BREAKING THE PONY. 129 



to the training of ordinary English ponies. Some ex- 

 ceptional ponies require hardly any training, and will 

 play right off; others will take months and months 

 of care and patience, and a few will never learn to 

 play at all. By adopting the directions I have given, 

 the percentage of unplayable ponies will be found to 

 be very small. Foreign ponies, such as Arabs, 

 Barbs, Egyptians, Argentines, Africans and Americans, 

 do not, as a rule, take nearly so much trouble to 

 train as English ponies. Generally, they have better 

 mouths, and are not so high couraged, or, at least, 

 possess more placid tempers. The majority of them 

 play polo with very little training. Many Americans 

 and Argentines have been used as cow ponies, which 

 is about the best training a polo pony can have — 

 any good cow pony makes a polo pony at once. 

 Geldings, as a rule, are more amenable to dis- 

 cipline than stallions, and have just as much, if not 

 more, pluck. Entires, particularly Barbs, have often 

 an annoying trick of looking round and trying to bite 

 any pony which may be alongside, instead of gal- 

 loping their best. 



Ponies which have advanced to a certain extent in 

 their polo education, but which are addicted to some 

 awkward tricks, such as pulling and shying off the 

 ball, will, if turned to grass during the winter, often 

 forget their tricks of the previous season, although 

 they will remember the valuable lessons they received. 

 I think the reason of this is that ponies frequently get 

 sick and tired of being pulled about and trained to 

 polo, and that the tricks they pick up are merely signs 

 of temper, or because their mouths get hurt, their legs 

 and feet sore, and their health upset. After a winter's 



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