The Attributes of a Good Polo Pony



Speed, intelligence and agility by themselves, do not make a good polo pony. He must be clever. He must be able to dodge and swerve while going full speed, and to wheel and turn on the proverbial dime. Besides this, he must be able to follow the ball, and instinctively put his rider in a good position to hit it. He must be completely steady and unaffected by the waving mallets and yelling crowds. In addition, and no less important, he must have much courage, and not flinch from contact, sometimes violent, with another mount.







Friday, September 10, 2010

Update on Zanita


Zanita has been at my sister Emma's farm in Saratoga Springs, NY, since December 2009. She had been doing very well with her training, but had hit a plateau. Zanita was going to come home on August 2, the day of my "equine related incident", August 2nd. (read previous post) As luck should have it, a couple of days later, Zanita had a "breakthrough". She will now be staying in Saratoga. I was at the farm this past weekend to visit with Zanita, and check-out her progress. I barely recognized her, except for her unusual blaze. She was nicely muscled, had gained some weight, and seemed to have matured. She was relaxed, and seemed happy. Katie, who has been working with Zanita, is doing a wonderful job. Watching Zanita nuzzling Katie,I knew a special bond had developed between them. My sister even felt that it was time for Katie and Zanita to start entering some schooling shows. To think that Zanita went from the racetrack to the polo field, to a killpen (on her way to slaughter) and to a beautiful farm where she is being trained for dressage!!

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