Horse polo is a fascinating sport for many different reasons, from the importance of sportsmanship to the unique nature of the rules which stops left-handed players from using their dominant hand and how horses are determined using randomised systems to ensure fairness.
However, one of the most fascinating aspects of polo is the handicap, an individual measure of a polo player’s various skills at the game. This does not just include their success or goals scored, but also their teamwork with others, knowledge of the game, sportsmanship, riding skill and strategic ability.
Interestingly, despite the global nature of polo, no handicap system has been adopted worldwide. Instead, the main polo authority in a given country, such as the Hurlingham Polo Association for the UK each use their own system.
The handicap system works on a “goals” system, ranking each player from minus-two to ten goals on a scale (although the Asociación Argentina de Polo uses a more straightforward one-to-ten goals scale).
These handicaps are added together for a team and then subtracted against the total of the opposing team to provide a starting goals handicap, ensuring games are fair even with players of differing skill levels.
This system is also used to determine eligibility for teams at the FIP World Polo Championships, which restrict participating teams to a 14 goal handicap.
A unified worldwide system has been proposed at various points but currently is unlikely to be established in the near future, with the world authority Federation of International Polo citing the extra time and cost required as the reason why.
To the FIP, it makes more sense to trust national association members and pinpoint specific handicaps that merit further investigation rather than maintain a consistent worldwide database.
When asked about it, an FIP representative cited how during the World Championships in 2015 in Chile, four of the matches went to an extra chukka, highlighting that the system as it currently stands appears to be successful at promoting fairness amongst different teams.