Ulaanbaatar
Mongolian and British armies’ polo teams to play friendly matches
PoliticsUlaanbaatar /MONTSAME/The Polo team of the UK Army has arrived in Mongolia to participate in the annual friendly match with the Mongolian army’s polo team which will take place on September 17 at Khan Polo club, located in Gachuurt.
The annual matches began in 2015, in respect of the fact that the UK had become the first western country to establish diplomatic ties with Mongolia and that the two nations’ most ancient interactions are related to polo.
In this year’s match, leader of the Great Britain’s Army Polo Team Simon Ledger is taking part as a narrator, coach Gaston Devrient, team leaders Robert Freeman-Kerr and captain Hugh Richardson and a famous photographer Sam Churchill.
In the times of the Great Mongol Empire, Mongolian warriors played polo as a kind of military exercises, by picking up heads of sheep and goat from the ground riding on a back of a galloping horse. This sport was evolved during the reign of Persian Empire. Later, the polo has become a widely known sport since the Mogul warship in India. In 1860, the British soldiers first encountered 12 horsemen playing polo in Manipur district of Himalayas. This was the beginning of British Polo.
All interested spectators and horse sports enthusiasts are welcome to Saturday’s friendly polo match.
