Both are perfect examples of succesfull sportsmen. On the polofield they play with the complete understanding of brothers, off it they are good friends.
They are Adolfo Cambiaso junior and Bartolomé Castagnola.
Cambiaso even surpasses the traditional image of a polo player: star, genius, magician; all these adjectives are applicable to “Adolfito”. He played in Palermo at 17 under Gonazalo Pieres’ wing and, in 1992, during Ellerstina’s first season reached the finals and ended the season as a scorer in that tournament. Since then he has continued to astonish onlookers, in 1994 he attained the Triple Crown.
At the same time, “Lolo” Castagnola gained experience and in 1996 they joined forces in La Martina.
However, the Argentine Open had a double championship awaiting them. Ellerstina returned to the lists and in 1997 and 1998 they were there winning prizes.
Undoubtedly the first of these years will be remembered due to the memorable final game with Indios Chapaleufú, the only time that Palermo ended with a supplementary chukker, to be precise with a goal scored by Cambiaso.
The season of ’98 was one of records. The scorers marked up 43, 44, and even 45 goals during Palermo. Once more Cambiaso astounded everyone: he played 5 games during the Argentine Open and made 67 goals, both a consistent and astonishing performance.
In the year 2000 the partnership Cambiaso-Castagnola, two of the best mounted players, played for La Dolfina and continued in first class style.
They were kind enough to grant José María Azumendi, member of the Argentine Asociation of Polo Pony Breeders (AACCP), an interview.

How do you manage your horse training?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I worked with Gonzalo Pieres for many years and played with Carlos and Memo Gracida, Ernesto Totz and Alfonso Pieres; they all have different working styles. So I have taken what I like best from each of them.
During the last period I was with Marcelo Canónico, an Ellerstina veterinarian, I was impressed by his way of exercising horses, so as to achieve a good degree of training.
Personally, it is my theory that horses should play few practice matches and should be kept for the final matches, many riders make too many demands on them beforehand and the horses are therefore not at their best when it comes to the tournaments.
When the horses are trained to their top performance, they can be kept up to form with just a little well-judged exercise.

Do you think that playing is better than practice matches as a form of training?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) Yes, I consider this is so. Precisely due to the unequal relationship between practice matches and playing which I pointed out before. The horse must give its best during a game, not a practice match.

Taking into account that you play in a manner in which the horse stops and starts repeatedly, is its training similar to that of any other horse?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I think that polo is a game which requires a lot of mental ingenuity, so one must exercise the horses, play practice matches and choose tactics one feels sure of.
Once you get to Palermo, the hard work that must be put in is the same for everybody, even if you are Pepe or Ignacio Heguy.
I would say that only Bautista Heguy, the rider and player I most admire, is able to get slow horses to go faster or perform a bit more for him than they do for other players.
Personally, I prefer to choose 4 or 5 horses and lightly exercise them to maintain their form. Then, during games, I make them circulate a lot and I always try to play the maximum possible number of horses, avoiding their re-use, unless it is a key match, and I try not to play them at the last moment. If I can save them a last effort in a chukker, I don’t hesitate, I change them. In this way my horses last me the 3 months of the season and I also think they have a longer useful lifespan.
“El Colibrí” is 18 and continues to play well for me and has never let me down.

Do you play a lot of horses you have bred yourself?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I started using my own horses a few years ago, but only a few of them. During the last Palermo Cup I played 2 of the 6 I had trained. This is a good average. I was lucky enough to be able to use some very good Ellerstina mares as dams.

Does embryo transfer work?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I consider it a proven technique. Personally, it has given me good results and I have a blind faith in this technique.

Do you consider the lad very important in the making of a good polo pony?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I consider the lad completely separate from making ponies. My lad is very good, but he is in charge of the playing horses.
I use lads as helpers to players with a 2 or 3 goal handicap whom I get to play for me. Within my organization the lad’s work is completely separate from that of making new polo ponies.
I also believe that the best person to make the polo ponies is not somebody who plays polo, who is in a hurry, but somebody who plays for the horse’s sake.

Who breaks in your horses?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) Polito Ulloa, Lorenzo Güiraldes, Pipa Gómez, who is from Lobos, and Pepe Molina in Córdoba. I am not too clear on this. In general, I prefer Ulloa, but he does not have much time.

