Anuario Raza Polo Argentino Anuario2018 | Page 214

you’ll get many polo ponies if you learn to wait for
them, but the crack players let you know before.”
“How do you manage the fine tuning of your
Open-playing ponies?”
“When one begins doing physical training, you
end up transferring what happens to your body
to what happens with horses. What do I do that
the horse can’t do? If during my leisure time I put
on 20 kilos weight, I risk high chances of injury,
apart from the great effort that returning to my
ideal weight implies.
And with horses it’s the same thing; I must
regulate their physical condition when they are
not playing. To do so, I have relied on the Kawell
Hospital whose pre-training is extraordinary and
works wonderfully well for me. They go in mid-
June and return in August so that I can start to
trot them and mount them with less physical
risk.”
“For a match as important as a Palermo
final… what do you do with your horses that
very morning?”
“I always want them to walk. To see that they’re
not lame; they walk and trot. The team of vets
and grooms are attentive to this from very early;
food, etc. It’s a day of high tension.
… I don’t believe in ‘early morning ventilation’.
The work must be done before, not on the day.
Anything can happen; I believe that if you had
to mount it that morning it’s because you did
something wrong. On the day of the match,
the horse’s body—as that of the player—must
be prepared to give its all during the match; if
that is not so… you’ve done something wrong.
I learned about training with Marcelo Canónico
during my years at Ellerstina. He was my vet, and
sometimes I found that the horse did much
better in the practice match than on the day
of the game. So we asked ourselves ‘how
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did the horse arrive at the practice match?
Feeling calm…’; so these are things that one
goes learning through experience. Analyzing the
week and the behavior of the horses; one feels it.
That is why one has to be on top of everything at
the stables. Every horse is different.
ANECDOTES
“Which are the three best mares you’ve
played throughout your career?”
“Taking into account that Dolfina Cuartetera
is the very best by far, Hache, an Australian
mare, would be next, and Colibrí because of
what he meant to me: not being the best horse
in the world, I felt I could see the ball as though
it were a foot-ball; I knew my opponents became
afraid when I mounted it, and it made me bold
when I played him; every time I played him I’d
make two or three goals for sure. He used to
make me play above my level. Another male of
that category—better and more complete than
Colibrí— was Aiken Cura; he received the Lady
Susan Townley award two years running. “
“And how much do you think about new
ponies?”
“A lot. Just imagine, I sometimes go to bed
thinking about where I might find another crack
player. In Tucumán? Let’s head there…
I have experienced finding interesting mares
while watching a low-two-goal match. For
example, Chalo Explosiva’s dam, Penny, I
bought in England at a match of less than 2-goals
rating. There I was; I saw her and I bought her…
To be watching Chalo Explosiva today, knowing
where I bought her dam… it’s nice.
Like the story of Ilusión, which I lost at the
Casino and which is one of the best dams