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125-638: At the turn of the 19th century there was a tremendous strain on the polo clubs of London to provide for the growing interest in the sport. Clubs existed in the vicinity of the capital but were considered to be too far to travel. It was the initiative of the Miller brothers that began the formation of Roehampton Club to alleviate this problem. Edward Miller had left the 17th Lancers in 1893 to start Rugby Polo Club at his home in Warwickshire. His brothers Ted, Charles (an Olympic polo player) and George had developed one of

250-638: A Dari dialect. In the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule, numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to

375-500: A Prospective Members Meeting. At this informal group meeting Prospective Members are given more information about the Club and the application process by the Membership and Marketing Manager, Chief Executive and a Director. They are asked to say a few words from their chair about themselves and their reasons for joining the Club. The meetings take place one Sunday per month starting at 10am in

500-418: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in

625-529: A fast, non-stop game. This form of polo lacked the aggressive methods and required fewer equestrian skills. From the 1800s to the 1910s, a host of teams representing Indian principalities dominated the international polo scene. The game had reached Samoa by the 1890's. The World Champions Polo League was launched in Jaipur in 2016. It is a new version of polo, similar to the Twenty20 format of cricket. The pitch

750-563: A fatal injury during a game. 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 courts. Saladin was known for being a skilled polo player, which contributed to his cavalry training. Polo sticks were featured as one of

875-400: A free "knock-in" from the place where the ball crossed the goal line, thus getting ball back into play. Arena polo has rules similar to the field version, and is less strenuous for the player. It is played in a 300 by 150 feet (91 by 46 m) enclosed arena, much like those used for other equestrian sports; the minimum size is 150 by 75 feet (46 by 23 m). There are many arena clubs in

1000-500: A language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Farsi , which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name Persian is still more widely used. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has maintained that the endonym Farsi is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that Persian

1125-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from

1250-828: A match. The challenge was published 2 June 1876, in The Galveston Daily News . By the time the article came out on 2 June, the Denison Club had already received a letter from Bennett indicating the challenge was offered before the "first" games in New York. There is an urban legend that the first game of polo in America was played in Boerne, Texas , at retired British officer Captain Glynn Turquand's famous Balcones Ranch. The Boerne, Texas, legend also has plenty of evidence pointing to

1375-615: A period of rest and maintenance. This seasonal flow highlights Mar del Plata’s dual role as a sports hub and a seaside retreat. Polo has found popularity throughout the rest of the Americas, including Brazil , Chile , Mexico , and the United States of America . Even with the global spread of the sport Argentina has remained the largest producer of the highest quality horses and players. The country's fertile farmland around Buenos Aires and its long standing tradition of polo has made Argentina

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1500-529: A period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed toward a fully accepted language of literature, and which was even able to lexically satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and

1625-410: A pony with their mallet. Unsafe hooking is a foul that will result in a penalty shot being awarded. For example, it is a foul for a player to reach over an opponent's mount in an attempt to hook. The other basic defensive play is called the bump or ride-off. It's similar to a body check in ice hockey . In a ride-off, a player rides their pony alongside an opponent's mount to move an opponent away from

1750-476: A racecourse, a horse show ground, an area where women could practice driving , tilting and jumping and stabling for the members horses. in 1904 a golf course was built with nine holes, this was later expanded to 18. Roehampton Club opened in April 1902 under the management of Charles Darley Miller . The Roehampton Trophy , donated by Mrs Alison Cunninghame of Craigends, was first played for in this year. The Trophy

1875-416: A small hard ball through the opposing team's goal . Each team has four mounted riders, and the game usually lasts one to two hours, divided into periods called chukkas or chukkers. Polo has been called "the sport of kings", and has become a spectator sport for equestrians and high society , often supported by sponsorship . The progenitor of polo and its variants existed from the 6th century BC to

2000-580: A speaker of Persian. Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are

