Brennan Wells (’18) has been riding horses ever since he can remember and he has grown up with polo being the center of his life. He started playing polo at age six.

His mother is a horseback riding instructor and polo coach at their farm, Marlan Farm, which houses around 30 horses. Well’s father is also a polo coach and veterinarian.

“[There’s an] understanding that the sport of polo is very expensive, but it’s much more affordable than people think,” Wells said.

Taking polo lessons is relatively inexpensive, but leasing your own horse to ride makes it more expensive.

“Buying and managing your own horse is a full commitment, which is not only expensive, but very time consuming,” Wells said.

On their farm, Wells calls three out of the 30 horses on the farm his own, Ruby, Roscoe, and Napoleon.

Wells not only takes care of his three horses but also helps his mother take care of the other 27 horses on the farm which is very time consuming.

“I often find that I don’t have enough time to spend with friends or to take part in high school clubs,” Wells said.

Despite this sport being very time consuming, Wells has been out of the country several times and traveled to India, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Guatemala.

Wells practices polo and rides horses almost every day at his farm. He plays and competes on the Maryland Polo Club varsity team as a captain.

There are two types of polo: indoor (interscholastic) and outdoor.

“The stereotypical polo that everyone thinks about is outdoor polo, where everyone is riding $50,000 horses on a pristine grass field in exotic places,” Wells said.

There is an indoor arena at their farm, which is one of the reasons he plays indoor polo, but in the summer he plays outdoor polo at Ladew Gardens with friends and family.

“The main tournament I have been competing to win since fifth grade is the Open National Interscholastic Championship,” Wells said.

This is an indoor tournament where teams comprised of fifth through twelfth graders across the country compete for.

“The tournament has a regular season then three stages of tournaments: Preliminaries, Regionals, and then finally, Nationals,” Wells said.

This past year, Wells team won the 2017 Open National Interscholastic Championship which was held at Cornell University.

Wells was personally awarded the first place National All-Star award at the tournament, and his team went undefeated in the 2017 season and have continued their streak this year.

Some other awards wells has been awarded over the years are first place Southeast Regional All-Star, 2017, third place National All-Star, 2016, and second place Southeast Regional All-Star.

Wells hopes to attend a top tier college that also offers polo. He is currently being recruited by colleges such as University of Virginia, Cornell University, and Harvard University for polo.