POLO.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 311, 9 July 1896, Page 8

POLO.

THE TRAINING OF POLO PONIES

If I ■were asked by a novice at polo how best to train a polo pony, I should be inclined to answer in the words of Punch's celebrated advice to those about to marry——don’t! For it is a difficult task, and one for which but few have either patience or aptitude. But it is for another class of men for whom I write. There are some who wish to take the front rank in the game, who are good horsemen, have seats, hands, and patience. Such men will undoubtedly be better carried by ponies which they have trained themselves, and which have never been ridden by anyone else, than by animals, however good, which have passed through many hands and have learned from their previous owners some of those faults and failings which so often mar the character of a polo pony. For, putting aside vicious ponies and those disliking the game, and are thus useless, there can be no doubt that the faults of ponies are really only the. faults of their riders in an equine form. The pony pulls because the man who is an uncertain, horseman steadies himself amid the trials of the game by his pony’s mouth, and perhaps at a hard gallop he literally holds himself in the saddle in the same way. To this pony his knees and legs convey no intimation, inasmuch as his own control over them is uncertain ; so his wishes have to be conveyed by tugs, often ungentle enough, at the long enduring animal’s mouth. Thus the pony learns to pull. In the same way he learns to stop over the ball, because the player who is a poor horseman insensibly catches tight hold of the reins when he hits the ball, and thus the pony dreads the pain, or, if his mouth be callous, he answers to what he thinks is a signal to stop, and acts accordingly. The fine player, such, for example, as Mr “ Johnny” Peat, sits with a loose rein. There was no tightening as each stroke, sure and certain, from Mr Peat fell on the flying ball, and the pony (says “ Dynamite”) never stretched, swerved, or faltered in his stride as it came. That was a perfect polo partnership. It was the pony’s business to gallop, to follow the twisting ball, to obey the least possible touch on the rein, to avoid collisions, and to make the rider’s aim surer. It was the man’s duty to hit the ball. Each knew his part and performed it to perfection. Now that perfection arose from the fact that the Messrs Peat, like many other fine players, such as Lord Harrington and Mr A. Rawlinson, trained their own ponies, ■aAprdm motives of dWdl£amy,but because it is only can reach the front rank of polo play How, then, shall I set about doing this is the natural question of the man who feels that he has the horsemanship, the eye, and above all the patience for the task. The following hints are made only for those who would attain the highest place in the game, and hope to play in a freebooter team for the open championship, or help to win the county cup against —shall we say ? — the Rugby team. Make up your mind then in the first place that your ponies shall do nothing else. They should —I am speaking of first-class match ponies—neither be ridden as hacks, driven in your cart, or above all hunted. If you choose to use them for anything, then to drive one as JLeader in a tandem will do no harm. But it is 4tetter not to do so. The horse is not without intelligence as some people say, but he has a limited intelligence, and whereas in polo or hunting you need his brain as well as his muscle, it is better to keep the animal for the one thing only. In training ponies most people begin at the wrong end. Naturally they think that the thing the pony will fear most is the stick swinging round his head. Nothing of the kind. Nearly every pony ceases to mind the stick after about two or three lessons. But what takes them so much longer to learn, and is far more important, is to teach them to use their own limbs and to have a proper control over their legs. To stop, to turn, to start, to twist and bend, and these are the things a pony can do by nature. The young or unschooled animal sprawls about, crosses his legs, and falls. Yet what is required to cure this is a very simple process. The figure of eight done for many days in large and small circles, slowly and fast, is the chief, one might almost say the only important, part of a pony’s training. There is, however, one thing more that is needful, and that is to accustom your pony to the ball, and to make him look on it as, so to speak, a natural incident in life. One brilliant player, whose ponies are wonderful, tells me his secret is that his ponies are trained young, aud that the ball is always with them. In their stables is a white polo ball, and they never stir out for exer'"'"cise without it. The man who rides them in their daily work is armed with a stick, to which is attached,, by a string, a ball, and this from time to time he throws out and draws back again. Thus the pony learnt that he bears the relation- ■ ship of Mary’s little lamb to the ball, and whereever the ball goes he is sure to follow. And when he comes to play he does not forget the lesson. Everyone - who has played the game knows the-advantage of a pony that keeps his eye on the ball and follows and turns as swiftly almost as the ball itself. In the two methods I have given lies the whole secret of training ponies. Easy enough and very simple, but you will find in practice that to carry them out requires time, money, and patience, and a good deal of all these. How many ponies you will buy, how many years will elapse before you get the four first-class ponies of every player’s dream, it is difficult to say ; but this at least is certain—your boxes will be filled and emptied many a time, and you will be a few years older before it happens. But if you mean to succeed, you can and will.—T-F.D. in the Sporting and 'Dramatic News, with a motion at the last NUw Zealand Polo Association’s Meeting as to where the headquarters of the Association should be, ' ten clubs recorded their votes, the majority being in favour of Wellington as the headquarters Only two clubs voted for Palmerston North. Auckland voted for Wellington.