2125-409: A stoppage in play, whichever comes first. There is a four-minute interval between chukkas and a ten-minute halftime. Play is continuous and is only stopped for rule infractions (fouls), broken tack (equipment) or injury to horse or player. The object is to score goals by hitting the ball between the goal posts, no matter how high in the air. If the ball goes wide of the goal, the defending team is allowed

2250-412: A traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports . It originated in ancient Persia (modern-day Iran ), dating back over 2,000 years. Initially played by Persian nobility as a training exercise for cavalry units, polo eventually spread to other parts of the world. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit

2375-605: Is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , respectively Iranian Persian (officially known as Persian ), Dari Persian (officially known as Dari since 1964), and Tajiki Persian (officially known as Tajik since 1999). It

2500-644: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran. Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages. Throughout history, Persian was considered prestigious by various empires centered in West Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian

2625-610: Is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian. Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian." The known history of

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2750-812: Is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivative of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivative of the Cyrillic script . Modern Persian

2875-457: Is an indoor or semi-outdoor variant with similar rules, and is played with three riders per team. The playing field is smaller, enclosed and usually of compacted sand or fine aggregate , and often indoors. Arena polo has more maneuvering due to space limitations, and uses an air-inflated ball slightly larger than the hard solid ball used in field polo. Standard mallets are used, though slightly larger-head arena mallets are an option. The game

3000-456: Is arena polo; in the United Kingdom, collegiate polo is both. Some of the most important arena polo tournaments held are: All tournaments and levels of play and players are organized within and between polo clubs, including membership, rules, safety, fields and arenas. The rules of polo are written to include the safety of both players and horses. Games are monitored by umpires. A whistle

3125-606: Is attested in Old Persian cuneiform on inscriptions from between the 6th and 4th century BC. Middle Persian is attested in Aramaic -derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third to the tenth centuries (see Middle Persian literature ). New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia , since then adopting

3250-441: Is blown when an infraction occurs, and penalties are awarded. Strategic plays in polo are based on the "line of the ball", an imaginary line that extends through the ball in the line of travel. This line traces the ball's path and extends past the ball along that trajectory. The line of the ball defines rules for players to approach the ball safely. The "line of the ball" changes each time the ball changes direction. The player who hits

3375-425: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in the 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of

3500-571: Is located on Club Road in the heart of Silchar city in Assam. In 1862, the oldest polo club still in existence, Calcutta Polo Club , was established by two British soldiers, Sherer and Captain Robert Stewart. Later they spread the game to their peers in England. Polo was first played in England by the 10th Hussars in 1869. The British are credited with spreading polo worldwide in the late 19th century and

3625-455: Is not actually attested until 600 years later when it appears in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) inscriptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with any degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century. From the 8th century onward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with

3750-468: Is now the oldest polo trophy played for in England and the tournament is held at Ham Polo Club in Richmond, London . There were also Junior competitions and a tournament where all the players and teams were selected by ladies. The cups were presented to the ladies who picked the winning team. In 1913 Olive Hockin started a fire at the Club in support of the suffragette movement . Hockin was arrested as she

3875-468: Is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with Pashto . The term Dari , meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital Ctesiphon , which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of Parthia ( Parthian ). Tajik Persian ( форси́и тоҷикӣ́ , forsi-i tojikī ),

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4000-570: Is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash , who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became

4125-545: Is originally invented by Iranians and its Persian name is " Chovgan " ( čowgān ). The game's English name derives from the Balti language , from its word for 'ball', polo . It is cognate with the Standard Tibetan pulu , also meaning 'ball'. Many scholars suggest it most likely began as a simple game played by the Iranian people . An archaic variation of polo, regionally referred to as buzkashi or kokpar ,

4250-517: Is still played in parts of Central Asia. It was developed and formalised in Ancient Iran ( Persia ) as " chovgan " ( čowgān ), becoming a national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women played as well as men. During the period of the Parthian Empire (247 BC to AD 224), the sport had great patronage under the kings and noblemen. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity ,

