José María Azumendi “Do you train your horses in any special way?”

Alberto Heguy Junior
I like to ride a horse myself and have the lad feed it, wash it…
If possible I ride a horse almost every day in the afternoon, and I even sometimes exercise it.
I like to feel the horse from its back, and always the day before a match or a practice I ride it or exercise it.
I ride almost every afternoon. I play a lot of practice matches, but I am never too rough in these because I like a horse to save its strength for a match.
I think I ride my horses more than the rest of the members of the team do, I think they leave a bit more of the exercise to the lads.

“What type of horse do you look for?”
I can’t play a horse that does not have a good mouth. If a horse does not have an excellent mouth I don’t like it.
I am always being sent horses to try out and told ‘this one is just right for Num 1, its super’, but I want a horse that is right for Num 3, then I use it to play Num 1.
I don’t like a horse that does not allow me to stop with the ball in case it bounces back and I have to go down the line immediately. So in the first place I look for a horse with a very good mouth and in the second place I want a horse that adapts to my type of playing. I am not a rough player and I am physically light.
I like a small horse because the ball is nearer and easier to hit.
I believe speed is essential, though I can manage with horses that are not so fast, and I have even played in Palermo with horses that other players have found did not allow them to play as they wanted.
I almost never bring a horse to a complete stop, I keep it moving and so I get a few more kilometres out of itthan other players, even good ones.
Latterly I have had the luck to ride such comfortable, easy, small horses that when I get on a large horse my stick seems to be too short or I find hitting the ball uncomfortable.
Obviously there are exceptions, if I have a large light horse with a wonderful mouth I ride it.

“You do not bump into other horses too much, is this so your horses do not become fearful?”
The thing is I am not a classical Num 1, like those that come up from the back.
I play to gain on the turns, to anticipate, and once I’ve escaped forwards, it’s very difficult to catch up with me.
Anyway, neither I nor my horses have the strength to pass forwards past the backs which are very firm with very strong horses; I will never be able to pass them even if my horse is a better horse than theirs.
I frequently see people tire out their horses pulling them up too suddenly or using them in very rough ride offs, usually these tactics are useless and end up making the horses fearful. In fact, the consequences soon make themselves felt and after a couple of seasons one sees mares that stop during a throw-in or do not want to start up. Therefore I think that it is fundamental to stimulate confidence in a horse; I prefer not to stop a horse completely,so that when it starts off a new movement this is as natural as possible.

“How many of the horses you play are yours and how many are bred by others?”
Last season something incredible happened to me, of the 7 horses I played in Palermo, 6 were ones I or my father or brother Eduardo had bred, also, they were Argentine Polo Ponies.
This is usually very rare, but it is the result of a really serious task of organization that I have carried out during the last 4 years.
Before that as I was studying and I did not play Polo outside the country I did not have much money to invest and I only had 2 mares in my herd and I got 3 embryos a year from them.
Once I graduated, about 9-10 years ago, I started to travel more and so was able to invest in a herd, this allowed me to progress substantially. Two years ago I started to play my own first mares and today of 15 mares I have playing in Buenos Aires, 12 are ones I or my family bred.

“How do you carry out your breeding: do you have many mares, an important stallion, do you obtain embryos…?”
I now have 30 brood mares, a mixed lot. Some are bought, some mares that played in Palermo, some are mares whose bloodlines I like and others were new mares I liked and are now broken down.
I also obtain 20-25 embryos a year from my good mares. I intend to continue doing this, since in the last season 7 of the 15 horses I had in Buenos Aires were obtained by embryo transfer and they did very well.
Also, after 10 years of embryo transfer I now know which mares will give good progeny and which, though they were good to play, will not be good as dams.
The key lies in taking embryos from the mare that gives the better progeny and not from the one that was a better player.
Now one can have ones best mares produce embryos with ones own stallion.
I think we have learnt a lot in this matter of embryo transfer, at the beginning, when we started using this procedure, there were no tested stallions, nor many stallions to test. One would send a mare and there were only 3 stallions to choose from.
Now, for example, I have purebred racing stallions or Argentine Polo stallions to use on my mares. The stallion I am most pleased with at this moment is ‘Polo Nevadito’, I have get of his that though only 4 years old I have already sent to be broken in. They are really very good, at the last Palermo Rural Show I won the Female Grand Champion and Best Management Prize with them.

“Do you use other stallions?”
I also use ‘Sol’ as a stallion, he is a whole brother of ‘La Luna’, Gonzalo Pieres’ wonderful mare, he has given me some great foals; I also have ‘Ultrasonido’, this stallion almost won the Triple Crown, he won the Jockey Club, the Yearlings Race and was second in the National, but the stud that owned him didn’t want him as a sire for racing horses.
I manage with these 3 stallions, though I admit that it took me years of trial and error, selecting stallions and learning which stallions gave a good get and which didn’t.
This has happened to everybody. With embryo transfer it is easier to conduct trials, for example in the case of ‘Polo Nevadito’ after playing him in Palermo we were able to get 50 foals a year of his, which is an impressive figure in comparison with the way things were done previously.

