2006 IS AIKENS 125TH YEAR OF CONSECUTIVE POLO
The Aiken Equestrian Boom
By
Sarah Eakin
Owen Rinehart - former captain of the US polo
team - and his wife Georgina moved to South Carolina ten years
ago with a vision of Aiken as a base for professional polo. Adam
Snow shared in their dreams and relocated becoming joint-founder
of the Langdon Road Polo Club. The club is located east of Aiken
in what has become known as 'horse country' reflecting the real
estate interest in the area from people involved in all
equestrian disciplines, from hunter/jumper to eventing and
polo.
Aiken's equestrian tradition goes back a long way
to the 'Winter Colonists' - wealthy families from the north who
came to Aiken to escape the cold and brought their equestrian
pursuits with them. The Aiken Polo Club, founded in 1882,
maintains a downtown location providing Sunday games on the
historical Whitney Field. There is a 2000-acre wood in the
middle of town that comes under the 'Hitchcock Wood Foundation'
established in 1939 and which is now there in perpetuity for the
enjoyment of Aiken's horse owners.
"Now the city's equestrian love affair that
stayed close to its core for more than a century has blossomed,"
reported the Augusta Chronicle earlier this year.
On Langdon Road itself America's two leading
professionals have neighboring tournament quality polo fields -
'Insinya' being home to Owen, Georgina and their son Marcus, on
one side and 'New Haven' on the other where Adam lives with his
wife Shelley and their two children Nathan and Dylan.
In the past ten years there has been an influx of
professional polo players to Aiken making it the most
concentrated center of polo in the United States after West Palm
Beach, Florida. When the polo players migrate south for the
winter, the town and horse barns fill with event riders - a
trend that has a lot to do with Australian International Phillip
Dutton who brings many clients to Aiken for winter training
contributing to a total inventory of several hundred event
horses stabled there for the season.
With over 30 professional polo players now based
in the town the level of competition has increased in a season
that is split between the spring and the fall. The Langdon Road
Polo Club is the venue for tournaments at the highest levels of
the sport along with New Bridge Polo and Country Club, while
Aiken Polo Club remains the anchor for low and medium goal polo.
Some of the best players in the country are from
Aiken originally - namely Tommy Biddle and Tiger Kneece. "It's a
perfect place for polo," said Rinehart. "You have the soil, the
mild winters, the accessible east coast location and the sport's
longstanding ties with the town."
Lellie Ward, a resident event rider also located
in horse country at Paradise Farm puts the attraction down to
one thing. "The reason eventers like to come to Aiken," she
says, "is the footing."
