About the Sport
Polo was invented 2,500 years ago as a cavalry training exercise -- not as a spectator sport -- and remarkably little has changed over the years with the traditional game.
The tradition of wearing white pants dates back to the nineteenth century when Indian royals played in the heat, hence the preference for fabrics that were light in colour and weight.
Divot-stomping at half-time is not just for show. It is actually a very important crowd activity, as it does genuinely restore the field for the players and horses.
Polo ponies are not actually ponies, but rather a specific horse bred for polo, usually a cross between a quarter horse and a thoroughbred.
Polo can only be played using the right hand. This is because the rules of the game revolve around the same principle as driving along a highway. Namely, when a ball is hit it creates an invisible line that players advancing from opposing sides cannot cross. If one advancing player were to approach using his left hand and the other with his right hand, a head-on collision would occur.
“Throw-in”, as simple as it sounds, is a term used to start a play. One of two umpires or even a guest of honour at the match tosses the polo ball up between two teams of four players.
FROM LIVVERO MAGAZINE MAY 2026
The ‘Sport of Kings’ — Vero style
By John Stearns
Winston Churchill wrote that polo is the “finest game in the world,” so he likely would have enjoyed spending a sunny Sunday afternoon watching the action at the Vero Beach Polo Grounds west of town — not only for the matches but also for the food, drink, atmosphere, and conversation among spectators.
The Vero Beach Polo Club concluded its 2026 season last month (the season ran nine Sundays from mid-January to mid-April), but it’s not too early to put a tickler in one’s e-calendar for January 2027 to visit the club’s website for next year’s schedule. The action is lively and serious but also fun and friendly; the players range from developing to highly skilled; the horses are graceful, powerful, and athletic; and the fans who watch range from newbies (like this writer attending his first match), to regulars who know the riders, rules, and terminology — and when to stomp divots.
During the break between matches, fans walk onto the field and use their feet to press divots from horses’ hooves back into place. It’s the same field maintenance briefly highlighted in the 1990 movie “Pretty Woman,” when Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) and Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) joined fellow polo spectators for divot replacement as the announcer is heard advising, “Avoid the steaming divot.”
On match days, Vero Beach spectators back their vehicles to the field’s boundary, open a liftgate, trunk, or tailgate, set up chairs, tables, and tents, unload food and beverages, and stake out a position near the field, which has about nine times the square footage of a football field. Gates open at noon, with matches starting at 2 p.m. Entry to The Polo Grounds — located at 1084 E. Polo Grounds Lane, just across 12th Street from Pointe West Country Club between 74th and 82nd avenues — runs $25-per-person (children under 10 are free), with proceeds supporting the club.
Some regulars reserve their parking location along the field’s sidelines for the season. They get their business or personal names stenciled on wood rails bordering the field, securing their spot to watch each weekend at the parklike setting bordered by beautiful homes on half-acre lots. This writer was invited to join Stacy Allen, her father George Allen, and friends, at their tailgate along the sideline.
The event exemplifies Vero’s bigger-than-its-population attractions and sophistication.
“It is a unique sport and it's an opportunity for people to see something that they normally would not see in any other small town like this,” said Charley Replogle, owner of Ocean Grill and a Vero Beach Polo Club sponsor and supporter since the club’s launch around 2000. “If we can get them (spectators) to come out once, usually they keep coming, and it's a very relaxing day, and it's pretty cool to watch eight people on a field trying to hit a ball 300 yards down the (field) — it’s pretty exciting.”
Replogle once played competitively as an amateur, but at 71, he limits his polo to more casual competitions with friends in two-on-two scrimmages on a polo practice field where he keeps his horses, rather than the club’s four-on-four games, called chukkers.
“I want to just have more fun, laugh, because the games on Sunday, they can get pretty intense,” Replogle said, but he believes strongly in supporting the club.
So does Max Secunda, a polo professional who has played locally for about 20 years, lives in Vero, teaches the game, and is director of equestrian operations at the Windsor community north of the Wabasso Bridge. He appreciates Vero Beach Polo Club’s competition and accessibility to fans.
