Anyone for Polo?

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Hi Folks...

I've never played...but the sport has interested me since I was a child. It really takes a talented horse to play the game well.

I'm working some on my Polo file...am trying to find as many horses, especially Appaloosas who have been in this field. I have all the information from the AN's and the AJ's from their beginnings. Also have obtained good information from some old Western Horseman and other "horse" magazines and some books I have in my possession.

Recently I ran across an Appaloosa mare here in California who was owned by a polo player (a famous cartoonist) and she was one of his polo mounts.

Last week I learned of an extrememly wealthy man in the east, who was noted for his "high powered" Thoroughbreds and for his flashy string of Appaloosa polo ponies in the 1980's and early 1990's. This would be Henryk de Kwiatkowski...who owned DANZIG, etc.

Currently, I am told, there is an Appaloosa gelding who is approximately 30 years old and he is still being ridden and played by his owner.

I am in the process of running all these leads down and hope to come up with some names and bloodlines on these Appaloosas.

If you know of any horses being used in the game of polo...or who is a sire or dam of a horse being used...I would appreciate any information you can give me.

In many cases the Appaloosa polo pony is a cross to the Thoroughbred, sometimes up to 7/8ths TB.

I have quite a list of Thoroughbreds who have played or are the sire and/or dam of a horse who played polo...and am looking to add to it.

I have scoured the US Remount lists, etc. Livingstons/Edwards "The War Horse" tells us that *KING O'KNEILL II (foaled 1921) was said to have produced some very nice polo ponies from his US Remount years. There was an abundance of horses bred by the US Remount, who went on to become good polo ponys.

Any information will be greatly appreciated and if you wish to take this private...email me at my new address:

[email protected]

Thanks Mucho...Pat

[amanda1]

TB Dreamin' on here has family experience with polo, I believe her husband used to or still does play.....might want to get it touch with her.

[Arctic Cielo]

I came across a mare at one time, a flashy sabino daughter of Puchilingui, that plays polo. I'll see if I can find it.

Heres one link
http://www.angelfire.com/ma3/CandyApple/polo/polo.html

[Lucy]

The horse in that photo IS Puchilingui. There's a mislabed photo of Monarchos on there, too.

It's another one of those sim stable pages.

[timex]

we actually have the local college polo team stabled in our barn. while i'm turning out the polo ponies tomorrow, i'll see if any of them are tatooed, see if thier info can be tracked down that way. Lord knows, the team coach and manager wouldn't have the foggiest idea about he horses they have.

[chippony]

Hello-

Well hopefully I can help out on this subject. My hubby plays polo. I dont know much about tb racing and all the termanology. I think this website may have what you are looking for. americanpolohorse.com

What other info do you need? I have a farm full of polo ponies and could give you some info on background etc.

[camohn]

We have polo ponies. The present string consists of 3 appaloosas, a QH and a Paint. In the past a couple TBs have been here too.
Appys:
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/abby+road5
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/miss+joker+ridge
and
Foxy Lady (appy), the Paint and the QH are not in the allbreed PQ/I have to add them later.

Past polo horses were
a TB gelding we called Partner. He was awesome. He came without papers/did have a tattoo. We never did bother to find out his real name. He came here at 12 and played polo for 12 years. We kept trying to retire him before that and he hated being left home.
The other was this mare now retired to being a broodmare
http://www.pedigreequery.com/my+kickin+cass
She has 3 careers as a racehorse, then a hunter then a polo pony. Her left hock started to get creaky after than and she was retired to mommyhood. Emma (Miss Joker Ridge) was on the Appy race circuit first (she is DAMN fast!), then she was a field hunter/eventer and then a polo pony. She will be retired to mommyhood after next season/getting arthritis in one ankle after her 3 jobs too. We are going to breed her once for ourselves. Freckles (Abby Road) was bought from an Appy race breeder as her up and coming replacement for Emma. She is really fast too. That lady delivered Freckles as she had to come this way for something else anyway and just loved Emma/wants us to sell Emma to her for her race breeding program. Mike said he would after he gets one foal for himself from her first.
We also had another Appy gelding that was an Appy/TB cross.He was unregistered. He is now a ponyclub polo cross horse. We gave him away to a ponyclubber upon his retirement. He was a gelding so we couldn't breed him. He was still sound, just getting a little too slow for full field polo as he got older. He came from a breeder in FL (Ocala) the pecifically bred Appy/TB crosses for polo.

Many breeds will do for polo. YOu just have to find one with the mind to take it. Stock horse breeds (appy/Qh/Paint) dominate in lower level polo and TBs or TB crosses dominate in upper level polo. Lower level polo is more of a stopping and turning game....lots of fouls get called that stop the game and the ball gets turned a lot. In upper level polo it is more of a flat out running game....the umpires only bother to call major fouls to keep the game moving and it is more a flat out running game.

[jellac]

One of the top players at the Houston Polo Club (a 6 goal player) had a favorite mount that was a very loud paint. I don't think he was a registered TB but do seem to recall being told that he was part TB....I know, I know...."which part?".

This horse was a gelding I believe and stood taller than the other polo ponies and of course, always stood out among them on color basis alone. He rode that horse for years in all the high goal matches held there such as those agaisnt the Argentina team, etc. so definitely a top class polo pony.

I've also seen horses that were at least part Appaloosa on the HPC grounds over the years but must say seldom in the major matches. At that level it seems to be the smaller TB or TB crossed with Argentinian polo ponies seem to predominate.