POLO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8282, 14 June 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

POLO.

AN ENGLISH TEAM FOR AMERICA. The polo season has opened in New York, and the prospects are bright. A team is to be invited from England, the gentlemen spoken of being the three Peat brothers and Lord Harrington. The three Peats are a host in themselves, the elder, J. Peat, being the best all-round polo player in England. They have played the game since it came to England, and are in the saddle every day of the year, playing polo in the summer for several hours a day. J. Peat is said to be the hardest hitter in England, as well as the crack player, and one day last summer I saw him drive a ball nearly the length of the ground. They are all tall, well-built men, over six feet in height, and very pleasant fellows to meet. Besides being good polo players, they are excellent men across country and hunt with some crack pack each year. Having plenty of money, they are always well mounted, and their stud of polo ponies is a sight to see. They have in all twenty-six, each of them just under the standard, with tremendous power and substance ; the brothers are all welter weights, and yet the ponies are not cart-horsey. All the ponies are nearly thoroughbred, if not quite. Of course they are bangtailed, which makes , their quarters look even larger than they are, and being hog-maned makes them look as knowing and rangy as only a polo pony can. Most of them are bays and browns. If it is settled that they come over the wholo stud will not be brought; probably not more than half, as the ponies are so well up to weight and in such condition that one pony is often played all through the game.

Lord Harrington is medium height and rather stocky build, with a long, black beard. He simply livesin the saddle, and is not very far behind the Peats in prowess at polo, and quite equal to them as a cross country rider, very few men beins r his superior in the hunting field. Most of his ponies are not as high class as those of the peats, but are a very useful lot.