“There are a lot of people that go (to the Vero Polo Grounds) every Sunday and they enjoy seeing the animals, they get to know the players, and they become friends of the sport because some of them have been multiyear, long-term supporters,” Secunda said. “They like the sunshine, they like the friendships they make there, they become friends with the players, and they're part of the scene. I think that accessibility and that low-key aspect makes it really friendly and unique, and that's one of the main differences between the polo in Vero and the polo in Wellington.”
Wellington, in Palm Beach County, is known for its horses and polo. The village is home to the U.S. Polo Association’s National Polo Center and tournaments that include the U.S. Open Polo Championship. It’s Florida’s capital for what’s long been known as “The Sport of Kings.”
Wellington’s action is competitive and serious, and includes professional players and prize money, but Vero Beach’s action also is entertaining and puts spectators closer to the action, according to Secunda. While Vero’s polo is played at a club-sport level, not professionally or with prize money, it still offers excellent action, said Secunda, who often plays in the Vero matches with his son, Finn, an accomplished player himself.
Chukkers pit players of similar skill levels so that the teams are more evenly matched. Vero Beach Polo Club includes up-and-coming high school and college-level players, to pros like Secunda.
“I think that everyone that participates there (in Vero) does it because they're based in Vero, and they love to support the club, and it's close, it's convenient,” Secunda said. “We can maintain a certain level, maintain the horses, and introduce younger players to the sport that maybe are not ready to go and compete at a more serious level.”
He hopes to see the club attract more younger players who can help grow the sport locally, but also for the benefits that he believes accrue to young players as they accept responsibilities associated with animal care and training, and learn professional interaction with grooms and polo sponsors, many of whom are highly successful businesspeople. The sport teaches a lot, he said.
“Also, I think that everyone involved loves to see the continuity of the public interaction with the sport and for it to exist in Vero,” Secunda said. “I think everyone wants to see that continue, so we support it as well as we can.”
For spectators, Vero provides a “wonderful conduit” to a cozier interaction with player and pony, he said.
That comes from an expert in the game. Secunda was raised by his mother, a competitive event rider, and from a young age, by his stepfather, Julian Hipwood, captain of the England national team for 15 years, who won the Queens Cup, Gold Cup (British Open) and U.S. Open, and in 2010 was inducted into the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame in Lake Worth, according to Secunda’s website. Born in the United Kingdom, Secunda grew up on the global high-goal circuit (his father was a was a 9-goal player, considered one of the highest levels attainable), spending winter vacations in Wellington and summers in Cowdray Park in the UK surrounded by top horses and the best players in the world. Secunda’s visits to Wellington with his stepfather eventually led Secunda to residency there and he went on to play professionally for a number of high-goal teams.
In 2004, Secunda moved from Wellington to Vero Beach to manage the burgeoning polo operation of John Walsh, the former host of “America’s Most Wanted” for 10 years before going to work at Windsor, his website notes. While the area’s polo got its start at Windsor in 1989 — when then Prince Charles, now King Charles III, was invited to play there by Windsor founders Galen Weston and Geoffrey Kent — the sport moved to The Polo Grounds around 2000, according to an article, “A Brief History of Vero Beach Polo,” on the club’s website. Polo is still played at Windsor, but rather than the regular matches like those at Vero’s Polo Grounds, Windsor has hosted the biennial Windsor Charity Polo Cup since 2012, a prestigious affair that has raised about $2.5 million for local and national nonprofits since its inception. The 2026 Windsor Charity Polo Cup presented by PNC Bank on Feb. 14, raised $417,000 in net proceeds shared among Childcare Resources of Indian River, Crossover Mission, and the Environmental Learning Center, according to Windsor’s website.
In addition to his day job as Windsor’s director of equestrian operations, Secunda supports the Vero Beach Polo Club, plays in its matches, and continues to play professionally when he can. Galen Weston Jr. and his son, Grayden Weston, also have been playing with the Vero Beach Polo Club.
“I think the fact that they’re back into polo really kind of bodes well for the future of the Vero Beach Polo Club,” Secunda said of the Westons.
Sport and support
“The mission of the club is not only to play polo and have fun, it's also to give back to the community,” said Gaston Rodriguez, Vero Beach Polo Club’s owner and manager.
