It was in 1973 that women were finally granted admission into the United States Polo Association. As we commemorate the fortieth anniversary of this milestone event, it is an opportune time to reflect back on the history of women's polo in this country. This article recounts the pioneering years of women's polo in America covering the period from the sport's introduction in New York in the late 1800s until the early post World War II years of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The subsequent era of "contemporary polo" from the late 1960s until the present day is so much more distinctive and a lot more extensive that it would require a separate review to give it its due.

Before turning to a chronological history of women's polo, it is worthwhile to recount the daunting hurdles that the distaff side faced in participating in the sport. While certainly not definitive, the list below highlights some of the principal barriers that the fair sex faced:

• Cultural Prejudices
• Sidesaddle vs. Astride Riding
• Proper Sporting Attire
• Overcoming Stereotypes
• Finding Horses, Facilities & Infrastructure Support
• Instruction & Mentoring

Cultural Prejudices:

Although women polo played in Ancient Persia and in 18th century India, there was a tremendous cultural prejudice against them participating in the game when it was introduced into the west. One can easily guess at all the reasons that polo was considered inappropriate for women: it was too physical, it was too dangerous, it was unladylike a game, and so on and so forth.

While these were the views expressed mostly by men, there were also a number of women who did not feel polo was the proper game for women, either. In an article written by Mrs. Lynn Linton in 1891 in a publication called The Nineteenth Century, she was aghast when the "wild woman becomes athletic." In her opinion, "the prettiest woman in the world loses her beauty when at these violent exercises. Hot and damp, mopping her flushed and steaming face, she has lost the sense of repose, that delicate self-restraint which belongs to the ideal woman. She is no longer dainty."

At the time, Mrs. Lynn also noted: "We have not yet heard of women polo players; but that will come. In the absurd endeavor to be like men, these modern homasses will leave nothing untried, and polo playing, tent pegging and tilting at the quintain are all sure to come in time."

Although polo was not viewed as suitable for women within certain circles, attempts were made to develop alternatives, such as polo golf which never caught on, or polo stick bending which had little relationship to polo other than its name.

While women were not encouraged to play polo, they were certainly welcome to join in a wide variety of activities surrounding the game, which was not necessarily the case in many other maledominated sports. Polo, from its introduction into the U.S. or for that matter the western world, became very socially oriented. Women were regularly seen as spectators at major polo tournaments. Additionally, press photos of early polo matches often fixated as much as on the fashionable outfits of females off the field as they did on the exploits of their male counterparts on the field of play. Polo events were without a doubt important venues for the well heeled to be seen.

Furthermore, attendant social activities, which were largely orchestrated by women, ran the full gamut from private dinner parties to formal polo balls. At the Rockaway Hunting Club, the zenith of the social season each year was "polo week" so much so that it often lasted two weeks! Finally, many clubs had Ladies Nomination Tournaments where the women selected the members of the various teams.

Sidesaddle vs. Astride Riding:

A second obstacle for potential women polo players was attempting to play the game riding sidesaddle versus riding astride. Without getting sidetracked with the history of sidesaddle riding, let's just say that from the introduction of the sport into the United States by James Gordon Bennett in 1876 until about the time of the First World War, sidesaddle riding was generally the accepted form of riding for women "of a certain social class." However, there developed a great divide between women along the Eastern Seaboard who clung to sidesaddle riding, compared to their Western counterparts who favored riding astride.

Playing polo riding sidesaddle might seem impossible, but at least one photograph from England clearly shows women doing just that during the 1890s.

In America, it appears that some of the early female polo pioneers fought societal conventions at the time and played the sport riding astride. Probably the most notable along the Eastern Seaboard was the redoubtable Mrs. Thomas or Louise Hitchcock whom The Times of London noted at the time of her death became "the first woman of her position and circumstances in America to ride astride, and her example was undoubtedly, the determining influence which brought emancipation to women in the hunting field."

It seems that before the First World War, women played polo in America, at least along the east coast, riding both astride as well as sidesaddle. For example, one article published in 1907 pointedly noted that two of the female players rode what was termed "cross saddle," implying that their peers rode sidesaddle. Articles of the era purposely stated whether woman rode astride or what, in the parlance of the day, was termed "man fashion."

It appears that sidesaddle riding, at least among female polo players, did not quite bite the dust in the United States until the 1920s and was in many ways another manifestation of the women's liberation movement of the day as expressed by the suffragettes' pursuit of the right to vote.

