Alejandro Garcia del Rio has been riding horses since he can remember and started playing polo with his peers and two brothers in Argentina around the age of 11. He joined his father in advertising for some time before he took up polo as a career in his early 20s. With no professional polo in Argentina in those days, players were obliged to travel. “We were actually the generation that started the professionalism in polo,” said Alejandro, who took his first playing job in Newport, Rhode Island in the early 80s.

From there his polo career saw him playing in England and much of the American continent including Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay. He often played alongside or against his older brother Felipe. “We always got along on the field because we had very different positions,” he said. “He played back and I was usually 3 or 2.”

For Alejandro, his career highlight was winning the Chilean Handicap - part of the Chilean Open. “Once they finish the Argentine Open, the Argentine players just cross the Andes to the Chilean Open so you have a lot of excellent players. It was 26 to 30 in those days so it’s one of the highest levels of polo in the world.” He played alongside a 6-goal Mariano Aguerre. “We were all very young,” he said.

Alejandro retired from pro polo just before he turned 60 and joined the umpire program. “The program has generated respect amongst the players because of the umpires’ calls on the field,” Alejandro said. “Mainly because of the umpires’ knowledge of the rules. Plus the use of technology has given the umpires a really trustworthy edge on the calls they make.”