People who are already established in life seem to come into Poland because they've gone
to watch a game or they have ended up going out for a corporate day or something like
that or just a day out perhaps and end up deciding that this is something that they'd
like to have a go at and it's very easy to get the bug in Poland. We see it all the time.
When you're younger, perhaps it's something which you're doing from school or you have
a friend that does it and you go along or you start grooming. I think it varies a lot.
There is no one way that everyone comes into it. As they go through the various stages
of their training and learning, when the penny drops for some of them and you really see
that you're doing well with one, that's something which really excites me. Some days it sends
you home with your table between your legs and you have no idea what you're doing wrong.
Unfortunately, there's more days than I care to remember. It gets easier the more you do
it and you have less of those days the more you do it. When you get it right, you really
get it right and it's very rewarding.
Basically, this is a greener penny and it hasn't done very much of this. You have quite
a long time of that if you see all the shops and get used to having somebody else with
you and then trying to keep as calm as possible doing all of that and then when she starts
doing some chuckers now, they'll just be baby chuckers with other ponies that are also
at the same stage and then when they're good doing that, so go a bit faster and then the
main come off and then you have to finish product. Once they've played some tournament
polo, you can start to think about calling it a May pony. Ideally, a full season, at
least certainly into your second season before you mark it.
I've always been in horses. Pony Club were doing a have a go at polo session, so I went
along with my old pony. Had a bit of a tap around and learned a few little bits of that
and never looked back. Carried on having a few lessons, got a pony, started playing
a few chuckers, messing around with it. Then I met Mikey two years ago and he's helped
me a lot, taught me a lot of things, played with him a bit. Got asked to play in a few
teams, went on from there really. I primarily prep racehorses for polo. We tend to spend
a lot of time travelling all over the UK and Europe trying to find any failed racehorses
or that they feel won't cut the grade anyway. After we go through a very long process of
what they look like as well as their character, then we bring them home and we start working
on them. It's quite a lengthy process and it becomes a business before you know it.
The source, train, sail, prep, everything with the help of some people. We have a girl
called Kate who works with us, who works very hard and is contributing a lot to make it
all work very well this year. It's her first year. I've had her chat with me for 13 years
who for the first year hasn't been able to come. It was a bit of a mix and match this
year to really get started and see how the season was going to evolve. A new area as
well because we moved. Here we are forming our new core as it were. A move from Somerset
to Sirensesta. A little bit more back in the mix. We had a couple of years in a quieter
part of the country for polo, which was very useful because we bought a lot of ponies and
one hit. It's a lot cheaper to keep them. We were blinkered down there for two years
working on them and now that we've filtered through most of them we know what we have
and what we don't have. We've got some younger ones coming through behind that I think we
got a nice core of about 20 ponies of various different stages which we'll start to work
the way through. I've been doing it for probably making ponies about seven years, eight years
now properly where I've called that the main part of the business. Playing polo is a byproduct
of that to prep them. Up until then I'd always been playing professionally and just playing.
It's a lot, I find for me it's a lot more beneficial because I'm not good when I play
a lot of polo, whereas I can be more competitive if I play not so much. So it fits well with
a real passion for the babies. I spend a lot of time with them. It's a lot of fun. I can
dedicate a lot more time to them by not playing so much and producing more to sell. I started,
I couldn't even tell you when I started, I can't remember, but that is all I have done.
Travelled a lot with it. It's been a very, very interesting, well I'd say 15 years now
it must have been. Argentina, we've spent a lot of time now, I did a good 16 years there
hence I get stuck with some traditions which die hard. If you spend any time out there
you tend to find yourself doing a lot of sleeping siesta and a lot of mate drinking. Working
very hard early in the morning and working very hard late at night but in the middle
you spend a lot of time drinking mate and some habits die hard and this is one of them
I'd say. It took me to Australia, Pakistan, done quite a lot of Middle East. We were even
mani-poor in between Bangladesh and Burma, so technically India, Thailand, we've done
a lot of travelling with it. I think it's all going very well that a lot of uncertainty
with the moment within polo as an industry with visa crises over migrants, but I don't
really see that making much of an impact on prices of ponies, like in so many other markets
you see uncertainty have an impact on price and it just doesn't seem to be happening.
