FREEZE FRAME Lots of horses, tons of riders and liberal drams of whisky at the Snow Polo World Cup

IT WAS -22°C the morning I arrived at St Moritz, in the Engadin valley of the Swiss Alps. It was unusually cold even for the posh winter holiday destination, which is a nightmare for someone accustomed to the Singapore heat and humidity. I pulled my heavy wool coat closer around me but it didn’t help in temperatures capable of turning a watery lake solid enough for a tank to get across.

No armoured car in sight. What I could see from the Carlton Hotel balcony were the pitch and village set up for the 35th annual Snow Polo World Cup. In the distance it resembled an icing cake decorated with white tents and pennants.

Warming Up

When the sun made it comfortable enough to venture out, I went to the pitch for a tour of the grounds and a quick lesson on the game. Royal Salute, one of the trophy sponsors for this year’s tournament, got its global polo ambassador Malcolm Borwick to sort out the media folk. He gave excellent pointers to help us understand the sport properly. We even got to hit some balls and play a horseless version of the game, warming ourselves with drams of Royal Salute in between.

Before the first match, the horses were led out to warm up. These beautiful beasts had been brought in a couple of weeks ago to acclimatise and get used to running in snow studs.

The Spo

Of Kings

Polo was first played in St Moritz circa 1899, but only as a summer activity. It took nine decades before snow polo was established as a sport, in