4375-486: Is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Iranian historian and linguist Ehsan Yarshater , founder of the Encyclopædia Iranica and Columbia University 's Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on Iranology , rejecting

4500-426: 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. Players are not permitted to carry the ball, although blocking

4625-456: The manung kangjei bung ( lit.   ' inner polo ground ' ). Public games were held, as they still are today, at the mapan kangjei bung ( lit.   ' outer polo ground ' ), a polo ground just outside the Kangla. Weekly games called hapta kangjei ( lit.   ' weekly polo ' ) were also played in a polo ground outside the current palace. The oldest polo ground in

4750-486: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan, and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: More distantly related branches of the Iranian language family include Kurdish and Balochi . The Glottolog database proposes

4875-502: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which, among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task aided due to its relatively simple morphology, and this situation persisted until at least the 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on

5000-492: The 1st century AD , as an equestrian game played by the Iranian . In Persia , where the sport evolved and developed, it was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the royal guard or other elite troops. It is now popular around the world, with well over 100 member countries in the Federation of International Polo , played professionally in 16 countries, and was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1936. Arena polo

5125-651: The British colonization , Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent . It took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and became the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors . The Bengal Sultanate witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The period of

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5250-595: The Jerome Park Racetrack in Westchester County (now Bronx County ) was the site of the "first" American outdoor polo match. H. L. Herbert, James Gordon Bennett and August Belmont Jr. financed the original New York Polo Grounds . Herbert stated in a 1913 article that they formed the Westchester Club after the "first" outdoor game was played on 13 May 1876. This contradicts the historical record of

5375-656: The Marques de Villavieja , Lord Hugh Salisbury , the Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich , and the Duke of Westminster . King Alfonso XIII of Spain was so fond of playing at the club he paid for a grandstand to be built on top of the clubhouse for his entourage to use. Polo and equestrianism at Roehampton Club recovered quickly after the First World War. The club was now being managed by Clement Charles Lister who with

5500-629: The Middle Ages . The game also spread south to Arabia and to India and Tibet. Abbasid Baghdad had a large polo ground outside its walls, and one of the city's early 13th century gates, the Bab al Halba, was named after these nearby polo grounds. The game continued to be supported by Mongol rulers of Persia in the 13th century, as well as under the Safavid dynasty. In the 17th century, Naqsh-i Jahan Square in Isfahan

5625-655: The Sultanate of Rum , Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans , and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. A branch of

5750-688: The Turkic , Armenian , Georgian , & Indo-Aryan languages . It also exerted some influence on Arabic, while borrowing a lot of vocabulary from it in the Middle Ages. Some of the world's most famous pieces of literature from the Middle Ages, such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , The Divān of Hafez , The Conference of

5875-483: The ezāfe construction, expressed through ī (modern e/ye ), to indicate some of the relations between words that have been lost with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system. Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had probably already begun before the 4th century BC. However, Middle Persian

6000-417: The withers , and weigh 900 to 1,100 pounds (410 to 500 kg). The polo pony is selected carefully for quick bursts of speed, stamina, agility and manoeuvrability. Temperament is critical; the horse must remain responsive under pressure and not become excited or difficult to control. Many are Thoroughbreds or Thoroughbred crosses. They are trained to be handled with one hand on the reins , and to respond to

6125-585: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,

6250-601: The 16th centuries. Qutubuddin Aibak ( r.  1206–1210 ), originally a Turkic slave who later founded the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290) Delhi Sultanate , was accidentally killed during a game of polo when his horse fell and he was impaled on the pommel of his saddle. Polo likely travelled via the Silk Road to China where it was popular in the Tang dynasty capital of Chang'an , where it

6375-521: The Argentine pampas started practising polo during their free time, and eventually some of them began to put together games. Among them, David Shennan is credited with having organised the first formal polo game of the country in 1875, at Estancia El Negrete, located in Buenos Aires Province . The sport spread quickly among the skillful gauchos , and several clubs opened in the following years in