There's just as many teams as there ever has been, everyone's just had to be resourceful.
As they start playing more you have to be able to put something a bit stronger in, so
we move on to other things.
So this is another bit which not many people in polo I'm sure will have seen before. It's
actually one which Jack found for a little mare of his and when I had a mare that was
doing a similar thing I tried it and she went very well for a little while in it but then
it wasn't the right thing for her to finish to play in but to start her riding off in
it it worked out well and it's designed like a normal gag without the but it doesn't have
the joint in the middle so it has a nutcracker action but it only can move so far so it can
only close down that far and then this plate a little bit dirty this one but it's designed
so the tongue underneath can sit very comfortably here.
I honestly couldn't tell you a list of exactly what we look for but I know I can I want to
say the right type but then I'm going to have to go into what exactly is the right type
but I think what we're trying to look for is generally a sprinter type thoroughbred.
So not too big height is a big issue. I see these days a lot of people advertising very
large semi-may ponies which they'll probably bought too big to start with especially when
they bought two and three year olds. It seems to be a real theme people offering five year
olds that are that are already sixteen hands and yeah some start growing then but the vast
majority don't. I know that for example the mayor that we are on this morning she's the
sixteen hands exactly and I bought her at three and she would have weighed she would
have been about fifteen smudge more and she's now seven but but but she's sixteen hands
and she's gross like there's an awful lot of her. From five to seven she changed an
awful lot not in height but filled out and that's I think a lot of what makes them then
appear to be a lot bigger when they get a bit older. I think it's very important that
you build a basic understanding of how to manage your ponies early because that can create
a lot of obstacles especially when you start playing a lot so if you settle that up correctly
I think that it can save you a lot of work later and like anything making the mistakes
is the only thing that really teaches you properly so if you can help somebody I want
to say dodge some of these obstacles at first I think it'll save them a lot of time later
but they need to understand why you're doing certain things. There aren't a lot of people
who really try and prep ponies for polo professionally that is their main bread and butter. There
are a few people who do and they do it very well I could name some but they might not
be happy but they're very professional and very good and so I'm a little bit younger
than the most of them and I just work hard at it. I do take the time though with them
and I won't rush them and I think that must be a mistake which everybody makes at first
because it's very tempting and ultimately this is a business which really works well
off reputation so that's something that you must at all cost up hold. The international
market has been one that's been running side by side with the UK one usually very similar
to one there's a good market in Europe there's always been a good market in England. What's
changed now in the last few years is export taxes from Argentina so that the import from
Argentina has reduced a lot because they ruined it for a body with their export taxes. This
I thought would make a good impact in England so I started working in 2008 was when I decided
to really dedicate more time to this thinking that I saw an opportunity in that change.
What I didn't appreciate was the impact it was going to have globally and the first two
years I sold more to the export than I did in the UK usually because people came and
asked for more. These orders were larger rather than somebody looking for one or two ponies
these were orders for five or six so I had to go and outsource them as well as trying
to fill orders with the horses of mine which I felt suited as well. A lot of it was short
listing you have to travel a lot to find the ponies which you think might suit and reduce
numbers down as much as possible so when your man arrives he's there he's ready to go he's
got six to get on and eight to get on. Having already shortlisted down from so 30 or so
I did start to see a difference as well after the first two years of doing that. Everybody
had less to offer there just weren't as many. At the moment I'm not really seeing that having
an impact on price but it depends slightly on what part of the country. It's been very
interesting talking to people in different parts of the country. So where that then moves
now going forward I haven't quite decided yet but I think that science is a very good
area for me. For anybody doing this as well they've introduced irrigation at the Polo
Club now so we have irrigated fields which they haven't had before. It's going the right
direction I think.
So.
you