Proper Sporting Attire:

Another not insignificant barrier to women's polo was attire. While today, a woman can go on the internet or walk into any Nike or other athletic wear store and find appropriate outfits for virtually any activity, this was far from the case during the pioneering years of women's polo. In fact, prior to the First World War, women's athletic outfits in general didn't vary materially from normal dress wear. Early photos of women playing polo and other sports, for example, show them donned in full dresses along with proper hats. To say that women's athletic wear in this era was not particularly conducive to playing games such as polo is certainly an understatement.

Among the women who the led the charge towards more practical playing attire was Mrs. Hitchcock. In a famous photo taken in Narragansett, Rhode Island in 1913, she is not only riding astride but also she is wearing pants under a very short "polo skirt" and basically a male polo helmet. The only concession to the apparent dress-code taboos at the time was the high-collar, long sleeve shirt, although this photo was taken in the dog days of August!

However, it was in the 1920s that the suffragette movement also brought a more widespread revolution in women's apparel across the entire clothing spectrum, from formal to casual wear. As the interwar period progressed, women's polo attire continued to evolve over time and fundamentally became very similar to the outfits men were wearing, as various photos of female players from the 1920s and 1930s clearly show.

One tid-bit I would like to add is that I have around 30 or 40 catalogues of polo equipment and clothing in my collection which were published prior to 1950. In not a single catalogue are there any offerings specifically geared to female players. The closest I could find to women's polo wear was an advertisement in the 1927 Westchester Cup program as well as an ad from a 1939 Hamburg Polo Club program. Even with the German program, it is hard to tell if they are really offering sportswear as compared to athletic wear, although the illustration of two female players along with casual clothes suggests both.

The radical and sudden transition of women's attire from the Victorian era to the Jazz Age was alluded to in a 1925 article by the great New York Times sports journalist, Allison Danzig, who wrote:

"Did Victorianism thrust a permanent handicap upon the physical vigor and lasting qualities of women? Apparently not, judged by the continued success of women tennis players, golfers and poloists who began their careers when skirts were long and corsets tight. Even the modern flapper, with all her efforts to effect the mannish form, both physical and athletic, must bow to the ridiculed generation before her when it comes to athletic durability."

Overcoming Stereotypes:

Fighting stereotypes was another major obstacle women faced. The media of the time tended not to take women's polo very seriously, if they reported it at all. One article from 1920 referred to female polo as a "distinct novelty." Women playing polo was often given the equivalent of today's YouTube treatment.

Photographic coverage could be even worse. Photos often surface on eBay and other sites in what could be categorized as the "pin up" genre of women polo players in tight blouses and even tighter shorts! Even Peter Vischer's high minded and mostly serious Polo magazine was not above poking fun at the distaff side as one photo from 1931 shows a young player putting on lipstick seated below her polo pony. Even as late as the 1950s, one program featuring a women's indoor team devoted a couple of photos to the female players checking their makeup and adjusting their helmets in the mirror. The visual theme was matched by the text with such phrases as "the winsome threesome," "comely Connecticut colleens" and "the slick Connecticut girls."

Perhaps one woman player summarized the situation best when she complained that her female peers were more likely to appear in the society rotogravure sections of newspapers rather than in their sporting pages. I cannot disagree with her assessment. In fact, one of the best articles I have come across on women's polo surfaced in a 1934 issue of Country Life—on the other hand, the wonderful magazine, The Sportsman, which was published between 1927 and 1937 did not have a single reference to women's polo in its estimated 12,000 pages, other than two series of photographs in the 1930s.

Finding Horses, Facilities Infrastructure and Instruction & Mentoring:

Finally, women faced challenges in finding playing facilities, suitable horses, infrastructure support, formal instruction and mentoring. Since a polo ground is about the size of nine football fields, one typically needed to play at a private club, where availability of the polo fields was likely to be limited.

Also, there was no national organizational support for women's polo on the scale of either the United States Polo Association or the Indoor Polo Association of America, although some regional support groups did arise in the interwar years.

Even finding horses could be a problem for female players. For example, during the interwar years most male college polo programs were run by the U.S. Army, which provided the mounts. Similarly, Army officers provided instruction and mentoring on campus to men. Off-campus men had significantly more options for learning the game than women.

Finally, women were greatly disadvantaged in finding role models for their polo pursuits. In part, this was attributable to the fact that women's polo was not particularly well publicized for a wide variety of reasons. For example, most women's polo was played on private fields and if one article is correct, it wasn't until a 1923 match at Squadron A in New York that the first public tournament among women took place.

In another press report, we are told that "the authorities of the women's colleges still frown upon intercollegiate competition, feeling perhaps that the attendant publicity is not desirable." One suspects that college administrators harbored concerns about the reaction among their conservative Victorian-era alumnae.

This article will be continued in the June 2013 issue of Polo Players' Edition.

–– by Dennis Amato