- Key People:
- John Hay Whitney
- Memo Gracida
- Thomas Hitchcock, Jr.
polo
What is the sport of polo?
How is a game of polo played?
What equipment do players use in polo?
Why are polo horses called ponies?
How do players score points in polo?
What skills are important for success in polo?
Did the Mughals play polo?
polo, game played on horseback between two teams of four players each who use mallets with long, flexible handles to drive a wooden ball down a grass field and between two goalposts. It is among the oldest equestrian sports.
History
The origins of polo are uncertain. Some historians trace its roots to Central Asia, whereas others regard the horseback sport of sagol kangjei, played in the present-day Indian state of Manipur either as far back as 3100 bce or in the 14th century bce, as an ancient precursor. Some of the earliest recorded instances of polo being played were in Persia (modern-day Iran) from the 6th century bce to the 1st century ce. Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the kingâs guard or other elite troops. To the warlike tribespeople, who played it with as many as 100 to a side, it was a miniature battle.
Whether as a cavalry training exercise or courtly entertainment, polo was popular among medieval empires across Central, East, and South Asia. Versions of the equestrian sport included:
- Buzkashī (Afghanistan/Central Asia): In this mounted contest, played predominantly by Turkic peoples, riders compete to seize and retain control of a goat or calf carcass. Similar sports include kokpar in Kazakhstan, kupkari in Uzbekistan, and ulak tartysh in Kyrgyzstan.
- Chovgan/chogÄn (ancient Iran/Persia): The best-documented ancestral form of polo historically combined cavalry training and court rituals.
- Chaugan (medieval India): The sport, popularized by the Mughal dynasty, was played in two ways. The first was roll, in which the ball was hooked on a stick with a crook at one end and carried to the goal, and the second was the more conventional form, ballah, in which players hit the ball toward their opponentâs goal.
- Sagol kangjei (Manipur, India/Meitei kingdom): Played on small ponies with seven players on each side, this version is often regarded as the direct indigenous precursor of modern polo.
- Jereed/cirit (Turkic Central Asia/Ottoman Anatolia): This form is a mounted sport in which opposing teams score by hitting opponents with thrown blunt javelins. It originated as military training to hone horsemanship and battlefield reflexes.
- Pulu (Tibet): The Balti word meaning âballâ likely gave the sport its modern name.
- Jiju/jiqiu (ancient and medieval China): An ancient form of polo, especially prominent in the Tang era, this version used mounted stick-and-ball play for cavalry training, court entertainment, military reviews, and aristocratic competition.
- Dakyu (Japan): A version of East Asian polo played ceremonially at the imperial court, it is considered a traditional equestrian art.
In time polo became a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women as well as men played the game, as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II ParvÄ«z and his courtiers in the 6th century ce. The game has also been described in Anthony Sherleyâs Travels to Persia (1613), indicating its continued popularity.
From Persia the game spread to Arabia, then to Tibet (the English word polo is the Balti word meaning âballâ), to China, to the Indian subcontinent, and to Japan. In China (910) the death of a favored relative in a game prompted Emperor A-pao-chi to order the beheading of all surviving players. Polo was popular in the court of Ayyubid sultan Saladin during the 12th century ce and was popular among Muslim conquerors of India in the 13th century. Qutub ud-Din Aibak, the founder of the Mamluk dynasty and the first Delhi sultanate, died in 1210 as a result of a polo accident.
Polo in the Mughal era (1526â1858)
During the Mughal era the sport became a prominent courtly activity, a martial exercise, and a popular aristocratic pastime. Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, established the Persian variant of polo, known as chaugan, in his court. His grandson Akbar further popularized the game, building a polo ground at a village near his capital city, Fatehpur Sikri, and holding regular tournaments. Akbar also invented a version of polo that was played at night, with a wooden ball that was set alight so that it could be seen in the dark. Akbarâs chronicler, Abul Fazl, who described the emperor as an enthusiastic and skilled polo player, noted in the Ain-i-Akbari (âThe Institutes of Akbarâ), his record of Akbarâs reign, that:
The balls which are used at night are set on fire. For this purpose palĂĄs wood is used, which is very light and burns for a long time.
Polo games were popular festival events during the reigns of the first three Mughal emperors (Babur, Humayun, and Akbar), and the tradition was continued by their successors, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The sport also spread to vassals of the Mughals, such as the Rajputs, and neighboring kingdoms, including the Deccan sultanate of Ahmadnagar. However, the popularity of the sport decreased along with the Mughal dynastyâs decline, and polo was virtually unknown across the Indian subcontinent by the early 19th century.