The club asks every sponsor to combine with a nonprofit organization each Sunday.
“We like to give (nonprofits) the space and the field, so they can put up their tent so they can do some raffles, they can do some silent auctions” to raise money, Rodriguez said.
Match beneficiaries this year included the Gifford Academy for Performing Arts, House of Natural Living, Mental Health Association of Indian River County, New Horizons of the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee, Special Equestrians of the Treasure Coast, and The Arc of Indian River County.
“That’s our mission of the club: to promote polo and have a fun Sunday for all the friends and families … but also try to help the community by giving a chance to nonprofit associations to be part of the event and try to do some charity and help them to raise some funds for their purpose,” Rodriguez said.
Noreen Davis, marketing director for The Arc of Indian River County — whose mission is to support and empower special-needs individuals 18 and over to achieve their life goals — said the club has been a great partner for Arc, which was the featured nonprofit at a match Feb. 8. That includes Replogle of Ocean Grill, one of Vero Beach Polo Club’s annual sponsors.
“Both Charley and Gaston have bent over backwards, jumped through hoops, to make sure that every year we get to do this,” Davis said, estimating Arc has visited a match annually for about 10 years, always on Super Bowl Sunday, when Replogle closes Ocean Grill so his staff can watch the game and also attend the polo match if they want.
Replogle gets clients from Arc’s residential group homes and their staff into the match, buys them lunch, “and we have non-alcoholic champagne, just like everybody else in the world goes to a polo match,” Davis said.
Arc had about 40 people attend this year, Davis said. During intermission between matches, clients took the field and Rodriguez coached them how to strike a polo ball with a mallet. Clients also helped to stomp divots.
She considers the experience the key benefit for clients — some of whom have Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, are blind, deaf, mute, have a traumatic brain injury, or are in wheelchairs with feeding tubes.
“If Charley and Gaston did not do this, they never would have that experience, and it’s like one of their best days,” Davis said. “They love watching … and they all pick a number off of the horses and they cheer them — and it’s just a heartwarming experience for anybody that has the privilege to see them do this. And that’s all because of the Replogle family and Vero Beach Polo Club.”
Arc, which gets seated under a large tent, also benefits from 50/50 raffles at the match and other goodwill.
“Over the years, for multiple reasons, my focus has become that the guys have a wonderful experience,” Davis said. “They know it’s only once a year, but they’re already asking, ‘When do we get to go again? When do we get to go see the horses (and stomp divots)?’ ”
The match also exposes Arc to spectators who may be unfamiliar with it and are inspired to help.
“They come by and they get my brochures, talk to people, and we’ve picked up donors that wouldn’t have known about us before,” she said, grateful for polo club’s annual invitation.
Replogle and Rodriguez are “both just so incredibly wonderful — how much they help to make sure that this is a good day for everybody,” she said.
Arc means a lot to Replogle, whose younger brother has Down syndrome and lives in an Arc men’s home near Vero Beach High School and works at Ocean Grill folding napkins. Replogle enjoys supporting the polo club and the local nonprofits that are recognized and helped through it.
He praised Rodriguez’s efforts running the club.
“He really works hard at it,” Replogle said. “It’s a tough job, you’ve got to sell it, so we do everything we can to help him — and once people start coming, they keep coming because it’s a nice day.”
Holding the club’s reins
The Vero Beach Polo Club leases the polo field from The Polo Grounds at Pointe West Property Owners Association. Players pay a fee to be club members, and the club also relies heavily on sponsors like Ocean Grill. Other sponsors this year included Blondie’s Fashion & Frills, Farm Credit of Florida, Gallery 14, Golden Horn Concierge, Golf Carts of Vero Beach, Grayfields, Harbour Ridge Equine, Indian River Health Center, One Sotheby’s International Realty, Skycastle Equestrian, and Vero Beach Table Tennis Club.
Rodriguez and Ocean Grill’s Replogle have known each other about 25 years, since they met playing polo. Rodriguez is a professional player, formerly played throughout his home country of Argentina, the U.S., and other countries, has his own horses, and still plays when he can. He’s more focused now on polo management, running the club in the winter and spring. He also trains horses for polo, including former racehorses, and coaches players.
