Buying Polo Ponies

The term polo pony is a misnomer and dates back to the days when polo was played on horses below the height of 13 hands. (one hand is 10 cms)  This restriction was lifted in 1908 but the term has stuck. A good polo pony should be well bred, posses the docility of a lamb, the swiftness of a show jumper, the speed of a race horse and the endurance of an Arab steed! No horse on earth is born with these attributes, they have to be trained to acquire these contradictory virtues and that takes a lot of efforts.

Polo has become extremely fast today. Nothing could be more frustrating then to be on a slow horse on a polo field and watch others zip past you. Though half-breeds have better temperaments, more and more players are opting to play on thoroughbreds because of their speed. Things have never been better for the prospective buyer of polo ponies in India.

In eighties, stud farms mushroomed all over the country as the demand for thoroughbred race horses grew enormously. Today, we produce 1800 yearlings every year against an annual  demand of 1200, much to the anguish of the breeders and to the delight of the polo players!

No one likes to take back a horse which does not sell at the annual sales as transportation could be quite expensive. You could pick up a highly pedigreed, well formed horse  between Rs 30,000- 50,000/-  during the sales at various racing centres. You cannot get thoroughbreds at this price anywhere in the world.  Even in India, this price was unthinkable till a few years ago. After buying an yearling, it would take you a minimum of two years before you could play on it.

The second choice is to buy a five or six year old horse from the racecourse which is free of injuries. (once again, a number of horses which do not perform well during races are perfectly fine for polo) By doing this, you can start playing on the horse within a few months of buying. The risk involved is that the horse might have bad habits or an injury which is not very obvious.

If you want a trained polo pony which is stick & balling ( polo term for a horse which lets you lift a stick for practising your shots!) you would have to shell out approximately Rs 70000/-/- and a playing pony could cost you Rs 1.25 lakh.  A top level playing pony could cost as much as Rs 4 lakh. These are horses played for a season or two by a professional in high goal polo. This is also one way of making money for the top pros. Importing a good polo pony from New Zealand or Australia could cost the same. From England or Argentina it could be substantially more