Choosing a Polo Pony

Below we'll go over some of the most important aspects of choosing a horse.
1. The horses mental attitude
2. Conformation
3. Performance
4. Needs and riding style of buyer

Remember that "Pretty is, as Pretty does",. But in these posts we will talk about our ideal conformation, which we have used over the years and has worked very well for us.

The head should be in proportion, or slightly larger, than the rest of the body.

Large, soft eyes- preferably with no white visable around the eyeball itself.

Small ears tend to indicate a more sensitive, alert horse. Larger ears more docile, less sensitive.

Lips should be relaxed. Ideally you should be able to "flap" the bottom lip with your finger. Tight, pursed lips indicate a non-compromising attitude.

There should be a distinct separation at the throatlatch, where the head ties into the neck.

Consider the general shape of the neck.

From the side it should appear a straight line on the top. Not "arched" like a goose neck, or "dipped" on the top, bulging on the bottom, like a ewe neck.

It should not tie into the chest too low (deep), as those horses will usually be more heavily muscled than a polo pony can utilize, and tend to be heavy footed.

From the top you want the neck to appear symmetrical on each side, and tapered from the withers to the ears.

We like to lay our hand flat on the horses noseband area and push, to see where the horse wants to naturally flex. Ideally they flex at one point, as close to the poll (between the ears) as possible.

Experts all agree that straight legs are desirable, from both the front and side views. If the legs are not straight, let them at least be symmetrical to each other.

We want to see a well-defined shoulder, that has the same angle as the pastern.

We want to see bone that appears "heavy" in relationship to its body.
From the front view we want a square, rather than a round, knee. We don't want it to appear that both legs come out of the same space in the chest, you want some width, with an upside down V in the musculature.

We don't mind a horse that toes in a bit (pigeon-toed), but NOT with the elbows turned out.

From the side view if the horse is not perfectly straight, it is better to be over than at the knees than back at the knees. We don't want a horse tied in at the knee (see image).

The body holds the horses engine. Horses hearts are big, but their lungs are enormous, and we want to see plenty of room for these organs.
We want the horse to "cinch up" big. That is to say, the Heartgirth needs to be deep, measured by the depth below the point of the elbow. A small Heartgirth does not allow adequate room for the lung capacity needed for stamina and recuperation.
The back should be short and strong. We measure the gap between the last rib and the point of the hip. A maximum of 4 inches is what we look for. Long backed horses tend to be weaker behind, and they tend to run faster than they can stop!
A bump in the musculature of the loin (sometimes called hog backed) is desirable.
The bottom line should show the smallest "window" possible. This is easier to view in a fit horse- because a fat horse will have an artificially small window. We have found that horses with small windows have big "gas tanks"... Sustaining demanding performance better than their "wasp-waisted" counterparts.
When we ride the horse we want the ribs coming out from the body, not "slab sided", where the horse feels narrow under you.
We don't object to a horse who has more muscle over their backs, but obvious withers and a defined spine do keep the saddle from rolling without having to cinch them up too tightly.

Hindquarters: round and full sums up what we want to see. The hip should appear like a D from the side. If there is going to be any variation in the muscle, we would like it to be extended down towards the hock. No angles, no crowned hips, flat hips or goose rumps. Not a bullet shaped hip, which are often accompanied with a flat top line.
From the back we would like there to be a an almost pendulous musculature where the two cheeks meet.
We want a strong Gaskin muscle inside and out when viewed from behind. Thoroughbreds in general lack the heavy inside gasket muscle, but we do prefer to have as much as possible.
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We would like a horse who parks his leg more underneath him than behind him. Remember that the hind legs need to stay compressed under pressure. If their legs are behind them, they are going to be limited in their stops, turns and jumping out.
We would rather have hocks in than Hocks out.
The distance from the stifle to the hock should appear greater than the hock to the ground.
As with the front legs, we prefer a big horse on short legs, with heavy bone and defined joints.

A quick note about the feet.
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You want the hooves to match the horse. Big feet, big horse. Small feet, small horse.
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Although the front feet will generally be a little larger than the hind feet, you want all four feet to have the same general appearance in shape, size and angle attachment to the pasterns.
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Corky has always shod his own horses and has found, like many farriers, that white hooves tend to be softer than dark hooves. So dark hooves are preferred.

A horse with an adaptive attitude, given the opportunity, will work within the limitations of his body. These horses will perform what we ask to the very best of their ability.

However, horses with great bodies but limited willingness to adapt will perform only within the boundaries of their own desires.
In the next few posts we will go over maneuvers we ask a finished or playing horse when trying them.

The objective of buying a horse with the conformation we described is to increase the potential for natural performance at the highest quality with a minimum input on our part.
A polo horse has to perform the specific maneuvers below:

STOP

GO (quick / fast)

LATERAL (left / right)

RATE (change speeds up and down the scale)

CONSISTENCY (thought the Chukker)

INTRINSIC (we call it "Superman Syndrome")

It's important to test each of these qualities under pressure.

One of the manuevers we ask the playing Polo pony to perform is the STOP.

It's not always about a horse who does an amazing sliding stop. The horse should respond to the rider in a manner that is comfortable to the rider.

Keep in mind that on the playing field most people don’t truly “stop” horses down to a stand still. They pull on the reins and the horse slows down to an acceptable speed to make the next maneuver.

Ask yourself these questions:
Are the sensitivity levels of me and the horse compatible?
Does the horse stop in a manner that keeps me at ease?

QUICK/FAST

QUICK is the ability to change speeds in the shortest duration possible. QUICK horses give you the ability to make a rapid change in commitment on the field.
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FAST is miles per hour at it’s top committed speed. FAST is the last thing most players need or are able to utilize under control.
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For best results, focus less on FAST and more on finding a horse that matches your own quickness.

LATERAL

Lateral motion is nothing more than the ability to move in other than a straight line. This can be as tight as a spin, or just a slight bend in forward motion.
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You want the horse to move in response to the pressure you apply.
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Be on the look out for head shaking, stiffness in one direction compared to the other, and/or sticking the nose in the opposite direction of the turn.

RATES of speed

Rating is the ability to change levels of speed, and should be tested in various maneuvers and not just a straight line. Ask the horse to speed up and slow down under pressure, going into and coming out of a turn, while being ridden off, etc.
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How many levels of speed, or "gears", does the horse have, and what is the percentage variation between each of these gears?
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We do not want a horse with “stripped gears”, that jumps from one level to another without being under control. And we don't want a horse that feels like it only has two speeds (they go slow or they go fast, for example, with nothing comfortable in between).
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Ideally you want a vast number of gears with very smooth transitions. This is not about being "fast", as a slower horse can still give you many different gears at the lower end of the spectrum.

CONSISTENCY
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We want the horse to perform in the same manner every time we play it. We want the performance and attitude to be reliable.
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We also want the horse to perform the same at the end of the Chukker as it did in the beginning of the chukker, taking into consideration that the horse might be a little fresh at the beginning of the chukker and a little bit tired at the end of it.
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You're looking for a partner you can count on!

INTRINSIC VALUE- WE CALL IT THE SUPERMAN SYNDROME

Does this horse fill you with confidence? Do you feel like you score every time you play him? Can you mark any man, pass any player, make any play? Sometimes it doesn't matter how good the horse really is, but how confident you feel every time you're on him.