Polo (Persian: chogn) is a team sport played on horseback.

The objective is to
score goals against an opposing team. Players score by driving a small white plastic or
wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet. The traditional sport of polo
is played on a grass field up to 300 by 160 yards (270 by 150 m). Each polo team consists of four
riders and their mounts.
Field polo is played with a solid plastic ball which has replaced the wooden version of the ball in
much of the sport. In arena polo, only three players are required per team and the game usually
involves more maneuvering and shorter plays at lower speeds due to space limitations of arenas.
Arena polo is played with a small air-filled ball, similar to a small football.
The modern game lasts roughly two hours and is divided into periods called chukkas (occasionally
rendered as "chukkers"). Polo is played professionally in 16 countries. It was formerly an Olympic
sport.

Contents
[hide]

1History
o 1.1Origins
o 1.2Modern game
1.2.1India and Britain
1.2.2New Avatar Of Polo
1.2.3Argentina
1.2.4United States
2Rules
o 2.1Outdoor polo
o 2.2County polo
3Polo ponies
4Players
5Equipment
6The field
7Contemporary sport
8East and Southeast Asia
9West Asia
10Ireland
11Notable players / 10 handicap players
12Variants
13Related sports
o 13.1Polo on other means of transportation
14See also
15References
16Further reading

History[edit]
Polo player, with referee

Origins[edit]
 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality
standards. The specific problem is: awkward phrasing and
incorrect grammar Please help improve this article if you
can. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Polo originates from ancient Persia.[4][5] Its invention is dated variously from the 6th century BC to the
1st century AD.[6][7] Persian Emperor Shapur II learnt to play polo when he was seven years old in
316 AD. The game was learnt by the neighbouring Byzantine Empire at an early date.
A tzykanisterion (stadium for playing tzykanion, the Byzantine name for polo) was built by
emperor Theodosius II (r. 408450) inside the Great Palace of Constantinople.[8] Emperor Basil I (r.
867886) excelled at it; Emperor Alexander (r. 912913) died from exhaustion while playing
and John I of Trebizond (r. 12351238) died from a fatal injury during a game.[9] Naqsh-i Jahan
Square in Isfahan is a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in the 17th century.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan is the site of a mediaeval royal polo field.[10]

Qutubuddin Aibak, the Turkic slave from Central Asia who later became the Sultan of
Delhi in Northern India, ruled as a Sultan for only four years, from 1206 to 1210, dying an accidental
death during a game of polo when his horse fell and he was impaled on the pommel of his saddle.
After the Muslim conquests to the Ayyubid and Mameluke dynasties of Egypt and the Levant, their
elites favoured it above all other sports. Notable sultans such as Saladin and Baybars were known to
play it and encourage it in their court.[11] Polo sticks were features on the Mameluke precursor to
modern day playing cards.
A Persian miniature from the poem Guy-o Chawgn ("the Ball and the Polo-mallet") during Safavid
dynasty of Persia, which shows Persian courtiers on horseback playing a game of polo, 1546 AD

Later on, polo was passed from Persia to other parts of Asia including the Indian subcontinent,
especially in the Northern Areas of present-
day Pakistan (including Gilgit, Chitral, Hunza and Baltistan) since at least the 15th-16th
century[12] and China, where it was popular in the Chinese Tang dynasty capital of Chang'an, and
also played by women, who wore male dress to do so; many Tang dynasty tomb figures of female
players survive.[13]Valuable for training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan
by the Middle Ages. It is known in the East as the Game of Kings.[14] The name polo is said to have
been derived from the Balti word "pulu", meaning ball.[15]

Modern game[edit]
India and Britain[edit]
The modern game of polo is derived from Manipur, India, where the game was known as 'Sagol
Kangjei', 'Kanjai-bazee', or 'Pulu'.[16][17] It was the anglicised form of the last, referring to the wooden
ball that was used, which was adopted by the sport in its slow spread to the west. The first polo club
was established in the town of Silchar in Assam, India, in 1833.
The origins of the game in Manipur are traced to early precursors of Sagol Kangjei.[18] This was one
of three forms of hockey in Manipur, the other ones being field hockey (called Khong Kangjei) and
wrestling-hockey (called Mukna Kangjei). Local rituals such as those connected to the Marjing, the
Winged-Pony God of Polo and the creation-ritual episodes of the Lai Haraoba festival enacting the
life of his son, Khori-Phaba, the polo-playing god of sports. These may indicate an origin earlier than
the historical records of Manipur. Later, according to Chaitharol-Kumbaba, a Royal Chronicle of
Manipur King Kangba who ruled Manipur much earlier than Nongda Lairen Pakhangba (33 AD)
introduced Sagol Kangjei (Kangjei on horse back). Further regular playing of this game commenced
in 1605 during the reign of King Khagemba under newly framed rules of the game. However it was
the first Mughal emperor, Babur, who popularised the sport in India and ultimately made a significant
influence on England.
Old polo field in Imphal, Manipur

In Manipur, polo is traditionally played with seven players to a side. The players are mounted on the
indigenous Manipuri pony, which stands less than 13 hands (52 inches, 132 cm). There are no goal
posts, and a player scores simply by hitting the ball out of either end of the field. Players strike the
ball with the long side of the mallet head, not the end.[19] Players are not permitted to carry the ball,
although blocking the ball with any part of the body except the open hand is permitted.[20] The sticks
are made of cane, and the balls are made from the roots of bamboo. Players protected their legs by
attaching leather shields to their saddles and girths.[21]
In Manipur, the game was played even by commoners who owned a pony.[15] The kings of Manipur
had a royal polo ground within the ramparts of their Kangla Fort. Here they played Manung Kangjei
Bung (literally, "Inner Polo Ground"). Public games were held, as they are still today, at the Mapan
Kangjei Bung (literally "Outer Polo Ground"), a polo ground just outside the Kangla. Weekly games
called Hapta Kangjei (Weekly Polo) were also played in a polo ground outside the current Palace.
The oldest polo ground in the world is the Imphal Polo Ground in Manipur State. The history of this
pologround is contained in the royal chronicle "Cheitharol Kumbaba" starting from AD 33. Lieutenant
(later Major General) Joseph Ford Sherer, the father of modern polo visited the state and played on
this polo ground in the 1850s. Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India visited the state in 1901 and
measured the polo ground as 225 by 110 yards (206 by 101 m).[citation needed]
In 1862 the oldest polo club still in existence, Calcutta Polo Club, was established by two British
soldiers, Sherer and Captain Robert Stewart.[22] Later they spread the game to their peers in
England. The British are credited with spreading polo worldwide in the late 19th century and the
early 20th century. Military officers imported the game to Britain in the 1860s. The establishment of
polo clubs throughout England and western Europe followed after the formal codification of
rules.[21] The 10th Hussars at Aldershot, Hants, introduced polo to England in 1834. The game's
governing body in the United Kingdom is the Hurlingham Polo Association, which drew up the first
set of formal British rules in 1874, many of which are still in existence.
This version of polo played in the 19th century was different from the faster form that was played in
Manipur. The game was slow and methodical, with little passing between players and few set plays
that required specific movements by participants without the ball. Neither players nor horses were
trained to play a fast, nonstop game. This form of polo lacked the aggressive methods
and equestrian skills to play. From the 1800s to the 1910s, a host of teams representing
Indian principalities dominated the international polo scene.[21]