Equine polo has long been a popular sport among the equestrian community since it began in Persia in the 6th century BC. We have 11 fun facts about the sport that you might not have known.
1. Polo was created 2,500 years ago to train the king’s guards or other elite troops, but very little has changed since its beginning. Marwari horses from the now Jodhpur region of India were favourites, but the British Empire preferred polo ponies and thoroughbreds.
2. The traditional white pants date back to the 19th century, a time when Indian royals often played polo in the heat and preferred light colours and fabrics.
3. In 1859, British tea planters created the very first European polo club in Silchar, in Assam, India.
4. James Gordon Bennett, a sportsman and newspaper publisher, first introduced polo to the United States in 1876.
5. The first international polo competition took place in 1886, in which the US lost to the English.
6. Although the most well-known version of polo is equine polo, there are many variations around the world including donkey, camel, yak, and even elephant polo.
7. ‘Polo ponies’ are not ponies – they are typically a cross between a quarter horse and a thoroughbred, bred specifically for polo.
8. The sport has gained many celebrity fans, some of which enjoy playing polo rather than just spectating! Celebrity polo players include Will Rogers, Clark Gable, Walt Disney, Winston Churchill, as well as Tommy Lee Jones, Ashton Kutcher, and Brad Pitt.
9. Polo can only be played with the right hand because the game rules follow the same principle as driving along a road.
10. The character of Tom Buchanon from the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is based on America’s best polo player in history, Tommy Hitchcock Jr.
11. The polo t-shirt we know today was invented in the 1920s by Lewis Lacey. Nobody expected it to become a fashion trend, but it quickly took off.
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