History of Polo: The Sport of Kings or the King of Sports
Over 2,500 years ago, Persian cavalry units employed a unique training game for their elite troopers. They would mount horses, and use long mallets to hit a ball into the opponent’s goal. This is the earliest known form of polo from the 5th century
BC.
Royalty across different geographical boundaries has been playing polo for recreational purposes since the 6th century AD which has also been depicted in Persian literature and art. Although the game originated in Persia, the town of Silchar in
Assam, India served as the first city to establish a polo club in 1834. Captain Robert Stewart and Major General Joe Shearer form the East India Company under British Raj, established this club under the Calcutta Polo Club.
Captain Stewart and Lieutenant Shearer spread the game to their peers back in England. This is why they have the distinction of spreading the game of Polo in the late 19th and early 20th century. The game was then adapted by military
officers in the 1860’s. The growing popularity of polo resulted in the foremost body of polo, the Hurlingham Polo Association, which was set up under the initial rules of British Polo in 1874.
Many of these rules are still followed till date. British settlers in Argentina played polo in their free time which caught the attention of the locals. Later, Argentineans established the base for the game under the Asociación Argentina de Polo which in
Spanish stood for the Argentinean Polo Association. Due to their early interaction with Polo, Argentina won gold in polo during the first Olympic Games in 1924 in Paris and again in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Following the 1924 Olympics, the game spread
like wildfire across Argentina and it is still credited as “the Mecca of Polo.”
Aside from England and Argentina, Polo also became popular in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Pakistan, and the United States of America.
James Gordon Bennett Jr. was credited with organizing the first ever polo match in the United States. Dickel’s Riding Academy in New York City had the honour of holding the first polo match in the country. Under the auspices of Harry Payne Whitney, the previously
slow and calculating nature of polo was changed to a fast paced game that it is today. Instead of short passes that were commonly employed in British styled Polo, Whitney would pass the ball along the length of the field to players who had broken away from
the pack.
The oldest polo ground is in Manipur, India, where Captain Stewart and Lieutenant Shearer played their games during the 1850’s. The oldest imperial Polo square is in Gilgit, Pakistan, which is known as the Gilgit Polo Field that dates back to the 16th
century. The Shandur Polo Festival is held at this venue on an annual basis where local teams fight for glory. It is also famous for being the highest polo ground in the world at a dizzying height of 14,000 feet above sea level. The oldest polo club dates
back to 1862 when Captain Stewart and Lieutenant Shearer established the Calcutta Polo Club.
A typical game of polo comprises of two teams of four players each. A normal playing field is 300 yard long by 150-200 yards wide. At either end of the field are 8 yard wide goalposts through which the players hit the ball to score a point. After each point,
teams switch goals to factor in weather and field conditions. In the United States, arena polo is more popular than field polo. An arena is 100 yards long by 50 yards wide, with each team consisting of three players and teams changing goals after every six
minutes instead of changing it after each goal. The ball in arena polo is smaller than that in field polo, at only 12 to 15 inches in circumference.
The horses used in polo are known as polo ponies, despite the fact that they are full-grown horses. A well trained polo pony responds more to the riders weight shifting and leg cues than the reins, although they are also trained to respond to riding with
only one hand on the reins. A well trained polo pony accounts for up to three-quarters of the rider’s skill and forms the backbone of the team.
Polo has been present since the last 2500 years and judging by the interest that Pakistan, Argentina, and England have in the game of polo, it will most likely last for a very long period.
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