The pretty side of polo

But what is it like being a female polo player in a male-dominated sport? Anastasia Ferrara has everyone chomping at the bit to find out.

A year ago she was showjumping and studying music, now Ferrara is smacking balls and running wild with the guys in the elite game of polo. While most people associate polo with hunky, horse-riding men, there is, in fact, a national women’s side.

“It’s nice that you can mix the teams because I find that playing with males puts you in a different sort of mindset because obviously they play a lot harder, so it pushes you,” said Ferrara.

The male players also tend to assume that female players will miss the ball, she claimed.

“The better I’ve gotten the more they ride me because now they know that I’m not going to miss the ball that often,” she laughed.

But it’s not all riding and glam. There is some pretty intense skill that goes into it. Ferrara admits that having basic riding skills does help, but most of it comes from training – lots and lots of training. She said once you’ve learnt to grip with your legs, it just comes down to swinging and bending the top half of your body.

However, she does train at least twice a week and then twice again on the weekend. “Usually I’ll just go out with a stick and a ball on my own, which is also good for the horses because sometimes in a practise game you don’t always get a lot of time on the ball.”

Ferrara admitted that the number of women in polo was rather small and did not get nearly as much focus as the men. However, this is something she hopes will change soon. “It would be nice if we could get more females involved and start playing so we can grow the female side of polo because it’s very small.”

Luckily, the Inanda Club has a Polo Academy that trains women to become professional polo players.

You can catch Ferrara at the Land Rover Africa Cup.

from 14 to 16 August.

Details: www.inandaclub.co.za; www.computicket.co.za; @LandRoverCup