We here summarize the main ideas which we have taken from articles in our yearbooks on interviews of high handicap players, all of them succesful breeders and true experts on polo ponies in general.
Next year we will continue to publish other interviews.

HORACIO ARAYA – Year 1986 Num 1 Yearbook
“When putting together a herd, I think that mares are more important. The dam is valuable, independent of the sire.
When one has a stallion that imprints good polo playing characteristics on its get, that stallion can throw good playing horses on any mare.
The ideal thing is to play the horse at 4 years of age, at this age the horse has a better body, it is less frisky and can better resist demands.
A horse is taught to stop when its mouth hurts a bit, it gets used to this and has accepted it. If it is excessively pulled in, it will think it gives the orders and loose the certainty of what it was taught.
The ideal horse is the one that goes at the speed its rider requires, the one that can be asked for more or held in during a game.”

HECTOR BARRANTES - Year 1989 Num 3 Yearbook
“One should not put all one’s trust in one stallion. Different stallions have to be tried. Short horses have more violent movements and very wide chested horses are very heavy and stop on their forefeet. Horses learn through repetition and we dedicate a lot of time to the way they place their heads and teaching them to stop without jumping.
The vice of a horse jumping when it stops is acquired. If we let 100 horses loose to run in a field, none of them jumps when it stops.”

GONZALO PIERES - Year 1991 Num 5 Yearbook
“In a polo pony the legs are the main thing to take into account, they have to have a slight angle, they must not be straight. Straight legs are the worst possible feature in a polo pony.
I think the best thing is a leg with long muscle down to the hocks and hocks near the ground. With good legs the horse is well balanced. It is very likely that a horse will lose sensitivity in its mouth due to its hocks.
Horses that run long distances have the advantage that they do not start out in an uncontrolled manner as do horses that run 1000 metres.
I look for a horse with an outstretched neck in action.
There are horses that look great in photographs but when they are moving their neck is wrong. The ideal neck is outstretched and a bit long, with good insertion.
Good polo ponies are those with relatively short backs and long necks. These horses are more agile. The most important feature is the mouth.”

DANIEL GONZALEZ - Year 1992 Num 6 Yearbook
“When choosing a horse to break in, the first thing to do is look at its legs, and we will know if the horse will do, because the angles of its legs are not going to change. There is selection on the basis of physical or bone conformation and another on the basis of aptitude of movement. When you start exercising the horse in the round ring you realize what the horse’s movement is like.
If horses are broken in patiently they are not crazy or stressed out. Horses do not inherit craziness, therefore I suppose they get their craziness from their rider. In the polo field there are riders who make their horses crazy and others who calm them.
I choose stallions of very good quality, good necks, good heads, good legs, fairly long. Horses are like women, they cannot be ugly. This stallion I choose, even if it does not move too well, I keep it in mind. There are still good lads, but I think that nowadays the person who has learnt most is the player. There are boys who know about horses because they live with them. Nowadays there are more good horses, a higher percentage. Once a horse learns to play polo it is good with any rider.”

HORACIO HEGUY - Year 1993 Num 7 Yearbook
“The most difficult thing is to know, in the case of new horses, which have aptitudes, which are going to make good, which have defects that can be corrected and defects that cannot be corrected. The question is to have sufficient sensitivity to be able to tell, when faced with new horses, which are going to do. The most important feature is the mouth, if the horse does not have a mouth it will never play.
The horse must not run in a straight line, if it does I do not believe it will learn to move laterally.
If the horse runs straight and is too rigid to move laterally, with a stiff body, I would say it is unlikely this horse will learn. In the case of horses with low, short action, it is easier to hit the ball than in those with long, high action. “They seem to be telling you when to hit the ball”. A good horse plays at the speed I ask of it and I go for the move I want and do not have to think if the horse will get there or not.
Always in some horses you have to give up some move.
We have forgotten about the type of horse for polo, about 30 years ago, it was, with good reason, a pony very near the ground. I think we have to return to low ponies and in so doing we will also improve their movement.”

BAUTISTA HEGUY - Year 1996 Num 10 Yearbook
“When I choose a stallion for my herd, in my opinion the main thing is that it be a polo horse, after this its pedigree and finally its performance.
When I first get a horse to break in, I look at its mouth, at how it moves sideways. When stopped I want the horse to back correctly and to start off its forelegs. After breaking in, in spite of some difficulties, I give it a year.
The ideal horse is one with a good mouth, speed, resistance and a smooth run. I like a tidy horse and as I know I can give it more speed, I can choose one that does not apparently run so much.
I don’t try to pass when I know I can’t and I do try when I know I win, I don’t hit my horses and I almost never go for a ride off. When a horse gets tired it plays no more polo.
A horse that plays well can be played by anyone in any position. Playing as a 1 and a back some horses’ defects can be hidden, but as a 2 or a 3 nobody is fooled.
If a good horse that always turned well, suddenly does not do so, it is because it feels pain.
Horses do not speak, but in not doing something they did before they are telling us something is wrong.”