Do you look for a special type of horse for your position or is this not important?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) It has been proved that a good horse plays well in any position, but these are few and it must be admitted that players find some horses that they play better than others. Personally I used to play “H”, I won a prize with this horse and it was a better mare than “Colibrí”, but I played better with the latter horse.

It must be admitted that you are a back who attacks a lot, but not all horses are up to this effort, what sort of mount do you prefer?
(Bartolomé Castagnola) I need a horse to be flexible. I do not stop and start a lot, like Adolfito, but I do need a horse that after the first check is quick to recover, otherwise I cannot play it.
Before I had stronger horses and I managed to attack when I saw an opportunity, but I must admit that now I have better mounts.

Do you reject a horse if it is large, or is it all the same to you as long as it is skillul and agile?
(Bartolomé Castagnola) The only thing I want is a good horse. Right now all my horses are small ponies, I must be the player to have the smallest horses at this moment. This just turned out this way. There are small ponies which are wonderful and stronger than a huge horse. What matters is what you feel when you are up on them.

(Adolfo Cambiaso) I must admit that thanks to having been with Gonzalo Pieres I recognize a good horse. Since 1992, both in Ellerstina and in other parts of the world, I have been mounted on the best horses. There comes a moment when you get up on a horse and instantly percieve what it is like, if it is a poor horse I don’t waste time with it.
I can assure you that if anyone were to get up on one of the 5 horses I ride now they would also find them good.

It is rumoured that you have a lot of intuition when it comes to horses, you can tell when riding them if they will last a whole chukker or not or if there is anything wrong with them, how is this?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I try to get to know them as much as possible. I ride them over and over and study them till I can tell what their maximum performance will be and how they behave; the day I notice something strange about them or that they are not performing as they did before, I call the vet to see what is wrong, unless I have already realised what it is.

During the last 2 years a lot of foreign horses have been seen in Palermo, what is going on? Are good horses lacking in Argentina?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) Two things are true: there are good horses throughout the world, not only in Argentina, and what has been seen during these last 2 years is going to change during the next 2 or 3 seasons, there are a lot of people breeding polo ponies with very good results.
What happens is that outside the country there are also good horses, before these were only seen in Argentina.

Do you prefer a playing stud or a purebred racehorse stud?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I prefer a purebred racehorse as a stallion, though there are some crossbreeds like “el Pucará” or “el Sol” who throw good foals and one is obliged to have some of these too.
In the end one ends up breeding one’s best mare to some stallion one likes and then one leaves it as the stallion. Currently I have several crossbreeds like a full brother of “la Pastora”, a son of “la Liebre” with “Optimum”, a “Good Match” and a “Rengo”.
But, I always hold that having purebred racehorse blood is important, that’s why I prefer these stallions. I try to follow some bloodlines and ride them a bit, so as to see their action and that they have some skill.

In your position, what type of mouthpiece do you prefer?
I prefer to use a snaffle bridle. I have never played a horse with a curb bit. And I find a martingale strange, therefore I have never tried it, nor am I going to for the time being.

How do you see breeding and the AACCP?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I love it. I registered in the AACCP because I consider it something extremely interesting and the prizes provide an extra incentive because very few mistakes have been made. Almost all the mares chosen as champions have played in Palermo and that shows how right the choices were.
Currently I think the AACCP is carrying out very good work, I think that all the things being done by them have as their aim the improvement of breeding, from insemination to breaking in.

Do you think that the general level of horses in Palermo has improved?
(Bartolomé Castagnola) I admit I am a video fan and I love seeing all the films of Palermo I can. Quite frankly, when I look at all the games since 1982 when Gonzalo Pieres played “la Toca” with Alcides Diniz its unbelievable. When you get to seeing the 1986 games you realize they were better and in 1990 better still.
I am also surprised to see how Gonzalo Heguy was mounted in 1986, he had 4 sensational mares: Cobra, Billonaria, Tatiana and Litigiosa. He was unstoppable.
In general lines, all the players have progressed. Year by year one learns and has to take risks to improve.

Many youngsters who are starting out in polo idolize Adoldo Cambiaso junior, therefore, as an authority on the subject, what advice would you give them?
(Adolfo Cambiaso) I think the most important thing is to see how the great players perform and find in each one something of use to ourselves. At least, that is what I did, having been with Ernesto Trotz, the Gracida brothers and Alfonso and Gonzalo Pieres. The worst thing one can do is to try and imitate someone else’s playing style. The best thing is to be oneself.