For Madi Cordle, Jillian Beck and Pippa Campbell, polo is not just a “Gentleman’s Sport.”

Most seniors can be seen hanging out in the Senior Shack, writing college admission essays or trying out for the upcoming winter sports, Cordle, Beck and Campbell though are focused on fostering their love of polo, mallets in hand.

Polo is a sport where each game is split into six chuckers, the Polo version for segment or quarter, each lasting seven and a half minutes. Each team has four players marked with numbers one through four, with three and four usually being the best on the team. Players switch horses each chucker, and to score a goal, they must hit a small hard plastic ball between the goal posts. After each goal, the teams switch sides and the game continues. 

Senior Jillian Beck talks to her brother Jon Luke, an alum of Maclay.

Traditionally, polo was a sport played by male royalty. Through Cordle, Beck and Campell’s love passion for the game, they are illustrating the modern fade of these boundaries. While they are three strong women taking over a male dominated sport, the transition for Beck has not been one met with hostility over gender.

“I don’t feel like I’m treated any different,” Beck said, “I love the polo community and I have made the greatest friends through it. If I have ever been treated differently on the field, it has been because of my young age.”

Even though they feel that they are treated the same, what they are doing requires courage. They are young capable women entering into a sport once played by kings and dukes as the women watched. Now everyone gets to watch as they play the sport and enjoy the newfound ability they have earned through hundreds of years of ongoing struggle against gentility. This is not to say that some men played large roles in the fight for women’s rights, it is just a known fact that strong women did have to go against the grain to gain a foothold from which to fight from. 

All three women have been around horses since their youth. Their passion for polo has developed over time through hard work, time commitments and their love of horses. 

For Campbell, her love for polo goes back before she was even born.

“It is a family tradition,” Campbell said. “In South Africa, my grandpa played because that was a hobby that the farmers would play and then my dad tried it and started playing for people.”

Senior Jillian Beck also started her riding career as a child when she was about five years old, though her initial interest was not in the sport of Polo. 

“My family was originally a Hunter Jumper family [a class in horse showing] but when my oldest brother switched to polo the whole family followed him.” Beck said.

Beck made this switch when she was twelve, and has since fallen in love with the competitive sport. However, she adamantly expressed she is not as obsessed with polo as her other siblings. Her sister, Maclay 2017 graduate, Anneke Beck went on to play polo for Cornell University.

Cordle, unlike her counterparts, picked up polo much later than her counterparts, but this has not tampered with her ability to play and her passion for the sport.

“I love playing polo,” Cordle said. “Spending time with my teammates is so much fun because everyone is so kind and encouraging, and I’ve always loved horses, so it’s kind of my perfect sport.”

With all three of these athletes in their senior year, polo has been difficult to keep up with. Tallahassee has only a small population of polo players, so to play competitively, one must travel frequently. 

“We travel a lot for it,” Beck said, “We travel to Sarasota for four months, as well as places like New York  and Kentucky during the summer.”

The travel on top of school work and mounting college pressure makes it difficult to find a balance. Cordle acknowledges the difficulties and knows to be successful, she must take a step back from polo.

 “I do travel to play,” Cordle said, “But I’m hoping that I’ll get to do it more often once college applications are in and midterms are over.”

In regards to the future, Beck, Campbell and Cordle all hope to continue their love for polo and horses after high school, though none intend to play at the college level.

“Polo is an extremely expensive sport,” Campbell said, “Once I make enough money from working, I hope to play on the side for fun.”

Due to the strain polo puts on the body, Cordle intends to eventually hangup her mallet; however, she plans to continue to play for fun while she can, and after, to take up horseback riding.

“I will definitely ride my whole life,” Cordle said. “I would love to play for fun in college.”

Beck is appreciative of all that polo has done for her life, but she soon plans to pursue other avenues.  

“This sport has been a huge part of my life,” Beck said. “I, however, am definitely ready to move on to other things. I want to focus on my higher education in hopes of one day applying my experience to marine life conservation.”

Regardless of the future that awaits for these three athletes, their love of horses and their passion for polo will always remain.