Polo in Iowa? Absolutely. The Army first introduced Polo to Des Moines in the 1920s. Through the years, members have been united by their love of fun, good friends and fast horses.
An article in the Des Moines Tribune on September 5, 1922 states: "The Wakonda club and the Fourteenth cavalry polo teams were the contenders for the championship in the northwest polo tourney at Fort Snelling Monday. The Fort Des Moines team won 6 to 5 although the playing of Captain Wilkinson of the Wakonda team was the brilliant and spectacular event of the contest. The army post team had the utmost difficulty defeating the Wakonda players. The match was the greatest of the tournament."
Other short articles from the Des Moines Tribune in 1930 & 1931 indicated that the Fort Des Moines 14th Cavalry team continued to play polo, with matches against Fort Snelling and the University of Missouri mentioned.
Polo was brought back to life in Des Moines by Bart Hicklin and Monte Antisdel when they created the Des Moines Polo Club in 1982. Bart built the first field north of Des Moines on Oralabor Road in Ankeny. The first members of the team along with Bart and Monte were Melinda Antisdel, Jack Chopp, Ken Newman, Tim Holt, and Nancy Holt. Jim Goode and Jon Moeller later joined the team. Bart, Monte and Jon are still members today. At that time the team drove to Iowa City once a week to practice with the Iowa City Polo Club which is no longer in existence. Iowa City's last remaining member, Dick Meade, is now a member of the Des Moines team.
In 1987, Monte bought Mossland Acres, south of Grand Avenue in Des Moines from the Moss family, and named it MoMont Dels. He built a polo field there and it became the next field for the team. Though they had recurring flood problems in that area, they used it until 1990 when they received permission from the City of Des Moines to use the old polo field at Fort Des Moines. They continued to play at Fort Des Moines until 1997.
The land for the current field near Cumming, Iowa was purchased by several members of the club in 1995, but wasn't ready for play until 1997. The new Des Moines Polo Club field has 8 paddocks for housing the horses of visiting teams. It also sports a high berm where people can sit and have a wonderful view looking down on the games. The field sits next to a beautiful, new equestrian development site known as Polo Pointe. The Des Moines Polo team now counts 19 players, though two of them are Junior members.
