Horsing around

It's jolly hockey sticks but on horseback. Wendy Evans joins the country set to explain how to photograph a polo match

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Polo is one of those sports that appears to be a throwback to the days of medieval combat. Swap the ball and polo stick (or mallet in the USA) for a flail or lance and you'd get much the same spectacle as jousting.

Playing the sport requires a high level of equipment (hint: it's a horse) and no small amount of skill but, fortunately, photographing it is much easier. The main problems are how far away you might be from the action and ensuring there's a fast enough shutter speed to capture that action. There aren't a huge amount of clubs to approach about taking photos (there are 70 outdoor and 30 arena clubs in the UK) but when they play hundreds of games over the summer, there are lots of matches going on.