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6500-672: The Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi , are written in Persian. Some of the prominent modern Persian poets were Nima Yooshij , Ahmad Shamlou , Simin Behbahani , Sohrab Sepehri , Rahi Mo'ayyeri , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , and Forugh Farrokhzad . There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers worldwide, including Persians , Lurs , Tajiks , Hazaras , Iranian Azeris , Iranian Kurds , Balochs , Tats , Afghan Pashtuns , and Aimaqs . The term Persophone might also be used to refer to

6625-629: The Clubhouse. After this meeting, all the Prospective Members’ names are posted to the notice board in Reception for at least two weeks and are then taken to the following board meeting for applications to be ratified by the Board. If Prospective Members know current Members of the Club we ask that they find someone to propose and second their application and to provide a letter to state how they are known to

6750-500: The Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from Persian and Farsi , by names such as Iranian Persian and Western Persian , exclusively. Officially, the official language of Iran is designated simply as Persian ( فارسی , fārsi ). The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named Dari ( دری , dari ) since 1958. Also referred to as Afghan Persian in English, it

6875-429: The Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as Sultan Selim I , despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Shia Islam . It was a major literary language in the empire. Some of the noted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which began in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah , a glorification of Selim I. After

7000-408: The Persian ball game was an important pastime in the court of the Sasanian Empire (224–651). It was also part of the royal education for the Sasanian ruling class. Emperor Shapur II learnt to play polo at age seven in 316 AD. Valuable for training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople , where Emperor Theodosius II constructed a polo ground early in the 5th century, to Japan by

7125-459: The Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: As a written language , Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscription , dating to the time of King Darius I (reigned 522–486 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran , Romania ( Gherla ), Armenia , Bahrain , Iraq , Turkey, and Egypt . Old Persian

7250-425: The Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in

7375-401: The Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai Turkic , Dobhashi Bengali , and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under

7500-487: The Perso-Arabic script. Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with Persian poetry becoming a tradition in many eastern courts. It was used officially as a language of bureaucracy even by non-native speakers, such as the Ottomans in Anatolia , the Mughals in South Asia, and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan. It influenced languages spoken in neighboring regions and beyond, including other Iranian languages,

7625-492: The Proposer / Seconder, for how long and to vouch for their good character and any attributes they would bring to the Club. Their signatures are also needed on the application form. For Prospective Members who don’t currently know any Members at the Club, in order to submit an application for membership, we ask for CVs, a copy of ID and letters from two professional people who can write a character reference for each Prospective Member and vouch for their good character. Once added to

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7750-428: The Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. The region, which comprised

7875-427: The Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the northeast). While Ibn al-Muqaffa' (eighth century) still distinguished between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiyah) (i.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries written after that date. "New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian)

8000-407: The Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia. They adopted the Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , who can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, inherited this tradition. Persian was the official court language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire. The educated and noble class of

8125-438: The United States, and most major polo clubs, including the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club , have active arena programmes. The major differences between the outdoor and indoor games are: speed (outdoor being faster), physicality/roughness (indoor/arena is more physical), ball size (indoor is larger), goal size (because the arena is smaller the goal is smaller), and some penalties. In the United States and Canada, collegiate polo

8250-414: The ability to play until they are 18 to 20 years of age. Each player must have more than one horse, to allow for tired mounts to be replaced by fresh ones between or even during chukkas. A player's "string" of polo ponies may number two or three in Low Goal matches (with ponies being rested for at least a chukka before reuse), four or more for Medium Goal matches (at least one per chukka), and even more for

8375-441: The area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III . The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian pārsa itself coming directly from the older word * pārćwa . Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median , according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before

8500-401: The assistance of John Arthur Edward Traill and the Miller brothers took a keen interest in the development of newcomers to the sport of polo. There were a number of key polo players at the club during this time including 10-goal Charles Thomas Irvine Roark , 9-goal Eric Horace Tyrrell-Martin and John Arthur Edward Traill . The waiting list is currently around three years depending on

