Sad news brings today’s post, but take fifteen minutes to watch this film about the rising young South African polo player, Sbu Duma, who was murdered last week, and pay tribute to him. News via PACE Magazine and IOL News.
Tag Archives: polo
Polo Week: The End of the Original Polo Pony?
The pastime of the royals, which originated in India’s North-east, is facing extinction in its birthplace. Unless urgent steps are taken to conserve Manipuri polo ponies, this magnificent breed of horses will be on its way to oblivion. Over the past few years, say sources in the state veterinary and animal husbandry department, the population …
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Polo Week: Luminous Balls and Bonds of Friendship
“Superficial observers regard the game as a mere amusement, and consider it mere play, but men of more exalted views see in it a means of learning promptitude and decision. Strong men learn, in playing the game, the art of riding, and the animals learn to perform feats of agility and to obey the reins. …
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Polo Week: The Imperial Polo Ritual
An account of a polo ritual in China under the Sung dynasty (960 – 1279 aD). The somewhat reserved and “civilised” Sung dynasty followed the T’ang dynasty, which was far more keen on actually playing polo. “The emperor arrived on horseback. … A eunuch opened a golden box, took out the vermillion-painted ball, and threw …
Hopped up on Polo
Polo at Hoppegarten, including some shots of the overgrown steeplechase course that time forgot. Beautiful beautiful Hoppegarten! I’m not a very good photographer and tried to snatch some shots by focusing on the spotty pony playing in the last chukka, with mixed results. The polo pony of the tournament is shown grazing in the last …
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
An escaped German circus pony attempts to board a tram. A riding corset from the 1870s – you see how Skittles managed that waist. A new anti-slaughter feature film called Saving America’s Horses is underway in the USA, while a new government report looking at the negative impact of the effective ban on horse slaughter …
Manmade Monsters and Chimeras
There are periodic mutterings about the discovery of a “speed gene” for Thoroughbreds, but on the whole, horse racing takes what is now a refreshingly old-fashioned approach to horse breeding: no artificial insemination, no embryo transfer and absolutely no cloning. The sire and dam actually have to meet in person, as it were, and the …
Team Up!
Work to Ride are an excellent Philadelphia-based organisation that has been providing “disadvantaged urban youth from Philadelphia with constructive activities centered around horsemanship, equine sports, and education” since 1994. The kids, aged 7–19, have taken to polo in a big way, and this week their team won the United States’ Polo Association’s National Interscholastic Championship. …
Hunting Spirit
WHEN Caroline Smail heads off to take part in the Boxing Day meet of the Heythrop Hunt in the Cotswolds today, she’ll be hoping that Jigsaw, her cheeky gelding, just over 14 hands high, doesn’t play up too much. Earlier this summer, in a tussle with that much loved pony, who was trying to munch …
Oddments
Sealskin will no longer be used for sporran manufacture. It’ll be ponyskin instead. Anthropologie has a very pretty catalogue full of very pretty clothes and a whole heap of pretty horses. A South African pony called Bertie kicked a pit bull in the head after it attacked his nads. Champion racemare Sariska has been retired …