Off To The Races: Polo and the Pandemic

Okay, so hear me out.Lacrosse.But on horses.Yeah, I wasn’t convinced either. But, when my dad invited me out for an afternoon, I jumped at the opportunity to get out of the house. Like many of you probably can relate, I was tired of being stuck inside. So I put on a dress, broke out my fancy sun hat (it’s just a regular sun hat tbh), and got ready to watch some people ride some horses.

Was It Worth It?

Honestly? Yeah!I was never what you would consider a “horse girl.” In fact, I’m allergic to horses.And dogs and cats and sheep and goats and every other freaking animal on the planet.All this to say, I knew nothing about polo. But I was surprised to find that the afternoon wasn’t about the sport. It was about the act of gathering and finding some sense of normalcy amidst the crazy times.One of my dad’s friends has a box and we set up a little table with some food, our lawn chairs, and grabbed a couple of beers. We all sat six feet apart and just caught up like it was old times.Plus, there were people riding on horses hitting a ball with sticks.Clearly I didn’t pick up any subtleties of polo.It was great.

Lauren, Is This Just An Excuse For You To Show Off Your Photos?

Kind of.I’ll admit that one of the biggest draws of the day for me was a chance to practice my hand at sports photography. I’d never really done anything like it before and figured, at the very least, I could keep myself entertained that way. I watched the first half of the game, and grabbed photos during the second.So yes, it was about the photography challenge. But it was also about spending time with some of the people closest to me and getting really into a sport that I didn’t understand whatsoever. It was about laughing and cheering and eating some party pizza and drinking some beer and talking about everything and nothing at all.For a few short hours, everything was just normal.