8625-401: The ball generally has the right of way, and other players cannot cross the line of the ball in front of that player. As players approach the ball, they ride on either side of the line of the ball giving each access to the ball. A player can cross the line of the ball when it does not create a dangerous situation. Most infractions and penalties are related to players improperly crossing the line of

8750-487: The ball or the right of way. When a player has the line of the ball on their right, they have the right of way. A "ride-off" is when a player moves another player off the line of the ball by making shoulder-to-shoulder contact with the other players' horses. The mounts used are called 'polo ponies', although the term pony is purely traditional and the mount is actually a full-sized horse. They range from 14.2 to 16  hands (58 to 64 inches, 147 to 163 cm) high at

8875-472: The ball or to take them out of a play. It must be executed properly so that it does not endanger the horses or the players. The angle of contact must be safe and can not knock the horses off balance, or harm the horses in any way. Two players following the line of the ball and riding one another off have the right of way over a single man coming from any direction. Like in hockey , ice hockey, or basketball , fouls are potentially dangerous plays that infringe on

9000-495: The ball safely. The "line of the ball" changes each time the ball changes direction. The player who hits the ball generally has the right of way, and other players cannot cross the line of the ball in front of that player. As players approach the ball, they ride on either side of the line of the ball giving each access to the ball. A player can cross the line of the ball when it does not create a dangerous situation. Most infractions and penalties are related to players improperly crossing

9125-427: The ball with any part of the body except the open hand is permitted. 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 . In Manipur, the game was played even by commoners who owned a pony. The kings of Manipur had a royal polo ground within the ramparts of their Kangla Fort . Here they played on

9250-632: The center of the polo world. Every major polo tournament in the world is filled with players and horses hailing from Argentina. James Gordon Bennett Jr. on 16 May 1876 organised what was billed as the first polo match in the United States at Dickel's Riding Academy at 39th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. The historical record states that James Gordon Bennett established the Westchester Polo Club on 6 May 1876, and on 13 May 1876,

9375-534: The club being established before the Jerome Park game. There is ample evidence that the first to play polo in America were actually the English Texans. The Galveston News reported on 2 May 1876 that Denison, Texas had a polo club which was before James Gordon Bennett established his Westchester Club or attempted to play the "first" game. The Denison team sent a letter to James Gordon Bennett challenging him to

9500-457: The code fas for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari ( prs ) and Iranian Persian ( pes ). It uses tgk for Tajik, separately. In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of Iranian history ; Old era being sometime around the Achaemenid Empire (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being

9625-512: The collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied exclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in the Arabic script . From about the 9th century onward, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of becoming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called Pahlavi , which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing system had previously been adopted by

9750-482: The early 20th century at the height of its empire . 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. 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

9875-632: The extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi - Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani ), Punjabi , Kashmiri , and Sindhi . There is also a small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in Qajar Iran and speak

10000-453: The fact that polo was played in Boerne before James Gordon Bennett Jr. ever picked up a polo mallet. During the early part of the 20th century, under the leadership of Harry Payne Whitney , polo changed to become a high-speed sport in the United States, differing from the game in England, where it involved short passes to move the ball towards the opposition's goal. Whitney and his teammates used

10125-492: The fast break, sending long passes downfield to riders who had broken away from the pack at a full gallop. In 1909 a United States team defeated an English team with ease. In the late 1950s, champion polo player and Director of the Long Island Polo Association, Walter Scanlon, introduced the "short form", or "European" style, four period match, to the game of polo. The rules of polo are written to include

10250-450: 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

10375-562: The formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, Central Asia , and South Asia . Following the Turko-Persian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia , Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians. The basis in general for the introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. For five centuries prior to

10500-471: The formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE. Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BCE, which is when Old Persian was still spoken and extensively used. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like

