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Below, close up of a Cartier polo pony and saddle in the players Page 9, above, action match shot between team Maserati
areas pitch side. and team Cartier as the umpire looks on in the background;
below, action match shot between team Azerbaijan and team
Badrutt’s Palace

had the inspired idea of organizing the first edi- fort that the ponies exert is as strenuous as the Galloping horses, clouds of ice rising from the ground, men leaning out of their saddles to strike a ball on the snowy ground. Snow polo is a game of action, elegance, technique, and dexterity: a spectacle
tion of the St. Moritz Snow Polo World Cup in concept of the game is straightforward: pass the that reveals itself in all its magnificence every year at the Snow Polo World Cup in St. Moritz.
1985. Four years later, Cortina followed suit host- ball among the four players on your team and try
ing the next edition. The competition has taken to get it through the opposing team’s goalposts.
place in some of the most exclusive resorts on the It might seem simple, but hitting a ball (fluo-
planet, including Kitzbühel, Austria (site of The rescent for increased visibility) with a mallet (taco
Race, the most notorious downhill competition for the Argentinian players) while leaning off the
in the world), and in Aspen, Colorado. The ice saddle of a moving horse is anything but easy.
has to be at least 50 centimeters (20 inches) thick, The artists of the sport, the stars, are assigned a
covered in 5,000 cubic meters (176,573 cubic feet) handicap – a numerical ranking from -2 to 10 – to
of snow, which is why the horses are equipped even out the balance between the two teams.
with cleated horseshoes that prevent slipping. The lure of luxury, the sky reliably blue as
The result, as they gallop furiously, is that the if on command, the sun, the champagne, the
ice is pulverized into impalpable clouds of snow, DJ sets, the hospitality of the most prestigious
like a spectacular firework display of smoke and brands, the villas, the supercars, the helicop-
festive thunder. The photos of the riders engaged ters and private jets, and the sheer elegance of
in feats of dexterity and balance are the best ad- everything, even the players’ livery, makes it all
vertisement for the perfect combination of power the more charming and exclusive. It’s hard not to
and elegance embodied by this discipline. picture oneself in a romantic Hollywood movie,
The event always attracts the most interna- feeling warm and cozy despite the frigid tem-
tionally acclaimed polo players from Argentina peratures, which magically go unnoticed. The
and England, led this year by Chris Hyde, the sport is charged with adrenaline, exciting and
most decorated of them all. The horses, called unforgiving. It is the soul and not the social rank
ponies, are shorter than average, powerful, and that make one a fighter, a horseman of the ice,
agile when it comes to sudden movements; they ageless and beyond time. It is the soul and not
are usually replaced after each of the four periods the social rank that make one a fighter, a horse-
of the match (called chukkers). The amount of ef- man of the ice, ageless and beyond time.

8 Sport Protagonist Protagonist Sport 9