British settlers in the Argentine pampas began to practice polo during their free time.
Among them, David Shennan is credited for having organized the country’s first formal polo game in 1875, at Estancia El Negrete, located in the province of Buenos Aires.
The sport spread rapidly among the skillful gauchos, and several clubs were opened in the following years
in the cities of Venado Tuerto, Cañada de Gómez, Quilmes, Flores and later (1888) Hurlingham.
In 1892, the River Plate Polo Association was founded and formed the basis of the current Argentine Polo Association.
At the Olympic Games held in Paris in 1924, a team made up of Juan Miles, Enrique Padilla, Juan Nelson, Arturo Kenny, G. Brooke Naylor and A. Peña obtained the first gold medal for the country’s Olympic history; This also happened in Berlin in 1936 with the players Manuel Andrada, Andrés Gazzotti, Roberto Cavanagh, Luis Duggan, Juan Nelson, Diego Cavanagh and Enrique Alberdi.
The game of polo was spread throughout the country, and Argentina is now recognized worldwide as the capital of polo; Argentina is notably the country with the highest number of 10 handicap players in the world.