10625-458: The game's Tibetic names, polo or pulu , referring to the wooden ball, and it was these terms, anglicised, which were adopted for the sport's name in its slow spread to the west. A European polo club was established in the town of Silchar in Assam , India, in 1859, the English tea planters having learnt it from Manipuri incomers. Sagol kangjei was one of three forms of hockey in Manipur,

10750-628: The highest levels of competition. Polo is played by two teams of four mounted players. Teams can be all-male, all-female, or mixed. Each player on the team has a specific number and has a specific role on the team. Polo must be played right-handed to prevent head-on collisions. The rules for equipment vary in details between the hosting authorities, but are always for the safety of the players and mounts. Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -⁠shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ),

10875-402: The historical records of Manipur. Later, according to Cheitharol Kumbaba , a royal chronicle of King Kangba, who ruled Manipur much earlier than Nongda Lairen Pakhangba (33  CE ) introduced sagol kangjei ( 'kangjei on horseback'). Further regular playing of this game commenced in 1605, during the reign of King Khagemba under newly framed rules of the game. In Manipur, polo

11000-461: The language of the Persians. Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was Avestan , the language of the Zoroastrian liturgical texts. The complex grammatical conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure of Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed

11125-606: The largest polo pony supply businesses in Europe. Together they met with the other interested parties and formed a Limited Liability company to create the club. Lord Shrewsbury was appointed as the chairman and Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge was made president. Charles Darley Miller set out to find the land which needed to be close to the Hurlingham Club and Ranelagh Club for ease of transportation of polo ponies. The original facilities included three polo grounds,

11250-403: The line of the ball or the right of way. When a player has the line of the ball on their right, they have the right of way. A "ride-off" is when a player moves another player off the line of the ball by making shoulder-to-shoulder contact with the other players' horses. The defending player has a variety of opportunities for their team to gain possession of the ball. They can push the opponent off

11375-440: The line or steal the ball from the opponent. Another common defensive play is called "hooking." While a player is taking a swing at the ball, their opponent can block the swing by using their mallet to hook the mallet of the player swinging at the ball. A player may hook only if they are on the side where the swing is being made or directly behind an opponent. A player may not purposely touch another player, another player's tack , or

11500-432: The middle-period form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrianism . Middle Persian is considered to be a later form of the same dialect as Old Persian. The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik , after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars ", Old Persian Parsa , New Persian Fars . This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following

11625-525: The most widely spoken. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day Fars ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as

11750-1479: The nation's Olympic history. The title was defended at the 1936 Berlin Games with players Manuel Andrada , Andrés Gazzotti , Roberto Cavanagh , Luis Duggan , Juan Nelson, Diego Cavanagh , and Enrique Alberdi. The game spread across the country, and Argentina is often credited as the capital of polo; Argentina is also noted for having the largest contingent of 10 handicap players out of any other country. Five teams were able to gather four 10 handicap players each, to make 40 handicap teams: Coronel Suárez , 1975, 1977–1979 (Alberto Heguy, Juan Carlos Harriott Jr. , Alfredo Harriot and Horacio Heguy); La Espadaña, 1989–1990 (Carlos Gracida, Gonzalo Pieres, Alfonso Pieres y Ernesto Trotz Jr.); Indios Chapaleufú , 1992–1993 (Bautista Heguy, Gonzalo Heguy, Horacio Heguy Jr. and Marcos Heguy); La Dolfina , 2009–2010 ( Adolfo Cambiaso Jr., Lucas Monteverde , Mariano Aguerre y Bartolomé Castagnola ); Ellerstina, 2009 ( Facundo Pieres , Gonzalo Pieres Jr. , Pablo Mac Donough and Juan Martín Nero). The three major polo tournaments in Argentina, known as "Triple Corona" ("Triple Crown"), are Hurlingham Polo Open , Tortugas Polo Open and Palermo Polo Open . Polo season usually lasts from October to December. High season vs. Low season Argentina Polo School in Mar del Plata reflects

11875-461: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created

12000-495: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal

12125-414: The next period most officially around the Sasanian Empire , and New era being the period afterward down to present day. According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian

