Women in polo.

Women played polo at royal courts centuries ago, but in the modern game they had to fight their way in. Some of the turning points are well recorded. Others, including when the top men's tournaments opened to women, we could not find at all.

Early records

Women appear in some of the oldest images of the game. Wikipedia says Tang dynasty tomb figures of women polo players survive in China. The National Museum, New Delhi holds an 18th-century miniature, "Chand Bibi playing Polo", painted in the Golconda style, which shows five princesses playing.

The modern, organised game was a different matter. For many years women were kept out of official membership in the United States and out of high-goal polo in England, and the record of how that changed is patchy.

The United States: Sue Sally Hale

Wikipedia's article on the US Polo Association says women began to make their mark on American polo in the 1930s but did not become official members for many years. Sue Sally Hale is widely described as the first woman admitted to the USPA, in 1972, after years in which she is said to have played in disguise. Wikipedia notes that the USPA itself treats the disguise story as an allegation rather than an established fact.

A search summary of a USPA tournament page says the first US Women's Open was won in 1990 at Empire Polo Club by Hale and her daughters. We could not open the USPA page to confirm it.

England: Claire Tomlinson

The fullest record of a pioneer in British polo comes from Somerville College, Oxford, writing about its former student Claire Tomlinson (born Claire Lucas). According to Somerville:

In 1964 she played in the Varsity Match as its first woman player, entered as "Mr Lucas".
In 1966 she became the first woman to captain the Oxford University Polo Club.
She was the first woman to win the County Cup, in 1972, and the Queen's Cup, in 1979.
The HPA repeatedly refused her entry to high-goal tournaments, and she helped bring an end to the rule that barred women from high-goal polo.
In 1986 she became the first woman in the world to reach a handicap of five goals.
In 1989 she re-established the Beaufort Polo Club with Simon Tomlinson, where she taught Princes William and Harry, and in 1993 she set up an HPA coaching system with Hugh Dawnay.
She died in 2022, aged 77.

What the record does not show

Some important dates are missing from every source we found. We could not find:

When the HPA formally lifted its bar on women playing high-goal polo. Somerville says Tomlinson helped end it, but gives no date.
When women became eligible to play the men's Argentine Open at Palermo.
Who was the first woman to play the Argentine Open, or the first to play the Gold Cup in England.

Because no source establishes who was first in those events, this page does not name anyone as the first. We will add the dates if a reliable source turns up.

Women's handicaps and women's competitions

Today the HPA runs separate women's handicaps and women's competitions alongside mixed polo, which it says is open to all. Its 2024 year book says women's polo is open only to players eligible under its women's polo policy, which is based on 2021 guidance from the UK Sports Councils. The women's polo page covers women's polo as it is played today.

Championships followed. Global Polo says an Argentine Women's Open began in 2017. The Federation of International Polo held its first Women's World Polo Championship in Buenos Aires in 2022, won by Argentina, with the United States second and England third.

Leading players

Nina Clarkin

Wikipedia says Nina Clarkin (born Nina Vestey, around 1983) won the 2003 Cowdray Gold Cup with Hindon, beating Labegorce, and holds the HPA's top women's handicap of 10. The HPA named her global brand ambassador for Hurlingham Polo 1875 in April 2018, describing her as a 10-goal player under women's handicaps. The HPA's year book records her in the England side that beat Ireland 7-6 for the Olympic Trophy at Polo in the Park, London, on 9 June 2023. In its report of July 2026, Cowdray Park Polo Club described her, at 10 goals, as the world's top-ranked woman player. Not every scale agrees: the Argentine Polo Association (AAP), whose women's handicaps apply only in women's tournaments, lowered her from 9 to 8 for 2026, and Cowdray does not say which scale its figure comes from.

Hazel Jackson

Tempus magazine, writing on 12 June 2025, described Hazel Jackson as a 10-goal woman player, the women's world number one, England's women's captain for 2025, and the only British professional woman in that season's high-goal polo, playing for Dubai. It said she played her first Gold Cup in 2024. Tempus also says she did not come from a polo family: she grew up in the New Forest and began playing seriously after being given a pony for her 21st birthday.

July 2026: two finals on one day

Cowdray Park Polo Club reports that in July 2026 the final of the Ladies British Open and the final of the British Open for the Cowdray Gold Cup were played on the same day for the first time. Yaguara, with Milly Hine, Mia and Myla Cambiaso and patron Martina Lowe, beat Salty Polo, whose team included Nina Clarkin, by 7 to 6.5. Gaston then beat Dubai 9-8 for the Gold Cup. For today's women's events, see women's tournaments.

Sources