CELEBRITIES WHO PLAY : Despite Injuries, They Keep Getting Up on Their Horses

ANY CELEBRITIES have taken up polo in the last few years. Among them are Doug Sheehan of “Knots Landing,” William Devane, Alex Cord, Pamela Sue Martin, Dorrie Forstmann, Barbara McQueen (Steve’s widow), Stefanie Powers, Sylvester Stallone, Jameson Parker, Sam Shepard, Tommy Lee Jones, Juice Newton--even the Monkees. Sheehan, Cord, Devane and Martin make up the Piaget Celebrity Team, which has raised more than $2 million for charity with exhibition matches throughout the United States.

Being a celebrity polo player is not all posing at photo opportunities in dashing outfits. Cord has broken his leg, his nose, and four ribs and damaged his liver in two accidents; Sheehan nearly lost his foot six months into learning the game.

Why do they keep getting back on the horse? Says Pamela Sue Martin: “It’s like we get to go back in time. Man is yearning to be rugged--why else are all those guys driving Jeep Cherokees on city streets?”

“I first saw polo played at ‘Great Gatsby Day,’ a charity benefit they had at Will Rogers park a couple of years ago,” Sheehan says, “and I was such a sucker for the antique Rollses and the English boots I went out and signed up for polo lessons the next day.”

“I saw a polo match once when I was in high school and thought it was a world I could never be part of,” Cord says. “Recently I went back and played on that same field for the March of Dimes, which meant a lot to me because I had polio as a child. My whole family came out to watch and I was the high scorer. It was a dream come true.”