The sport of kings is having a moment — it’s the subject of Harry and Meghan’s new Netflix documentary and hot Argentinian players are now arriving in Britain for the start of the season. Malcolm Borwick, former England captain and the polo-playing chum of the Duke of Sussex, puts Sophia Money-Coutts in the saddle. I have just had a polo lesson with Malcolm Borwick, former England captain and polo-playing friend of Prince Harry, and now there’s an ambulance at the Sussex stables with two paramedics having a look for broken ribs.
They’re not checking me, I should clarify. They’re feeling up one of Malcolm’s clients. People pay this tall, blue-eyed, intensely charming character, who could be from one of Polo writer Jilly Cooper’s novels , £250 (about $520) an hour for lessons, and this poor chap was practising on one of the polo fields behind us (or stick and balling, as they call it, but we’ll come to the lingo later) when, bang, suddenly he was on the ground, not moving.
Malcolm, like a real-life action hero, leapt off his horse as if the saddle had electrocuted his arse and sprinted over; there followed several minutes of agonised groaning. Then the ambulance was called. But as Malcolm tells me later, this is a dangerous game.
The polo season’s just kicked off in the UK, having finished in America where last month Malcolm played alongside Prince Harry in Florida. There, he captained the winning side and afterwards launched a viral TikTok clip and a thous.
