The History of Polo

The following article provides an in depth look at The History of Polo. In-turn this article will help one understand the history before enjoying watching a polo match from the sidelines of a professional polo field.

Widely regarded as the oldest team sport in recorded history, the origins of the game of polo are obscure and uncertain. Fortunately, the Persians left us a significant amount of art and literature that have provided us with the first accounts of polo in rich detail, recording that polo appears to have originated in the Iranian Empire, with the first recorded polo match having occurred approximately six hundred years B.C.

Polo then appears to have quickly been taken up next by Chinese royalty. Polo sticks were even added to the Chinese royal coats of arms and the game became part of the court life in the golden age of China under the Emperor Ming-Hung. The expression often used today in reference to polo as being "the game of kings" actually originates in another area of Asia, just North of Kashmir, from an inscription found on a stone tablet, next to a polo ground in Giglit, near the silk route from China to the West which read, "Let other people play other things / The king of game is still the game of kings".

As Alexander the Great and various other conquerors from different nations swept across Asia, they brought with them the game of polo. It was highly embraced in India especially. In 1869, a British government official who had been stationed in Manipur, India, wrote an article of his experience in India with the fascinating sport of polo and sent it to London's "The Field Magazine". From this point forward it was rapidly adopted in England, becoming quite popular and taken very seriously. An official governing body was quickly founded for the game of polo called "The Hurlingham Polo Association" in the year 1874. It drew up the first set of formal British rules for polo matches, most of which are still in existence to this very day. Just two years later it was introduced to the United States in 1876 by British Army officers to a group of privileged, sporting gentleman from Westchester, New York, who had summer homes in Newport, Rhode Island. They then got together and formed the first polo club in the United States in Newport, and named it "The Westchester Polo Club". From that point on, polo spread South along the East Coast down to today’s famous Wellington, Florida and even further to South America and other regions of the world, continuing its steady growth in popularity to this day.

While the sport of polo is now active in over 77 countries, it is only played professionally by just a few, such as the United States, The United Kingdom, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, India and Pakistan. The United States is unique in the world of polo in that they have an official women's professional polo league as well. Arguably one of the most complex, regal and dangerous sports in the world, it is sure to last through the tests of time as it has for at least several thousands of years already, through war, famine and fallen empire.

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The PoloPony Team

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Patrick Ohannessian