Thailand: Elephants, polo & elephant polo

Sometimes, on our longer shoots, it helps to take a break. While on a three week job in Asia, we took an afternoon off and played some elephant polo. They call it a “chucker” over there. The polo mallets are six or seven feet long. The elephants love the game and get pretty fired up and competitive. Some even cheat once in a while and pick up the ball with their trunk to help you out. When you pick out your elephant, a younger and faster elephant is not always the wisest choice as he will not challenge the herd matriarch in certain situations.