Polo: The Cold Truth

Those who say it isn't harmful are idiots and don't know the truth about it. It's bloody. Horses have been killed. Prince Harry's polo pony was killed. It has been declared one of the world's most dangerous sports. The rider has a choice, the horse doesn't. Collisions are common. Mallets hit and hurt both riders and mounts as well as trip the speeding horses. Falling and breaking ankles is common. But while injured riders are rushed to hospital, the best an injured polo horse can expect is a bullet in the brain. The demands on a polo pony are severe. He needs speed, stamina, agility and manueverability to be able to stop, turn and spring forward. Training the horse to cope under extreme pressure is started at age three and lasts about six months to two years. It starts with 'breaking in' or taming the horse to submit to his handler. Tamers use techniques including blows and bucking, gagging, pulling at the mouth and whipping. Sometimes the training is hurried. If a mare is good, she is usually high strung and training in a hurry can trigger collapse. The animal is then deemed unfit and killed.

Cruelty continues onto the field. Riders attach a small spiked wheel at the end of the spur called a rowel which digs into the horse's undersides causing excruciating pain and bloody gashes from being rowelled too hard. They do this in order to compel greater obedience. Another so called performance enhancing practice is blood doping. The horse is given a blood transfusion in the mistaken belief that this increases energy. The blood is taken earlier from the horse and stored. During the match, the horse is stripped after each chukker, cooled down and injected with its own blood before returning to the game. Sometimes the heart ruptures or literally 'bursts' with extreme exertion. In Delhi, a polo horse died of a heart attack during a game. Spectators witnessed his death throes after which he was slung over a beam and thrown off the field. Frequently players tire out their mouths by pulling them up too suddenly or frighten them in very rough ride offs. A fearful horse will stop short and, no matter how vicious the whip, will hesitate to continue. Yanking the mouth to turn can often break it, while gag bits routinely cut it. Everytime the reins are jerked, the pain intensifies provoking the animal to act up. Should the rider get angry with the horse, the problem escalates. In one case, a polo pony had her tongue ripped off by the bit.

Considered an obstruction, long tails are often docked with their ends being cut off the make them V shaped. The operation is painful as the tail vertebrae are connected with the brain and spinal column. In fact, the SPCA sued a polo club that had cut 4–10 joints of a horse. The court decided against conviction only because too many people were guilty of the same crime, and also the horse wasn't yet dead.

Horses play during only one season of the year when they are carted all across the country. Overstabling the rest of the year can lead to polo ponies becoming bored, lonely and aggressive. The expense of maintenance leads to corners being cut. For instance, regular shoeing is overlooked during the non playing season. Shoes left too long put a strain on the tendons, increasing fragility of the legs. Since saddles are expensive, they are not made for each horse. Instead owners make do with one size for all resulting in ill fitting tacks with sharp bits causing injury to the animal.

What happens to a polo pony past his prime? He is either shot or sold to riding schools snd clubs who underfeed and overwork him. A horse just dropped dead at Delhi's Amity Riding School, one of the many that misuse horses.