After Vero Beach’s season ends, Rodriguez works in New York state in the summer, managing a polo operation for a family there.
Much like Secunda, Rodriguez’s father also was a high-level professional player and Rodriguez and his mother would accompany him to the United States for matches, his first U.S. visit being in 1993. Rodriguez later began traveling stateside on his own and has stayed since 2004.
Rodriguez took over the Vero Beach Polo Club from Frank Evans, a polo supporter and player whom Rodriguez credits for making Vero Beach polo possible.
The club works to get as many players in the action as it can, splitting them among chukkers to get experience, with some of the club’s players being teenagers.
“We have a lot of kids that play polo in our club,” Rodriguez said. “We want to have a fun polo community; we make it fun and safe.”
Fun doesn’t mean noncompetitive.
“Everybody wants to win; it gets competitive, but we don’t want to lose the sight of being fun and friendly — and we play together during the week, so it makes it more fun,” Rodriguez said, referring to Wednesday and Friday practices. “We want to see families coming and enjoy the game and the kids play and be safe.”
Matches can include players from Wellington, Tampa, and Ocala, he said.
Conditioning for sport, life
Vero Beach’s Sailor Schwaber, 18, has ridden horses most of her life and started playing polo about five years ago.
“We love to have fun and everyone wants to win in polo, but this is for sure very friendly,” Schwaber said before a February practice. “And everyone wants to see everyone else getting better, and learn, and progress in the sport, which is really nice.”
She has two horses she rides in matches. Like humans, horses need rest during competition, so they sub in and out, and also need to learn the game. The riders, like their horses, also need to be well-conditioned for performance and safety. The sport can be dangerous, Schwaber acknowledges.
“That’s why you have to put in a lot of practice and working out is very important, too,” she said. “You have to have very strong legs and core. One wrong move and you’ll be on the ground.”
Players need to be strong riders and be keenly aware of their surroundings.
“You really have to think about your whole body, and who’s around you, and what’s happening,” she said.
Schwaber hoped to play polo in college, but schools with the sport were in colder climates and she wanted to say in Florida, choosing to attend Rollins College in Winter Park.
She plans to play outside of school, at a club-sport level, she said, hoping to continue playing after college.
Being a pro probably isn’t in the cards, “but I'd love to continue to play for a while.”
Another young polo player, Secunda’s son, Finn, was choosing between Yale and Harvard University this fall on an academic scholarship that his father partially attributes to the lessons learned from polo, and the hard work and dedication required of the sport — from caring for horses, to working with grooms, sponsors, and successful people orbiting the sport.
The game’s lessons
Secunda is a big believer in the benefits of polo for young people and would like to see more try the sport.
“Playing it really teaches you a lot,” he said, acknowledging there’s expense involved with horses, but the level of expense depends on one’s desired level of play and competition — playing for fun is considerably less expensive. “I've seen over the last 15, 20 years a large number of young people benefit hugely from playing polo and I'm very keen for us to kind of continue that influence on young people. I've seen it in my son … it's given him a lot of confidence.”
Finn’s pursuit of polo pushed him, his father said.
“Polo does that, it challenges them,” Secunda said. “It's a sport that traditionally was reserved for military leaders, princes, and I don't want to sound cheesy, but it's a privilege to be able to play it because it gives children a lot of confidence. They spend a lot of time with animals; they have to work with their teammates; and the animals they're riding, they're all different. They have to work with the grooms who work extremely hard to get them out on the field. It's like a race car driver working with the mechanics — you have to know the mechanics. You have to treat them well. They have to like you to do a good job.”
And if someone is going to play professionally, he or she has to interact well with sponsors, he said.
“You are introduced and you spend time with extremely successful people, and the rigors, physically, are hard,” Secunda said. “If you take it seriously and you practice, it takes discipline, a lot of coordination. There are a lot of people involved, and I just think it's a wonderful thing for young people to do and I'm hopeful over the next five to 10 years that we can get more young players coming through.”
In a digital age, spending time outside with animals, caring for them, interacting with grooms, interacting with people involved in the sport, learning how to be social, traveling to matches, are all growing experiences, he said.
