162 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



polo mount seems to be one that is three-quarters Thor- 

 oughbred. As laid down by E. D. Miller in his book, 

 " Modern Polo," the polo mount should be a Thoroughbred 

 out of a mare by a Thoroughbred; that is, it should 

 be three-quarters Thoroughbred race horse. 



In America, the mounts used to play the game are secured 

 chiefly from the West, and the demand for mounts here is 

 not yet anything like what it is in England. The supply 

 is entirely inadequate to meet the demand, and polo 

 mounts are sought for the English market not only in 

 America, including Canada, Mexico and Argentina, but 

 in every corner of the horse-breeding world, Egypt, 

 Syria, Barbary, Russia, France, Persia and South Africa. 

 While the mounts thus secured are not equal in speed, 

 endurance or courage to the English or American race 

 horse, the best, when trained and fitted, command very 

 high prices. The prices may be said to range anywhere 

 from $300 to $3000. In fact, there is no limit to the 

 price, as those who play the game are, as a rule, men of 

 means to whom a really good animal is cheap at any 

 price. The exacting qualifications, however, make first- 

 class polo mounts rare. 



Breeding polo mounts at present is somewhat of an 

 experiment and presents many difficulties, the chief 

 being the limit of height. All breeding of horses goes 

 to prove the impossibility of insuring the progeny of any 

 given size. In America, the western pony mare is bred 

 to small Thoroughbred stallions, and in a very few cases 

 to Arabian horses. In England, to keep the size down, 

 pure pony blood as foundation stock is being used to 

 found a breed of polo mounts, the fillies being bred back 

 to stallions of the same breed as their sires, the produce 

 of which will be three-quarters Thoroughbred. The 



