The $500 Polo Pony

Things progressed rapidly. My son took to polo like a bee to honey. He was asked to join an interscholastic team (high school age players). This was a great honor, commitment, and involved lots of travel. When it came time to apply to colleges, he applied to colleges that had polo teams (big surprise!) He was accepted to the one he had been playing at, and decided to go there. During his first semester at college, I was browsing the horse section of a local ad magazine, and there was an ad for a polo horse for $500. Now my first thought was that this had to be a typo. It must be $5000. After all, the horse was in Newport, RI and was currently being played. But what the heck, I'll call and embarrass myself and ask. Well, the horse really was $500 !!The owner assured me there was nothing wrong with the horse, he just had too many horses. OK, whats the harm in looking. I'm up for a field trip to a swanky polo farm in Newport! Now I know I haven't mentioned this yet, but we are just average folks. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of our car during the ride to Newport--WE WERE SO EXCITED! I couldn't wait to see the white picket fences, beautiful barns,and beautifully groomed polo ponies. Two hours later we arrive, pull in the driveway, and "what to my wondering eyes does appear?" Run-in sheds, electric tape fences, mud, grain silos and the back of a tractor trailer truck for a tack room! There was an arena polo lesson in progress. We watched for a while and finally found the right person to ask about the horse for sale. She(the horse) was in the arena, which was great, as we got to see her in action. Everything seemed fine, no obvious lameness, and she definitely knew how to play the game;a lot better than the student riding her! After the lesson was over, we talked to her owner, a "big name" polo person whose name I would love to mention! He invited my son to play a few chukkers on the mare, with a few other "big name" polo players. Of course my son was thrilled! The mare was played, everything was fine, and we decided to buy the mare. Now remember, this is a $500 polo horse! My son walks up to the owner, and offers him $300. I almost died! The owner tells my son he needs to think about it. Yeah, I bet he needs to think about it. Like he can get more money at Crowley's Auction by the pound! Oh well, such is life. We get back in the car,and drive the 2 hours home. It was an interesting experience, and just the beginning.