The short answer: Yes, I believe America can be the best in the world at polo again. In the 1920s and 1930s, polo's golden age in America, crowds of up to 45,000 people came to Meadow Brook on Long Island to watch the Westchester Cup, and Tommy Hitchcock held a 10-goal rating for nearly two decades. Today the United States has about 6.6 million horses, an equine industry worth $177 billion, and the resources to produce more high-goal players than any other country. What's missing is a pipeline that gets more Americans on polo ponies early and keeps them there.
America's golden age of polo
For a stretch between the World Wars, polo drew enormous crowds in America. According to the Meadow Brook Club's own history, the Westchester Cup matches against England in 1924, 1927, and 1930 drew as many as 45,000 spectators, and the 1928 Cup of the Americas against Argentina drew more than 100,000 across three games. Tommy Hitchcock Jr. carried a 10-goal handicap from 1922 to 1940 and led his teams to U.S. Open titles in 1923, 1927, 1935, and 1936.
Americans played polo, and they filled grandstands to watch it.
Where the sport is now
Today, the top of the sport is dominated by Argentina, home of the Triple Crown and most of the world's 10-goal players. The United States still has the U.S. Open, the Gold Cup, a deep amateur base, and Wellington's winter season. In 2022, the U.S. Polo Association bought the International Polo Club Palm Beach and renamed it the National Polo Center, with six fields and a 5,000-seat stadium.
American women are rising too. In 2022, Hope Arellano became the first woman to play for the United States at the FIP World Polo Championship, held in Wellington. I wrote more about that in women in polo.
Why I believe America can lead again
The United States has the capacity to produce more high-goal polo players than any other country. We have the industry, the resources, the innovation, and the conviction.
The horses. The American Horse Council's 2023 study counted about 6.6 million horses in the United States.
The industry. The same study put the horse industry's economic contribution at $177 billion, with 2.2 million jobs linked to it.
The facilities. From Wellington to the Santa Ynez Valley to Big Horn, Wyoming, the country is full of world-class fields that go quiet for months between seasons.
The talent. On my tour I played with kids in New Mexico who were training for a youth championship, and met a college coach in Texas who has been coaching polo for 52 years.
What it would take
I contacted clubs in more than 35 states trying to visit every polo club in America. Here's what I think stands between us and the top:
Access. Too many clubs are hard to find, hard to reach, and hard to join. Many never answered my messages. A curious beginner won't try ten times.
Affordability. Polo doesn't have to be yacht money. In San Diego I played a chukker for $30. In Jackson Hole, players share pros to keep the season affordable. Here are the real numbers.
Kids on horses. Programs like Work to Ride in Philadelphia, which my tour raised money for, put city kids on horses and into polo. Interscholastic and college teams do the same. More of those, everywhere.
Organization. Polo still runs on group chats and phone calls. Every hour a manager spends texting about who's playing which horse is an hour not spent growing the sport.
The American polo player can be synonymous with the best polo players in the world. We've done it before.
That last problem is the one I'm solving. PoloFlow is the app I'm building to make polo easier to organize, so more Americans can play. Polo, wherever you are. Join the waitlist.