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19th-century revival
The first officially recorded game of modern polo was played between the British East India Company cavalry and Manipuri players in Silchar, Assam, in 1853. British tea planters and other colonial settlers formed the first European polo clubs at this time, including the Calcutta Polo Club, established in the early 1860s, which is now the worldâs oldest active polo club. Polo spread rapidly after a captain in the 10th Hussars stationed in India saw a match early in 1866 and immediately formed a team from among his fellow officers. Before the year ended, informal matches were held between British cavalry units stationed in India. In 1869 a challenge round was held between the 10th Hussars and the 9th Lancers in England. At this time there were eight men to a side and almost no rules. Polo grew rapidly in England, with matches at Richmond Park and Hurlingham attracting more than 10,000 spectators by 1875. After it had been introduced by the military, the sport of polo remained popular with them but also spread to the universities and was popular with the nobility and royalty.
In 1876 sportsman and newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr., saw his first polo game and introduced it in the United States. Later that year informal games were being played in New York City and by 1877 at Jerome Park racetrack in Westchester County, New York, where the Westchester Polo Club was founded in this latter year. In 1881 the Meadow Brook Club was formed in Long Island, New York, by such early outstanding players as Thomas Hitchcock, Sr., August Belmont, and Benjamin Nicoll. The size of the team was reduced to five and then, in 1881 in the United States and in 1883 in England, to four, the present number. Though the rules of the Hurlingham Club of England (which was founded in 1886) were at first used in the United States, in 1888 a system of handicapping players was devised to equalize tournament play. The Polo Association (later the United States Polo Association) was founded in 1890 and standardized the rules. Polo spread throughout the country, although the game long remained one for the rich because of the expense of acquiring and maintaining a stable of polo ponies. Outside the United States, the gameâs governing body is the Hurlingham Polo Association, which maintains relations with many national bodies.
Modern international competition
The first international competition took place in 1886 when the United States unsuccessfully challenged the English, then the undisputed world leaders in polo, for the Westchester Cup. England defended the Cup successfully in 1902, but the United States won in 1909. The Cup was contested nine additional times (the last in 1939), with the Americans winning each time except in 1914. The next international meeting was in 1971, when the United States defeated England for the Coronation Cup, a single-game rather than a three-game match, thereafter held annually. Polo was an Olympic sport from the 1900 Paris Summer Games until its removal from the roster after the 1936 Berlin Summer Games.
After 1909 the style of the game changed from the relatively slow English form of play characterized by short, controlled hitting. American polo players used a long-hitting, fast-moving, wide-open style that revolutionized the sport. The rules of the two countries were eventually assimilated, with the United States adopting the English rule permitting players to hook an opponentâs stick with their own mallet, and the English abandoning their offside rule that forbade players preceding the ball.
From 1909 to 1950 the United States was supreme in polo. Through the 1920s and â30s polo became increasingly popular in Argentina, and in 1928 the first Copa de las Americas (Cup of the Americas) was contested between the United States and Argentina. Since then Argentina has become the uncontested master of international polo. Polo became the Argentine national game, and crowds exceeded 60,000. International matches commercially sponsored (mainly at Boca Raton, Florida) were held in the 1970s, and European championships were inaugurated in 1980.
- Cycle polo: Invented in 1891 as an adaptation of horse polo in which players are mounted on bicycles.
- Elephant polo: Novelty sport created in the early 20th century and played from elephant-back using extra-long mallets and with mahouts steering the elephants. Following concerns about animal cruelty, organized competitive matches have been discontinued since 2018.
- Camel polo: A desert adaptation played on camels rather than ponies and regarded mostly as a festival and tourism spectacle.
British and American women also played polo in the 20th century. In the United States, women competed against women on the collegiate level, and a womenâs National Handicap competition was introduced. Occasionally a woman also acted as the fourth member of an otherwise all-male team.
In the 21st century the sport has spread to more than 80 countries and is played professionally in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, India, Iran, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others. The Federation of International Polo (FIP), established in 1982, is the global governing body for the sport and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee. The FIP organizes international tournaments such as the FIP World Polo Championship (since 1987) and the FIP Womenâs World Polo Championship (since 2022).