Polo History

Polo is thought to have originated in Persia around 2,000 years ago. The first recorded game took place in 600BC between the Turkomans and Persians (the Turkomans won). In the fourth century AD, King Sapoor II of Persia learned to play at age seven. In the 16th century, a polo ground (300 yards long and with goalposts eight yards apart) was built at Ispahan, then the capital, by Shah Abbas the Great.

The Moguls were largely responsible for taking the game from Persia to the east and, by the 16th century, the Emperor Babur had established it in India.

In the 1850s, British tea planters discovered the game in Manipur on the Burmese border with India. They founded the world’s first polo club at Silchar, west of Manipur. Other clubs followed and today the oldest in the world is the Calcutta Club which founded in 1862. Malta followed in 1868 because soldiers and naval officers stopped off there on their way home from India.

The first polo club in England was Monmouthshire, founded in 1872 by Captain Francis “Tip” Herbert (1845- 1922) at his brother’s estate at Clytha Park, near Abergavenny. Others, including Hurlingham, followed quickly. Handicaps were introduced by the USA in 1888 and by England and India in 1910. The first official match in Argentina took place on 3rd September 1875. The game had been taken there by English and Irish engineers and ranchers.

In 1876, Lt Col Thomas St.Quintin introduced the game to Australia. He is credited with being the Father of Australian Polo. In the same year, polo was introduced to the USA by James Gordon Bennett Junior who had seen the game at Hurlingham during a visit to England. Today, close to 100 countries play polo. It was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1939 and has now been recognised again by the International Olympic Committee.

In Sweden and Scandinavia, the game is relatively new and unknown. KA Polo intends to help increase awareness of this ancient and noble sport in Sweden and Scandinavia.