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.







Saturday, March 3, 2012

New Horses



Being the "dead" of Winter, you would think things would slow down a bit. Who in New England gets horses this time of the year? I guess my sister, Mark and I are all crazy.
In a previous blog, I wrote about 2 very neglected horses in Aiken, SC. Mark has found a home for the skinny colt, and he has adopted the bay gelding, whom he has named "Unicef". It is the sad looking bay in the above photo. I suppose with the big wormy pot belly, and skinny body the horse does look like some poor refugee from a third world country. My sister, Emma, has just purchased a horse from Spain. She and one of her students went to Spain for 3 days of horse shopping. Emma was not planning to purchase a horse but when she saw "Urdi" it was love at first sight. He is an 8 year old Andalusian stallion. "Urdi" is the gorgeous gray. The photo is of my sister riding him in Spain. I will write about my new horse,Rosa, in another blog, as it deserving of more writing time and space. In looking at the above photos, guess which one was free, and which one was purchased with "real" money!!