REGISTER NOW!! Why? Because you can't do much without having been registered!

At the moment you have limited access to view all discussions - and most importantly, you haven't joined our community. What are you waiting for? Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join Join Talking Horses here!

Reply to thread

Message

I can't agree with you there, Kri. I have worked in polo over the years, and I can't buy that it's cruel, I'm afraid. Similar to racing, the horses are kept in very good conditions, and again, similar to racehorses, the majority enjoy what they are doing! Yes, it is a fast-paced and sometimes violent sport but I can't buy that is is particularly cruel (with the exception of the way the Argentines can treat their ponies, which can be very cruel). The ponies love playing, they get very excited at a match & hyped up.

As for having mouths of iron - not necessarily. They have a lot of metalwork in their mouth, granted, but that at least means that they have brakes, for their own good as well of that of the riders! I have ridden many, many polo ponies in their daily exercise and although you do get the odd strong one, the majority can be held with your little finger whilst cantering around the field - and yes, that's riding one and leading four in headcollars!

Now the pedantic bit - - the vast majority of playing ponies have running gags in their mouths rather than pelhams.

<blockquote data-quote="Shadow Leader" data-source="post: 2049630" data-attributes="member: 65043">I can&#039;t agree with you there, Kri.&nbsp; I have worked in polo over the years, and I can&#039;t buy that it&#039;s cruel, I&#039;m afraid.&nbsp; Similar to racing, the horses are kept in very good conditions, and again, similar to racehorses, the majority enjoy what they are doing!&nbsp; Yes, it is a fast-paced and sometimes violent sport but I can&#039;t buy that is is particularly cruel (with the exception of the way the Argentines can treat their ponies, which can be very cruel).&nbsp; The ponies love playing, they get very excited at a match &amp; hyped up.&nbsp; As for having mouths of iron - not necessarily.&nbsp; They have a lot of metalwork in their mouth, granted, but that at least means that they have brakes, for their own good as well of that of the riders!&nbsp; I have ridden many, many polo ponies in their daily exercise and although you do get the odd strong one, the majority can be held with your little finger whilst cantering around the field - and yes, that&#039;s riding one and leading four in headcollars!&nbsp; Now the pedantic bit -&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue&nbsp; &nbsp; :P"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /> - the vast majority of playing ponies have running gags in their mouths rather than pelhams.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shadow Leader, post: 2049630, member: 65043"] I can't agree with you there, Kri. I have worked in polo over the years, and I can't buy that it's cruel, I'm afraid. Similar to racing, the horses are kept in very good conditions, and again, similar to racehorses, the majority enjoy what they are doing! Yes, it is a fast-paced and sometimes violent sport but I can't buy that is is particularly cruel (with the exception of the way the Argentines can treat their ponies, which can be very cruel). The ponies love playing, they get very excited at a match & hyped up. As for having mouths of iron - not necessarily. They have a lot of metalwork in their mouth, granted, but that at least means that they have brakes, for their own good as well of that of the riders! I have ridden many, many polo ponies in their daily exercise and although you do get the odd strong one, the majority can be held with your little finger whilst cantering around the field - and yes, that's riding one and leading four in headcollars! Now the pedantic bit - :P - the vast majority of playing ponies have running gags in their mouths rather than pelhams. [/QUOTE]

Verification: 5 + 3 = ?