12250-713: The northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in the Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken. However, the Persian of Vardar Yenicesi and throughout the rest of the Ottoman-held Balkans was different from formal Persian both in accent and vocabulary. The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" ( Rumili Farsisi ). As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became

12375-420: The number of Member resignations received at the end of each year. A variety of membership categories apply but the main decision for applicants is to decide if they would like to include golf in their membership or not. Once completed application forms, proposer and seconder letters (or other required paperwork, see below) and non-returnable application fee are received, Prospective Members are invited to attend

12500-529: The official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash (along with Matai , presumably Medians) are first mentioned in

12625-510: The other ones being field hockey (called khong kangjei ) and wrestling-hockey (called mukna kangjei ). Local rituals such as those connected to the Ibudhou Marjing , the winged-pony god of polo and the creation-ritual episodes of the Lai Haraoba festival enacting the life of his son, Khoriphaba , the polo-playing god of sports. These may indicate an origin earlier than

12750-679: The present territories of northwestern Afghanistan as well as parts of Central Asia, played a leading role in the rise of New Persian. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The transition to New Persian

12875-631: The region during the following centuries. Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in Punjab through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the Sikh Empire , preceding British conquest and the decline of Persian in South Asia. Beginning in 1843, though, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent. Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in

13000-589: The reign of Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature was illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence and collaboration with the Persian poet Hafez ; a poem which can be found in the Divan of Hafez today. A Bengali dialect emerged among the common Bengali Muslim folk, based on a Persian model and known as Dobhashi ; meaning mixed language . Dobhashi Bengali

13125-441: The rhythms of the region’s climate and tourism. The high season typically aligns with the Argentine summer, from November to March, when the weather is warm and ideal for outdoor events. During this time, polo tournaments and social gatherings attract players and enthusiasts, creating a vibrant atmosphere. Conversely, the low season falls in the cooler months, from May to September, when activities slow down, allowing fields and players

13250-515: The rider's leg and weight cues for moving forward, turning and stopping. A well trained horse will carry its rider smoothly and swiftly to the ball and can account for 60 to 75 percent of the player's skill and net worth to their team. Polo pony training generally begins at age 3 and lasts from about 6 months to 2 years. Most horses reach full physical maturity at about age 5, and ponies are at their peak of athleticism and training at around age 6 or 7. However, without any accidents, polo ponies may have

13375-500: The rules of the game. To the novice spectator, fouls may be difficult to discern. There are degrees of dangerous and unfair play and penalty shots are awarded depending based on the severity of the foul and where the foul was committed on the polo field. White lines on the polo field indicate where the mid-field, sixty, forty, and thirty yard penalties are taken. The official set of rules and rules interpretations are reviewed and published annually by each country's polo association. Most of

13500-416: The safety of both players and horses. Games are monitored by umpires. A whistle is blown when an infraction occurs, and penalties are awarded. Strategic plays in polo are based on the "line of the ball", an imaginary line that extends through the ball in the line of travel. This line traces the ball's path and extends past the ball along that trajectory. The line of the ball defines rules for players to approach

13625-657: The site of a flourishing Persianate linguistic and literary culture. The 16th-century Ottoman Aşık Çelebi (died 1572), who hailed from Prizren in modern-day Kosovo , was galvanized by the abundant Persian-speaking and Persian-writing communities of Vardar Yenicesi, and he referred to the city as a "hotbed of Persian". Many Ottoman Persianists who established a career in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) pursued early Persian training in Saraybosna, amongst them Ahmed Sudi . The Persian language influenced

13750-522: The smaller associations follow the rules of the Hurlingham Polo Association , the national governing body of the sport of polo in the United Kingdom, and the United States Polo Association . Outdoor or field polo lasts about one and a half to two hours and consists of four to eight seven-minute chukkas, between or during which players change mounts. At the end of each seven-minute chukka, play continues for an additional 30 seconds or until

13875-561: The standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as Tajik ( тоҷикӣ , tojikī ) since the time of the Soviet Union . It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses

