128 TRAINING THE POLO PONY. [Chap. V. 



over the ball, which is almost as bad a fault as shying 

 off the ball. 



- After a pony has been thoroughly broken to stick 

 and ball, he should be played, if possible, in a can- 

 tering game ; but should on no account be played 

 in a fast match until he is fairly perfect in company 

 at a canter. As all ponies go better in company than 

 by themselves, it is much better for two or three men 

 to train their ponies together than singly. When this 

 cannot be done, the owner will find that the education 

 of his pupil will be greatly accelerated by getting, for 

 instance, a stable boy to canter about with him, even 

 if he cannot trust the lad with a stick. 



When training my own young ponies to stick and 

 ball, I always practise several of them at a time, hitting 

 a ball round and round a big field, and make them pass 

 and repass one another, the different riders taking 

 their turns to hit the ball. This practice checks the 

 tendency which the ponies might otherwise have of 

 racing against each other and of pulling. When my 

 youngsters are steady at this kind of work, I put them 

 into a cantering game, two or three a side, taking great 

 care that they do not go out of a collected canter, and 

 that they are not frightened by being hit by ball or 

 stick. As their education progresses, I increase the 

 speed of the games. By being brought on gradually 

 like this, they have but little inducement to become 

 pullers, or to learn tricks like shying off the ball, being- 

 afraid to face other ponies, etc. 



When breaking a pony to stick and ball, it is most 

 important to devote all one's attention to the pony, and 

 not to one's own practice at the pony's expense. 



I have made the foregoing remarks with reference 



