POLO PONIES. 227 



country-breds, and last much longer. Colonel de Lisle 

 and most other first-class players prefer Australians 

 to anything else for polo in India, and very naturally 

 too ; as they seem to me to combine all the virtues 

 of the English pony, with better legs and feet. Indeed, 

 the best pony I saw in India was an Australian be- 

 longing to the Maharajah of Cooch Behar ; and now 

 that the height has been raised to 14. i I fully 

 expect to see the Australian supersede the Arab 

 in first-class India polo, to almost as great an 

 extent as the Arab has superseded the country- 

 bred. I think I am right in saying that when I 

 played for the 17th Lancers at Meerut in r888, 

 there was only one Arab pony playing in our team ; 

 all the rest being country-breds. In 1895 I played 

 at Lucknow against the i6th Lancers, who were 

 mounted almost entirely on Arabs, there being only 

 one or two country-breds. The only reason that 

 Arabs may still continue to hold their own, is that 

 Australians are far harder to train ; so that mo- 

 derate horsemen, who constitute by far the majority 

 of polo players, will always find that Arabs suit 

 them best. Australians have the great advantage 

 over Arabs, of not being nearly so likely to fall. On 

 the whole, I would strongly recommend beginners, if 

 they can do so, to stick entirely to Arabs. 



When passing through Bombay, as nearly every 

 newcomer does, [the intending polo player should 

 buy, or get a friend to buy for him, an Arab pony. 

 Although Arabs are 'more expensive than country- 

 breds, the increased cost will be more than made 

 up by the greater probability of success. I am 

 here alluding of course to untrained ponies. Arabs 



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