club.

The hosting team will have enough horses to mount both the visiting team and the home team, with Harvard maintaining roughly 14 healthy horses at any given time.

“It feels like it’s such a removal from regular day-to-day life on campus,” Lawson said. “There’s a simplicity to that lifestyle of taking care of horses and taking care of an animal, where they need to be fed every day.”

A Unique Sport

For a polo player, there are several pieces of equipment, each with its own function. Furthermore, all players need to learn how to properly care for the horses, including brushing them, ensuring they have enough water when it gets cold, and putting cooling blankets on them in the heat of summer.

“The sport of polo is a three-on-three competition for arena polo, which is what we play in college,” Lawson said.

While there’s no official regulation size, an arena is typically about 150 by 75 yards, with three to four-foot walls lining the borders. A strong familiarity with the course and the field regularly puts the home team at an advantage.

The objective of the game is to try to hit a ball about the size of a grapefruit with a mallet — usually ranging from 50 to 54 inches long — through a goal post.

“One misconception is a lot of people think even though it’s shaped like a croquet mallet, you don’t actually hit it on the end of the mallet. You hit the ball with the side of the mallet, so you swing with it perpendicular to the ball, and then you’re hitting it into a goal on either end of the arena,” Lawson said.

Players ride a different horse in each quarter, dubbed chukkers in the sport’s nomenclature. To balance the abilities of the different horses, the teams switch at halftime.

“The horse can be a major contributor or detriment to a team’s ability,” Lawson said. “So for the first half, the Harvard team will ride six horses, three players each, two horses for the two quarters, or chukkers.”

‘An Amazing Trip’

At the beginning of each year, the Harvard polo team hosts an international match, inviting teams from across the globe to come to the United States and play under slightly different rules. The ball is slightly smaller, the personnel changes from three-on-three to four-on-four, and the size of the field increases to nearly nine times the size of a football field.

Two years ago, Mayo College, a private boarding school in Rajasthan, India, sent three of its students to play against Harvard, ultimately trumping the Crimson’s polo team.

“Unfortunately, they got the better of us on our home turf, but it established this relationship with Mayo College,” Lawson said.

“They invited us this year to come and play at their 150th anniversary celebration,” he added.

Over Thanksgiving break, Lawson and four others traveled to India and toured the state of Rajasthan, immersing themselves in local culture. The group toured places like farms and included visits with horses and to greenhouses.

“We were hosted at a hotel for brunch by an alumnus of Mayo College, and they greeted us at the car with drums and marigold necklaces and traditional headwear,” Lawson said.

Finally, it was time to turn to the main course: the highly anticipated polo match. In front of nearly 3,000 fans, Harvard’s polo team competed against Mayo College in three chukkers, each lasting five minutes. Lawson rode a thoroughbred horse provided by the school.

“Unfortunately, we did lose the match five to two, but it felt like it was a good showing, and it was still fun for the Mayo College High School boys to really make their country and school proud, even if it was at our own loss.”

Despite the loss, Lawson was appreciative of the club’s community and the opportunity to travel the world.

“It was really just a great trip all around,” he said.

—Staff writer Praveen Kumar can be reached at [email protected].