“Winston Churchill said that polo is a passport to the world … and it’s true because not that many people play it and it’s played in interesting places,” Secunda said. “When you tell people as a young person that you play polo, they’re kind of curious about you.”
People interested in getting their son or daughter involved in polo can call Rodriguez at the Vero Beach Polo Club, Secunda said, noting there are opportunities for beginners, with practice chukkers for those still learning the sport.
“It’s very collaborative,” he said. “The other players out there are accommodating to them, and they include them, and encourage them. ... Then we have other chukkers that we play at a faster tempo and then those beginners don’t play in those — and when they’re ready, they do.”
Schwaber had a similar take.
“It’s like a big family, we’re all very close, we all know how we ride, and how we play, so we can all help each other through that,” she said.
Chelsi Schwaber, Sailor’s mother, also has seen the positive effects of polo on her daughter.
“I’m a big believer — and this is how I was raised, very fortunate that I had horses in my life — but my dad was not one to let us just kind of walk up to the ring and jump on our horse; we had to learn the ins and outs of it,” Chelsi said. “So it was important for me for Sailor to know, ‘Listen, if you don’t have a trainer standing right there or something happens, you need to know how to help your horse, change your saddles, change your bridles, bits, everything’ — and she dove into that willingly. The work ethic that it has taught her, the people that she’s been surrounded by — she has lifelong friends from it (and) that’s been a big, big part of it.”
Sailor keeps her horses at Ten Square Farms, near The Polo Grounds, where Replogle and Gaston also keep horses with Cesar Rodriguez.
“Being around the people that we’ve been around, Gaston, Charley, and Cesar, they’ve been just wonderful and somebody for her to look up to,” Chelsi said. “She gets to pop on other horses that they have that might be a little too crazy for me, but she handles it, and it’s built her confidence. … I think there's something about the equestrian world in general that you grow up faster and you have a lot of responsibility. You're dealing with this massive animal; you have to have a good head on your shoulders because there's a lot that can happen, so you have to be sharp and you have to be on top of it all times. So I think that has been something that has been a positive attribute to Sailor” as well.
Equine appreciation
Secunda stressed the connection between horses and riders.
“Once you become really serious about polo and you try to play at a high level, it's a little bit like being a race car driver,” he said. “I think probably your life starts to revolve around cars and engineering and, in polo, it really does become revolved around the horses — and they're just amazing animals.”
Riders treasure their horses, he said.
When horses play well, they’re easy, compliant, and willing, he said.
“It's because they really like it, that I can say with total certainty,” Secunda emphasized, “because I've tried to play polo on horses that don't like it and it's impossible — they don't want to do it, and there's no point in trying to do it. But the horses that these kids play (on) … they look after the kids, they're loyal, they're honest, they try, they're amazing animals. … They're just very willing, very eager-to-please horses, and they're not that easy to find, and they provide so much joy to the players.”
Riders spend significant time looking after their horses and preparing them, “and it's important that the public know that because, especially nowadays, people don't have much contact with animals,” he said. Regretfully, people may occasionally question how well horses are looked after or the purpose of them playing, but “they're just so appreciated.”
The grace, beauty, and athleticism of the horses is something to enjoy, not unlike the scene of players and fans on match Sunday at The Polo Grounds.
Vero is fortunate to have polo, Chelsi Schwaber said, noting players who travel the world for the game.
“There are very few places that have that ability to have polo on a Sunday a few times a month,” she said, crediting Gaston Rodriguez and Frank Evans for what they’ve brought to the community.
“It's always for a good cause,” Chelsi noted. “It’s all about supporting your town and being around your neighbors and your friends and meeting new people. And you can come out in sneakers, you can come out in your boots, you can come out in a dress and heels, but just come out, show up, and support.”
Frank and Gaston have made polo family friendly, she said. “It can be intense, but it’s family friendly. They made it like a fun day, Sunday polo.”
It’s among Vero’s many special attributes.
As Stacy Allen remarked, “It’s why Vero Beach is so amazing and awesome — you have things like this here, one of the best-kept secrets in town.”