POLO 



INTRODUCTORY 



IT is generally admitted that every sport has its utility. Angling 

 teaches a man patience and self-control ; hunting improves 

 not only good horsemanship, but pluck and observation ; whilst 

 shooting inculcates quickness of hand and eye coupled with 

 endurance and the power of bearing fatigue ; football, cricket, 

 rowing, rackets, tennis all bring to the front and encourage 

 qualities that are essentially manly and perhaps no sport tends 

 to combine all these lessons so much as polo, none makes a 

 man more a man than this entrancing game, none fits him more 

 for the sterner joys of war or enables him better to bear his 

 part in the battle of life. Pluck, endurance, submission to 

 discipline, good temper, calmness, judgment, quickness of 

 observation, self-control, are all qualities as essential in a good 

 polo player as in a good soldier ; and last, but by no means 

 least, there is no finer school in which to acquire the art of 

 riding. It may be urged that the game is too expensive to be 

 indulged in save by those endowed with long purses; but 

 though a man may not be able to mount himself on a pony 

 that would pass muster at Hurlingham, or that would be fit to 

 compete in an inter-regimental tournament, yet without any 

 great outlay he may not only have a deal of fun, but improve 

 his health and his horsemanship materially by learning to 



