One of Aiken's equestrian traditions was in Sunday afternoon's spotlight at the Aiken County Historical Museum, with local resident Tiger Kneece sharing from his decades of memories and insight as an international polo player.
The Aiken native, addressing a group of about 90, fielded questions and explored such topics as equipment, horses, financing, cloning and international play, from his perspective as manager of Aiken Polo Club.
South Florida, he said, is now considered the United States' polo capital, while polo in Aiken is largely focused on spring and fall. A century ago, however, the CSRA's sandy soil and mild climate helped make Aiken prime territory for the sport.
"Horses came in on the train, so when their summertime season ended – typically in the Long Island, or Buffalo, New York, that area – horses were put on trains, carted down, taken off right here in downtown Aiken, stabled, and that's how the sport was born here in Aiken."
Kneece, an Aiken native, has retired from professional play and is now focused largely on developing young talent, an area where South America now excels, he said.
"We are fortunate enough to be in a community where fields have been preserved over the years," he said, noting that five polo fields are within Aiken's city limits, and about 20 more are nearby.
"Aiken's claim to fame is that we have the longest continuous running polo field. That means that there never elapsed a year where some sort of polo was not played on it. It's not 100% confirmed, but there's lots of rumors out there ... but they do say that there was a stint of time when there were women that were playing there to keep the tradition alive and polo playing on the fields," he said, noting that polo began as a sport for men but now has women in plenty of prominent roles.
Female horses, he added, dominate the sport, with the ideal specimen being compact, fast and agile. "Typically, in my barn right now, we're running probably 30 head ... I'd say we have 25, 26 or 27 mares ... In your horses, your females are going to be called mares. Your males are going to be called geldings."
Polo ponies, he said, "have a great life" and generally start training for the sport after three years of age. Competition could start around age 5 or 6, and peak performance is around 10-12. "We're seeing them these days, with the advances in medicine and feeding supplements, that a horse can be used until their early 20s."
Cloning is "very present ... and working on a large scale," he said. "It is new, it is mostly going on in Argentina, and I'm interested to see how it will turn out, but I believe that as long as everything kind of stays the way it's going, on the trajectory, I think it will be a positive thing."
He added, "It's amazing ... You wouldn't know that it's here in Aiken, South Carolina, where they do have one of the labs here, and we'll see. It's not for everybody. It's an expensive venture, but polo, at the high-stakes level that they're playing at in Argentina, and the amounts of money that are spent on these teams around the world, they're obviously trying to capture the advantage that they can."
A typical polo game, he said, involves six chukkers, with each chukker lasting seven and a half minutes, and some horses, as health and fitness allow, might play two chukkers in a game. Each team has four players.
Four-chukker polo has also arisen as a less costly option. "We've tested that a lot, and we're finding a great success with it, and basically ... it's making it more affordable. You don't have to have quite as many horses, not as big of a feed bill, not as big of a trailer, but you also want to have a couple of extras, but they can play twice."
Kneece touched on injuries as well, noting that the most common problems tend to involve collarbones, hands, fingers and arms.
He also gave an overview of equipment, such as helmets, mallets, boots and balls, and said a basic set of gear could be acquired for about $800.
Referring to the sport as a whole, he said, "It's something to see – the open space, the history ... It's something that I think you would enjoy. The polo club does a great job."
The club's mission, he said, is to help the sport move forward, protecting fields for spectators to enjoy and "to push to make sure that that is here for our future," and also to promote the sport's popularity among prospective future players.
Sunday's event, a presentation of Friends of the Aiken County Historical Museum, was sponsored by the Aiken Standard, Security Federal Bank and the law firm of Johnson, Johnson, Whittle and Lancer.
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Local polo player sheds light on sport of kings - Aiken Standard
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