BACK IN TIME: Rancher Halff organized polo team in early 20th century

MIDLAND Cowboys and polo go together, well, like … cowboys and polo. So it is not surprising that polo has been played in Midland almost as long as the community has been here. An early-day Midland newspaper article carried a brief note indicating that Henry M. Halff had sent a load of polo ponies to a buyer. A prominent rancher and landowner who sold off vast amounts of ranchland south of Midland during the 1920s, Halff may have been the person primarily responsible for polo being played here so early during the century. In a book published in 1984 by Betty Halff Llewellyn, the author noted that her father, Henry Halff, organized a polo team in Midland during the early years of the 20th century after moving to the small cowtown and taking over operation of ranches that had been established by his father, Mayer Halff. The younger Halff had been born in San Antonio on Aug. 17, 1874. Halff’s efforts to raise polo ponies were substantiated by an article that appeared in the San Angelo Standard-Times Aug. 29, 1954, more than two decades following Halff’s death. That article stated: “The ponies were raised on the Halff Polo Farm near Midland. Water on this farm was mineral water, which he bottled and sold as ‘Polo Water.’” The article also noted that “Importing race horses to breed with native Quarter Horses, the West Texas booster believed that Western horses would make good polo ponies. To prove this, he organized a polo team that played all over the United States and in international matches. Possum, a gray mare, was the most famous of these horses. A similar polo team was organized for women but did not go over so well.” Halff, who was a prominent landowner in West Texas, began breaking up his well-known Quien Sabe Ranch in the second decade of the 20th century and selling off parcels of land for farms and ranches...more