204 RIDING, DRIVING AND KINDRED SPORTS 



India, or perhaps I should say it was when the 

 Indian turf was less businesslike than it is now^ 

 and we mostly trained and rode our own ponies, 

 I cannot say I regard it with much favour in 

 England. It is true that I started the first 

 Ranelagh pony races held by the club after its 

 reconstruction in 1894. It is also true that at 

 a gymkhana I regard the Polo Pony Scurry 

 and the races on weight for inches conditions 

 as the most interesting part of the programme, 

 but this does not necessarily express approval. 

 Polo pony races are fashionable and popular, 

 and I think I see signs that they are becoming- 

 more so each year. Therefore they could 

 hardly be left out in a book like the present. 

 The reason I am rather inclined to look coldly 

 on polo pony races — and that is the only form 

 of pony racing that need concern us here — is 

 that racing is not improving to most ponies, 

 for it makes them excitable and nervous, and 

 certainly often leads to pulling, one of the 

 worst faults a polo pony can possibly have. 

 Then it leads to men brinoinor lonof, awkward 

 blood horses into the game, not because they 

 are good at it, but to qualify for the annual 

 pony races of the club. Now my own feelings 

 are entirely in sympathy with the game of polo, 

 and I think it demands all the energies of a 

 pony, and that racing is in many ways an 



