Sporting Review AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, May 14, 1896 THE GAME OF POLO.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 303, 14 May 1896, Page 4

Sporting Review AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, May 14, 1896 THE GAME OF POLO.

It cannot be said that polo has become a popular game with the general public, notwithstanding the introduction given to the game in various parts of the world, more especially during the last few years. Polo players in New Zealand have not been slow to recognise that the public does not enjoy the sport or game, and have tried by every reasonable means in their power, to get the public, as spectators, to take an interest in the game, but after one game, the same people rarely come back. Of course we refer to those who have no association with polo in any shape whatever. They admit that it is a manly game to play, and the players require to be first-class horsemen, and then they add half sorrowfully, as if they would like to give the game their support but cannot, “It’s right enough, but I dop’t like to see those big men riding those pdor little ponies.” Now, there lies the dead secret of the unpopularity of a game that, under certain regulations, should become more popular than Rugby football. Attempts have been made to popularise the : game by suggesting that the height sf the ponies should be fourteen hands two inches. This would enable players, the majority of whom ride on an average 14st, to obtain cobs or stoutlybuilt ponies that would look something like up to their weight. This would do away with one very great objection to polo as played ip New Zealand. It is useless for some players to say that their ponies are fit to carry them during the different spells. We could mention ponies, thin, weakly, barely the. standard height (fourteen hands),’ and, grogyylegged, that have to carry men nearly

sixteen stone withall gear on, and after one spell they are fairly done up. We do not need to refer further back than the last Saville Cup tournament. < It cannot be truly said that all the ponies there were in a fit state to carry their owners. . But with a 14.2 pony we should see a marked improvement in the game, and the general public would then recognise that there was not that element of cruelty which seems to pervade the fourteen hand standard. Then another thing the public demands .immediate attention shall be given to, and that is that docking the ponies’ mane and tail, shall cease at once. This is a decidedly cruel —some say barbarous—practice, for the reason that the very season of the year when they are required for play, and when they have to stand about a lot, is the warmest time of the year, when the flies are most troublesome. To see the poor brutes struggling, wriggling, stamping their feet, shaking their heads, and biting their sides, trying to keep the flies off themselves without success, makes one feel for the poor little brtites. Some people wonder why such cruelty should be allowed in the Nineteenth Century. We watched a team of four polo ponies on a hot day this season; They were hitched to a fence, and for nearly twenty minutes those ponies seemed to go perfectly mad. The contortions and acrobatic kind of feats they were performing in their endeavours to get rid of the flies caused a few remarks of a “ sulphury ” nature to come from us and several others who were watching the ponies in their misery. The poor ponies, practically minus their tails and no manes to shake, were just about as mad as they could possibly be. Now, suppose we tied a man’s hands behind his back, on a warm summer’s day when there are a few flies about, and he has to keep lurching his head from side to side, and, generally speaking, is kept .busy, he would quickly ask for his hands to be released so that he could have their assistance in brushing away the flies. So it is with a pony, or even a horse, and if the game cannot be played without subjecting the ponies to such cruelty, the public will never catch on. We are informed that the principal objection to the ponies 1 having long tails is that the sticks would then more frequently get under their tails. Well, if all the ponies have long tails each team is equal, and the cleverest players, i.e. those who will be careful and not allow their sticks to get under the ponies’ tails, should win, and good luck to them. We doubt if the local polo clubs can do much in the way of the reform sug-; gested, but everything has a beginning,; and the matter has only to be ventilated, when we feel sure that the apparent endorsement of cruelty by the polo associations will, when looked at in the right and human light, not be tolerated. We would have no objection to a ponv’s tail being tied up during play, and this disposes of the objection that the stick, would get under the other ponies’ tails too often and probably .pause an accident. Reverting to the height of the ponies, it may be news to many polo players, to, learn that on the 13th, May, 1895, the following rule was passed at a meeting of the Hurlingham Polo Committee :—“ The height of polo ponies shall not exceed fourteen hands two inches, and no ponies; showing vice .are to be allowed in the, game. The committee or any playing, member shall be at liberty to challenge the height of any pony playing on the ground, and such pony shall be then measured with its playing shoes on ; and in the event of such pony exceeding the recognised height, shall be disqualified from playing on the ground.” The above rule did. not come into force until May Ist, 1896. The polo people at Home And » abroad who play under Hurlingham Rules ; have therefore had plenty of time to< study out the new rule The Polo Magazine goes into hysterics about measuring the ponies. “ Who is to measure the ponies ? ” “ Where the pony is to be measured,” etc., etc ! A. proper official for measuring the ponips ? is always appointed by every polo club, and surely each club can run the price of a spirit . level, and erect a standard with wooden floor. The Polo Magazine is apparently) scared at the idea of an innovation,; in the old-fashioned rules, more especially . when it is in the direction of minimising ; cruelty. “ Fourteen-two ” ponies for polo is what, we have been looking for-'? wEtrd .to fdr many years, and it seems as if this were about to be attained. .