Polo is probably the oldest recorded game in the world; the Persian poet Hrdausi, described a match between the Persians and the Turkomans about 600 B.C. At Isfahan are the ruins of a very ancient polo ground with stone goal posts 8 yards apart and the ground 300 yards long, the correct measurements of a ground today.

The name 'Polo' came from 'Pulu', the willow root from which polo balls were made in Tibet. Slowly the game spread over Asia, even to China, Japan and India.

It was played in the nineteenth century in the mountainous northern region of India. The first club, The Silchar Polo Club, in Cachar, was formed in 1859 by soldiers and tea planters. They played the game with the Manipuris, who have played for hundreds of years.. By 1862 The Calcutta Polo Club was formed and the game spread rapidly all over India and throughout the Army. In England the first match was played at Hounslow in 1871, between the 9th Lancers and the 10th Hussars. In 1874 the Hurlingham Club was formed and in the following year the first English Rules were drawn up by the Hurlingham Polo Association. This Association now has representatives on its Council from all Associations within the Empire where Polo is played, from all English Clubs and from the Royal Navy and Army.

Though the game had spread from England to America, and then to the Argentine, more polo was played in India than in any other country. A scries of Matches between England and America for the famous Westchester Cup was won in England in 1885, 1900 and 1902. In 1909, America won with a team known as the 'big-four' - their celebrated back was Devereux Milbum, whose son played here in 1953 in The American Meadowbrook team; and they won again in 1911 and 1913, but an English team of four Cavalry Officers won decisively in 1914. We lost the Cup in 1921 and failed to recover it again though we nearly did in 1936.

In England the height of ponies was limited initially to 14 hands, but this limit was increased to 14.2 hands in 1895. After the first World War, height limits were abolished in this country and in India to help get polo started again. It soon revived, and although there were fewer country clubs, London polo at the Hurlingham, Ranelagh and Roehampton Clubs was more crowded than ever with strong visiting teams from America, Australia, India and the Argentine.

After the second World War, it seemed to many that polo in England was doomed - expenses had risen enormously, and there was a great shortage of potential ponies - but by sound re-organisation, through the Hurlingham Polo Association, and with the support of the general public as spectators, polo is thriving once again, and there are now over twenty-five Clubs in this country.