Sarasota Polo Club

Established in 1991 as the first development in the award-winning, master-planned community of Lakewood Ranch, the Sarasota Polo Club has a remarkable legacy. In 1922 our property was settled as a 28,000-acre timber ranch.

Originally the cowboys who worked on our ranch began playing knock-around polo games in their free time. Riding their quarter horses with stock saddles, using make-shift equipment and knowing very little about polo, the cowboys played by their own rules.

Rule #1 was the first rider to fall off their horse bought beer for the team, a tradition that remains in place today. Eventually mallets, saddles and a few polo ponies were donated to the “cowboy games,” and in 1991, a real polo club was born.