About the Houston Polo Club

The Houston Polo Club was founded in 1928 and remains dedicated to the sport of polo and equestrian activities.

Located just minutes from The Galleria and Downtown, the club is situated on 26 beautifully landscaped and wooded acres. Membership to The Houston Polo Club is available to not only polo players and their families, but to others who may wish to enjoy the Polo Club's recreational and social amenities.

Polo tournaments and leagues are played throughout our Spring and Fall Seasons, with Final matches played on Sunday afternoons. The playing field is lined with spectators full of family, friends, and fans - hundreds for a friendly club match, or several thousand during our International Polo Season.

The History

The Houston Polo Club is set in twenty six wooded acres in the heart of the city, although in 1928 the hinterland was perhaps more rural.

Certainly the founding fathers – men such as Will Cochran, vice-president of First National Bank, and George “Tiny” Dow – were appalled when they were asked $555 an acre, a small fortune in those days. Negotiations went ahead, and one hesitates to think what the price would be today. Players, including Cochran, Dow, the Farish brothers, comedian Will Rogers, Doc Williams, Deke Randolph and Virgil Scott, soon put Houston on the polo map.

The Farish family in particular, contributed a great deal in those early days, breeding ponies on their celebrated Lazy F ranch and mounting fellow players. The Farish name is still honored in American bloodstock breeding.

One of the greatest names in U. S. polo is that of Cecil Smith, elevated to 10 goals in 1934, and retaining his handicap for a quarter of a century. Winning the U. S. Open five times between 1937 and 1960, he began his career looking after the barn at Houston Polo Club. Smith and his fellow Texans, Rube Williams and Elmer Boeseke Jr., were among those who challenged the hitherto undisputed polo hegemony of the east and northeast coasts. As Will Rogers was to write: “The hillbillies beat the dudes and took the polo championship right out of the drawing room into the bunkhouse. The East always thought that you had to have a fancy pedigree to play polo. Poor old society, nothing exclusive left…”

During the last war, of course, polo came to an end in Texas, as elsewhere. It was William S. Farish III who, in the 1960’s, led the renaissance of the game at Houston, just as a decade earlier Lord Cowdray had rescued polo from an uncertain future in England. Among the early attractions of the revival was a benefit played for four consecutive seasons in the Houston Astrodome. A game between the U.S.A. and Mexico attracted a record crowd of 30,811 spectators. The work of Williams S. Farish III, was honored in 1999 when following renovation, the Number 1 field at the club was renamed the Farish Field.

Houston Polo Club has never looked back.