The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-11-19
PLAYING POLO.
Ono Beneficial Result OF Our
Anglomania.
A Manly Sport Which Combines Horse
mnnshlp with ExhilaratinE Mus
cular TraininE-The Gnmo
Becoming National.

we have, during the past dozen wears,
writes Col Il. A. Dodge in Unrpcr's
Magazine, drawn from our tap of nnplo-
mania mug brimful of good. How
easy it is to blow away the froth which
rests on tho excellent draupht below.
One of the most eXhilaratinr of our i'm
ported sports is polo. and as it happcns
that our plains furnish SO excellent n
mount, and our increasing out-of-door
habits so many players the game NAV
we'll become q national one The motto
of the day i'll English sports is speed.
Fox hunting of the last generation was
a modest performance ut n hand gallon;
Sir Roger dc Covcrly rode to hounds at
canter. But within two score wears
the cross-country pace has been run up
to racing speed. More and moro thor
ough blood has been called for in both
pack and field, and the old-fashioncd
hunter of our sircs could not live
through the shortest burst to-day. The
same thing applies to polo-thc faster
and more able the pony, the better the
performance of the rider. You can rct
enormous wcight-carrying capacity in
an under-bred pony, as we'll as remark
able endurance, but not at speed.
When you call on Il fourteen hands
pony to carry one hundred and sixty
pounds and upward at speed, you must
have blood. Even the veriest weed of
an understood thoroughbred will do
wonders in this way. The sudden
bursts or racing pace called out at polo
have made the English breed for small
thoroughbrcds. Capital polo ponies
have been raised from the hardy En-
moor ponies with bloodcd sires. More
barrel comes of this cross, together
with certain hardness; but the little
lSnife-bladc thoroughbred will often
carry as big n man, and endurance Mt
speed is the inheritance only of his
race. These words, in fact, sum ND
that peculiar quality which has not yet
been reached in any other animal, cx-
ccpt, perhaps. the greyhound.
So much for the English pony. When
we como to riders, it will be many
years before we can boast the skill of
our transatlantic cousins, or either of
us that of the Japanese, with their
light cup-wauds for mallcts, and
feather weight balls. The American
polo fields by no means exhibit the
play you see in England. Many man
here INDUCES in rccl1lessness which
would warn him off the ground at IIur-
lingham. 1t takes years at the game
to produce the atmosphere which
breeds perfection, and in the twenty it
has been played in England it has we'll
nigh reached this point But it is we'll
to persevere. We are making marked
progress in all our sports, and polo NAV
yet become as much national game as
baseball-though let us hope without
its commercial aspect.
The American polo pony is no other
than our little bronco friend. NIany
come from Texas, Wyoming, Montana.
The clever cow-pony is ready trained
for the polo ground. lie will cutch the
idea of the game as quickly as he
caught the trick OF cow-punching, and
he has already learned to stop and turn
and twist rs only he can do. When he
is taken off the cars Oh arrival here
from his familiar haunts on the cattle
ranges he is the sorricst, gauntcst,
lnost miserable equine specimen one
can find in Il days tramp. In n month
or two you would never guess Your
plump, handsome, able little pony to be
the same individual.
No other animal will recover from
such Strapazcn, as the Germans phrase
it. And when he has undergone the
torture of docking, and is finally in
vested with the pigsllin, nothing but
the brand remains of the ragged little
hero of the plains.
The pony is used to 4 single gar-oit
But he is tractablc, and not Il few will
learn to work perfectly in snaflle So
many OF our polo-playcrs require the
bride as means of support" that the
loose rein of the cowboy will in no
wise do. The perfect polo rider has
not yet made his appearance. Under
him the bronco would more quickly be-
come the perfect polo pony. 1t would
take but few months training to
teach him to guide by the legs alone, if
need be. Indeed, his Indian master
made him do just this. He learns to
follow the ball in few days. There is
no sport in which training would be
better rewarded than in polo; and
though it would be useless to aim at
the delicacy OF the hautc ccolc-for the
sharp runs and stops of polo make this
as practically impossible as it is in
hunting-still, given Il rider with perfect
scat, without a suspicion Of riding the
bride, and q pony which is taught to
guide by leg pressure alone, and it
would seem that they should, other
things being equal, be the best players
in the game.
Distant Travels of tho Stors.
An interesting proof of the distant