14000-741: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,

14125-401: The suits on the Mamluk precursor to modern-day playing cards . Europeans transformed the polo stick suit into the "clubs" of the "Latin" decks , as polo was little known to them at that time. The game spread to South Asia where it has had a strong presence in the northwestern areas of present-day Pakistan (including Gilgit , Chitral , Hunza , and Baltistan ) since at least the 15th to

14250-519: The towns of Venado Tuerto , Cañada de Gómez , Quilmes , Flores and later (1888) Hurlingham . In 1892 The River Plate Polo Association was founded and constituted the basis for the current Asociación Argentina de Polo . In the Olympic Games held in Paris in 1924 a team composed of Juan Miles , Enrique Padilla , Juan Nelson , Arturo Kenny , G. Brooke Naylor and A. Peña achieved the first gold medal in

14375-478: The use of Farsi in foreign languages. Etymologically, the Persian term Farsi derives from its earlier form Pārsi ( Pārsik in Middle Persian ), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term Persian . In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym Pārs ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars. The phonemic shift from /p/ to /f/ is due to the influence of Arabic in

14500-400: The waiting list, we will assist prospective members in finding current Members to propose and second their membership applications. Click here for more information . 51°27′48.08″N 0°14′45.1″W  /  51.4633556°N 0.245861°W  / 51.4633556; -0.245861 Polo Polo or Chovgan ( Persian : چوگان) is a ball game that is played on horseback ,

14625-690: The world is the Imphal Polo Ground in Manipur State . The history of this polo ground is contained in the royal chronicle Cheitharol Kumbaba starting from 33  CE . 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 yards long and 110 yards wide" (206 m × 101 m). The Cachar Club , established in 1859,

14750-578: Was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903), and Samanid Empire (874–999). Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the New Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of

14875-526: Was also suspected of an arson attack on a house at Walton Heath belonging to Lloyd George . Hockin was given a four-month sentence in Holloway Prison. The first 400 Members paid no entrance fee and though the Club was considered to be a poor relation to the Hurlingham and Ranelagh clubs this was not the case. Members and regular polo players included Admiral Lord David Beatty , Sir Winston Churchill ,

15000-624: Was built as a polo field by King Abbas I . The game was also 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.  408–450 ) inside the Great Palace of Constantinople . Emperor Basil I ( r. 867–886 ) excelled at it; Emperor Alexander ( r. 912–913 ) died from exhaustion while playing Polo. John I of Trebizond ( r.  1235–1238 ) died from

15125-530: Was made smaller and accommodated a large audience. The first event of the World Champions Polo League took place in Bhavnagar , Gujarat, with six teams and room for 10,000 spectators. The rules were changed and the duration of matches made shorter. Polo was brought to many parts of the Americas, but in Argentina, it took off like nowhere else. Irish , Scottish , Welsh , and English immigrants in

15250-586: Was patronised and given official status under the Sultans of Bengal , and was a popular literary form used by Bengalis during the pre-colonial period, irrespective of their religion. Following the defeat of the Hindu Shahi dynasty, classical Persian was established as a courtly language in the region during the late 10th century under Ghaznavid rule over the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent . Employed by Punjabis in literature, Persian achieved prominence in

15375-508: Was played by women, who had to wear a male dress to do so; many Tang dynasty tomb figures of female players survive. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity , the popularity of polo in Tang China was "bolstered, no doubt, by the presence of the Sasanian court in exile". A "polo-obsessed" noblewoman was buried with her donkeys on 6 October 878 in Xi’an , China. In use in Manipur were

15500-600: Was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas . Persian learning was also widespread in the Ottoman-held Balkans ( Rumelia ), with a range of cities being famed for their long-standing traditions in the study of Persian and its classics, amongst them Saraybosna (modern Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mostar (also in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vardar Yenicesi (or Yenice-i Vardar, now Giannitsa , in

15625-484: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راه‌آهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in

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