“When it comes to the final choice, do you prefer to use a purebred racing stallion or a Polo stallion?”
I prefer a Polo stallion, undoubtedly. On the basis of my experience and taking into account all the latest horses I have sent to be broken in I have seen that a Polo stallion is better than a purebred racing stallion.

“How do you manage the breaking in of your horses?”
Personally I respect all systems used, the truth is that they have all given me good results.
Some of my last horses were broken in by my father, using his own system, not with a a gag, with just a small snaffle. After him I send my best horses to Sergio Fernandez, he is a horse tamer we have on the farm and he uses traditional farm methods, these have given me the best result. He takes about a year to break in a horse but he makes it work the cattle. The cattleherders ride the horses all day and when he finishes with them they are really tamed. They are not frightened of anything and are ready to play the next day. I am careful what I use in their mouths as I’m not keen on pulling their mouths about. It seems to be needless cruelty with such good horses. I recognize there may be exceptions, but I don’t like excessive pulling on the mouth.

“You use a gag to start them?”
they start off with a gag, they are tamed with a bit, but as soon as I get them I file their teeth, so they don’t hurt themselves and I immediately start using a hackamore, because I don’t like a bit. I prefer to use manage them with a headcollar.
Anyway I was never able to manage a horse with a bit and it is very rare to see horse using a bit in the Palermo Open.

“Are you a perfectionist when it comes to horses?”
Yes I’m really obsessive. If I am given a horse and it does not stop and back correctly I can spend up to 2 hours a day training it till it does. The thing is if the horse is not ‘comfortable’ then it will not be ‘comfortable’ to play either and if I don’t correct this at the start, later I will not be able to.
I do not have a pilot, just Pablo Nagore and a lad to give me a hand. So I always ride the horses and I like them to have as much time as possible. I don’t like to hurry them, I prefer they should learn things slowly and well.
After playing my horses for some time in Chapaleufú I take the best to Buenos Aires, but I only play them half a season.
If they are 4 years old and promising I take them to Buenos Aires, but they only play practice matches and; if they are 5 years old I play them at Indios-Tortugas and then take them back to the farm. All this is just to get them used to the Los Indios Club, the boxes, the trip to Buenos Aires, but everything slowly.
I had a bad experience, when several horses broke down on me, I hurried new horses. If a mare is good she is usually highly strung and if you hurry her she can break down.
Precisely this mistake of hurrying horses is what is most frequently seen in Argentina where there are so many horses and many are ruined through hurrying them.

“During recent years, specially in high handicap matches, two horses, not one as before, are used for each chukker, why is this so, in your opinion?”
Personally I’m not in favour of this new method, because if used systematically the day you need a horse to play 7 minutes, it is no longer used to doing so, it does not know what is going on. A horse should not be so tired that it cannot finish a chukker.
The positive side of changing a horse in the middle of a chukker is that when one starts to feel the horse is tired one can change it, since to tire it more would affect its subsequent recovery.
If I feel a horse is OK I use it for the whole chukker, but if it isn’t I am concerned as to what happened to it.
There are, of course, exceptions, for example, if it’s a very hot day, 40 C, or a mare is very old, 17 or 18, one knows it will not be able to play 7 minutes.
I do not agree with changing horses systematically in the middle of a chukker, because if they have no opportunity to change these players end the chukker at a gallop.

“What do you think of the work the Argentine Association of Polo Pony Breeders (AACCP) is carrying out and what would you like to improve?”
I think the work being carried out is splendid, specially as far as recording data. Nowadays, thanks to this work, all Polo enthusiasts know the best bloodlines and stallions.
The shows are very good indeed, the horses shown are very well prepared, have good mouths and are well broken in.
I am very happy with all the work of the AACCP is doing in this sense.
I did think that some prizes given at Palermo were given rather hastily, but that is, of course, due to the judge in each case.
I wish to clarify my statement: the mares that won were not fair, they were outstanding, but during that season had not even reached the semifinals or the final. Obviously, as they were so good, the next year or next 2 years they won prizes again, which makes one think that originally prizes was given hastily, these mares could wait and win a prize after playing 2 or 3 chukkers in a final or semifinal.
“What advice would you give new players and all those who want to play better polo?”
It is very difficult for new players to buy good horses, because many team owners pay high prices for good mares. Therefore, one sees many players riding their own horses, but to do this one must follow all the steps.
Genetics has reached a level which make a good outcome possible and good stallions can be obtained. But for everything to turn out well all the steps have to be carried out correctly without mistakes, on the farm, breaking in, etc. One must specially not hurry things hoping for immediate results.
A huge organization is not necessary, the larger the organization the larger the complications as far as obtaining good horses. A good figure is 10 new horses a year and one must be very severe when it comes to culling. If two months after it has left a tamers hands a mare is not yet doing well, it doesn’t matter who its dam was, one must not waste time on it but keep that time for horses with more future.