The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-26
Influence Height Polo Horses BMan-Knna

OF American methods on British polo.
Some years ago when the American polo
stick with its cigar shaped head was In
troduced into England ii was laughed at
by the experts, but after a time they be-
gan to try the stick and found that 1t
was an Improvement on their own fiat
headed stick. as the wallop from the
rounded surface had the effect of i'm
parting greater resiliency to the stroke
sending the ball further. Again,
in 1909, when Harry Payne Whitney
tO44 Tie Elgi.shmen to obliterate the
offsde rule, a policy which would inn
prove their game. they took his advice
and it is the one point which has i'm
proved British polo ever since.
When asked for their opinions on the
Nottingham policy in allowing animals
of all sizes in the games all the leading
players were of the opinion that it was
a good thing for the army, as it made
possible the use of the regular nags and
incidentally would save a lot of money
to those who intended to take part in
the game. In the United States alone
there are at present no less than 600
POLO players registered and handicapped
on the army list, so it can easily be fig-
ured what amount of money will be
saved by using the army horses instead
OF polo ponies. Nowadays any sort of a
good polo pony will cost between $500
and $4,000. and even then they are al
most impossible to purchase.
AS for its real bearing on the com
ing international match next June the
action by the Nottingham club is i'm
material as the string Of American DO
MES which are about 10 lend in England
would be used no matter If the rule had
peen rescinded. Only very recently fif-
teen of the best ponies in England were
lent to the Hurlingham committee for
use In the International match, and it
mas been limited that every one of them,
h"a"v stout bodied gallopers. superbly
trained, would show Is hands II put ON
the measuring platform and that nor
maps a few would show to be 15.1 hands.
The ponies taken across for the Afneri-
can team are no ''whalers" IL their cor
rect height had to be given.
The Proper Stick Length.
1t is an overwonted sopbism that .tbe
h'gher the pony the longer the stick
ana consequently the harder the shot.
out this is theory not agreed to by
ehe advanced players. a majority OF
"hon like to cling to the same length
OF SUCK no matter what size pony thew
may nave to play. The accepted plan IS
tnat a man OF six feet In height on n
pony Is hands could swine a ffty-four
men stick and avail himself Of the extra
leverage. but the keen players are
against such a long implement. 1t being
their idea that the longer the swing the
less accurate will be the aim and the
easier IT viii be for an opponent TO
crook from behind.
A canvass of the present American
International team as to their sticks re-
veals the fact that they have not gone
60 any extremes in that direction For
Instance, Devereux Mlburn PLAYS a
hfty-one inch MALAGA. and he Is sound
In his argument that he can aim better
than were 1t an inch or two longer ].
Watson Webb. the tallest man of the
invading party. swinrs a fifty-two inch
stick and he has etd that he finds II
suitable In every vty Tommy Hitch
cock uses a fifty inch stick and some
times fffty-two, but as a general rule ne
rrefers the former. Louis E. Stoddard
is set with the idea that az an all
around implement of hard driving the
hfty-one inch stick serves all the pur-
poses of the game. Earl w. Hopping
makes use of a fifty inch piece of
malacca. which he has found to be
highly suitable and the best for near
side and Off side hitting. and very handy
to swing across the ponys neck c. C
Rumsey Is the exception, according to
his method. He is the shortest player
of the international outfit, yet he Is firm
that a hfty-two inch stick beats al
other kinds except that man IL
mounted on a very small pony. He is
OF the belief that it is the height of the
pony that should make the difference IL
length and not the player.