LPC: What is Polo? : History
History of Polo
"Those who do not know their history are condemed to
repeat it"
-Looking it up
For Lakeside Polo History, see: https://lakesidepolo.tripod.com/his5060.html
This history page is intended to include
dates for the establishment of polo in your country, also to include
the date your club was founded, just send mail with the details..
- 600 BC, manuscrits can be found describing polo in the East. [1]
- 521-485 BC, the time of Darius, polo mentioned by historian Tabari
(914 AD) [1]
- 590AD An epic poem describes the queen and the ladies of her court
playing before King Khusru Parvez, by Nizami (1126-1180) a
Persian Poet. [1]
- 1200 Evidence of a breif precensce of Polo in France,
brought by crusaders. [2]
- 1863 Europeans first play polo in Calcuta, India. [1]
- 1873 Hurlingham Club includes polo. [1]
- 1874 Hurlingham Rules first drawn up, included offside rule
and limited the number of players per team to five. [1]
- 1876 Mr. James Fordon Bennett is credited with introducing
polo to the USA with the first game at Dickel's Riding
Academy in New York City (corner of Thirtyninth Street
and Fith Avenue). The following spring the players
established the Westchester Polo Club at the Jerome
Park race track. [1]
- 1877 Argentine polo begins at Mr. Shennan's estancia.
- 1888 A system of handicapping was started, initially determined
by a single "handicapper" Mr. H. L. Herbert. [1]
- 1890 The United States Polo Association established. [1]
- 1915 Formation of the Indoor Polo Association. [1]
- 1922 Argentine polo players make a twenty-thousand mile journy
to establish their dominance of the polo world. [1]
- 1929 Black Hills Polo Club Founded, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA
- 1936 Polo dropped from the Olympic Games. [2]
Bibliography
- [1] American Polo, Newell Bent, 1929, The Macmillan Company, NY
- [2] The Nobel Horse, Monique & Hans D. Dossenbrach, 1987, Portland
house, NY