Equipment

Each player wears a protective helmet, white jeans, riding boots and a polo-shirt bearing the number of his/her position. Players may also wear knee pads, elbow protectors and carry a whip. Whereas the ball used to be made of bamboo or willow root, today it is made of high-impact plastic.

The stick is called a mallet and has a rubber-wrapped grip with a webbed thong for wrapping around the hand, and a flexible bamboo-cane shaft with a bamboo head 9 1/2 inches in length, with a total cane length varying from 48 to 53 inches, depending on pony size and length of a player’s arm. The ball is struck with the side of the mallet, not the end.