An article written by David Quarmby for HAC Saddle club on his holiday with us in Argentina December 2002 for his experience of March 2004 click here

Argentina is home to the world’s best polo players and December is the time of the year that the finals of the Argentine Open, the ‘Abierto’, are held in Buenos Aires. With this exciting prospect in mind, myself and four other polo playing novices set off to enjoy a two-week riding holiday, but we were to discover there is much more than just polo in this fascinating country.

Argentina has a lot to offer tourists yet most of it is undeveloped because until last year the Peso was pegged one to one with the US dollar, making Argentina a prohibitively expensive country to visit. The economic crisis and subsequent devaluation of the Peso (currently US dollar = 3 Pesos) has meant that the country is now extremely affordable. Cheap polo for all! We had all taken up the sport as a hobby just twelve months ago with what could be best described as ‘limited’ riding experience. Our long-suffering polo coach, Carlitos Gonzalez, had returned to Argentina in September and along with his partner Kim Sherman had carefully organised our holiday itinerary.

We stayed for three days in Buenos Aires where we busied ourselves with morning ‘stick and ball’ practice and games at the Lomas de Lujan estancia on the outskirts of town. The resident polo professional is Horacio Fernandez-Llorente, a 7 goal handicap player (the maximum is 10), who was three times winner of the St. Moritz Snow Polo, so he certainly knows about balance on a horse. I launched enthusiastically into the programme riding five horses one after the other on the first afternoon. The next two days began in a similar fashion, but the day ended with a visit to The Open. Here we watched some of the world’s greatest players (Adolfo Cambiaso / Bautista Heguy etc.) perform in ways we never thought possible. The teams in the Open are all high goal professionals playing together as a four-man team, which contrasts with English polo where there is usually ‘patron’ playing in and sponsoring the team. The absence of a low-goal patron considerably speeds up the game and facilitates a lot of rapid team interaction. Back practising the following next day, we weren’t sure whether to be inspired or depressed.

Our evenings were spent eating out at one of the many steak houses, where the Argentine beef has to be the best value, most delicious food I’ve ever tasted. Easily washed down with a bottle or two of red wine we dined like kings. One restaurant we visited had laid on entertainment and we were encouraged to join in and dance Tango with the professionals. I was pleased my partner was professional enough to keep smiling whilst I trod on her toe.

After our initial stay in Buenos Aires, we flew down to Mar del Plata, which is a coastal town approx. 350 kms to the south. We were guests of Mar del Plata polo club and were entered into the La Capital Tournament the following weekend, which meant we had to get practising. In the interests of fair play the ‘Ingleses’ were split up so we each burdened our team with only one novice. The remainder of the team was made up of Argentine players who had been playing for most of their lives and were medium goal (4-6 goal) players. Last year the Mar del Plata polo team were all conquering and it soon became apparent why. Two brothers we played with had their polo ground besides their house, so you can imagine how seriously they took the sport. They were there to play hard and win and weren’t going to allow us to score any easy goals just because we were visitors. My team lost its first game and I thought one of our players looked pretty unhappy about it. It turned out that he’d actually broken his foot during the game, but of course played on. Later on another one of my team split open his lip as the horse threw back his head stopping dead from a full gallop. Someone else’s horse reared up knocking him off, much to the derision and amusement of the other players. The tournament was played as a round robin over three days with 4 ‘chukkas’ per game, we won our last game and with the other results going our way we were crowned ‘Campiones’. The team very sportingly insisted I was their captain, but it was the camaraderie and encouragement from them I enjoyed the most. Polo enjoys a high profile in Argentina so that The Open will see attendances of 30,000 plus and even our tournament made the sports pages of La Nacion (sandwiched between the soccer reports on Boca Juniors and Independiente). Everywhere we went we were made to feel very welcome and the press took a particular interest in the two females in our party, curious to know if polo was popular amongst English ladies?

The Mar del Plata polo ground is set amongst eucalyptus trees of Park Camet. The Park itself is alive with green parrots and owls and the occasional armadillo. In addition to the three polo grounds, Park Camet has an impressive show jumping arena and other equestrian facilities. When we weren’t playing in the tournament, a typical day involved some gentle exercising of the horses and hitting practise. As lunchtime approached, and once the horses were washed down, we would usually relaxed with a siesta and drank ‘matte’ with the grooms. Matte is a drink the Gauchos learnt about from the native Indians. The taste is similar to green tea and is drunk through a metal straw with a sieve on the end. Once you have finished the drink is topped up with hot water and passed around as a ‘friendship drink’. In the early evening we enjoyed ‘chukkas’ carefully coached by Carlitos with other Argentine players showing up from time to time.

We were constantly looked after by two very capable, hard working grooms, Martine and Rodrigo. The ponies we played were of varying speeds but all spirited Quarter horses between 5 and 8 years old. Riding every day we soon learnt which ones we were comfortable on and which best suited our riding styles. The horses had been pre-selected by Carlitos and were also available for purchase and shipping back to England.

Whilst the holiday was essentially a polo riding holiday, we still found time to relax and go riding on the beach, sun-bathe, and swim in the sea, all of which was very enjoyable especially as this is not something you can usually do two weeks before Xmas. One afternoon we visited a rodeo, where the Gaucho riders demonstrated how to stay on a horse sat only on a sheepskin. Dressed in flamboyant style and bearing some impressively large knives, this proud people live and breathe horses on the interior farms of Argentina.

The Argentine leather and tack shops offer exceptional value these days and we bought plenty of riding boots, polo tack and gifts saving ourselves almost as much as the cost of the holiday. HAC Saddle Club members may be interested to know that you can order custom-made riding boots directly from Argentina via Kim.

Kim and Carlitos offer polo holidays in Mar del Plata from December until March and we were extremely grateful to them for putting together such a wonderful trip.