From the list of horses playing the 114th Argentine Open Championship

This analysis is only related to the existence of TB blood in the list of polo horses playing in the Argentine Open, not opening any argument against Polo Argentino (PA) blood lines, its stallions nor its mares. My opinion is based just in the appreciation of the facts.

I do not intend to say that TB stallions are better than a PA stallions, both are extremely good for Polo, so I will try to anticipate the trends in Argentine polo breeding ,which in my opinion was very well oriented, but now has the need to define the next steps, talking only in the positive complementation with the actual TB blood available in Argentina.

Right at the top of this pyramid are the well known Argentine Open Polo Horses which played, that make a world of difference due because to the fact that there are only 8 teams that can play it, and because the excellence in all parts of the organizations they belong to is shown in their training and shape. All these horses touch their peak of performances in this tournament called “Abierto de Palermo” or simply “Palermo”.

As mentioned, the importance of the TB is great in the PA lines. Geographically talking the Argentine Open is played just across the avenue where Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo Racetrack is placed, where, from words of the Argentinian polo commentators in ESPN deportes (some images can be seen at www.espndeportes.espn.go.com in Spanish only, look for ”Otros deportes” label, then look for the images in “Videos” button) when these incredible horses do there sprints during a match, they refer to the proximity of the racetrack as the place where they should belong.

Some more images, photos and a short video can bee seen at My Buenos Aires Travel Guide site.

Back again I will start with the remarks of the new list of polo horses playing on the 2007 Open or “Abierto de Palermo”:

As seen in the last years the same trends are still active and strong , sons of:

PA : El Sol, Sportivo, Pucara, Polo Nevadito, etc.

TB : Southern Halo, Four Fingers, Rainbow Corner, Lode, Salt Marsh, In Class, Capo Maximo, etc

They still command the presence of the active stallions and broodmares sires, showing that they are still vigorous, providing the speed for today’ s polo. The abilities of the polo players are incredible, only they can play this polo (and nobody in the world could do better than them). What I saw as an improvement was a more modernized organization, that tunes up their horses for the Argentine Open with the tournaments played before like Hurlingham and Tortugas, so as said before the horses reach their peak in performance in this championship.

All sizes and colors are seen in the field, tending to a little heavier muscular body and a little taller than the previous decade (mallet no. 51), but with very harmonic proportions (the most common thing between them and very important issue to be taken into account as breeders!) -bone and muscle composition .

The consolidation of a TB sire named River Slaney (Irish River in a Mr. Prospector mare) opens a new line to stabilize the trend commonly used by polo breeders for horses from Haras La Quebrada farm (TB farm) -in sires or broodmare sires (Southern Halo, Rainbow Corner, Señor Pete, Luhuk, Mutakddim, etc.). This trend came because the foundation of the farm was made from small muscular mares from good Argentine TB families matted to American TB with sprinting stallions brought by the farm decades before.

Following with the search of new TB sire lines I found a very interesting one in Lord Hailey (USA) looking for a very good TB Sire and broodmare, very muscular type. He is also a complement to the Southern Halo sires lines, and he also transmits good conformation (polo sizes) and no bleeding problems to his herd , but unfortunately he died a couple of years ago, but fortunately left several mares with his genes.

Another TB sire to be complementary to Southern Halo lines (Perugino, Optimum, etc) as well for the Mr. Prospector line (as Sportivo, etc) is found in Candy Stripes (Blushing Groom- dead a couple of years ago), a great sire and broodmare sire in the Argentine TB breeding, sire of the Argentine 2006 World Champion TB Invasor and broodmare sire of the most extraordinary race horse I have ever seen, named Candy Ride – this last standing now in the USA as TB Stallions.

Future incorporations of TB mares to be made by Argentine PA breeders by type and conformation: Candy Stripes, Raid the Rails, Roar, Lord Hailey, Festin.

I extremely recommend the purchase of the 2007 Annual Review of the Argentine Polo Horses Breeders Association, because of its information, photos of the winners of the best horse prizes of all Argentine tournaments, and interviews as the one given by Mr. Hector Barrantes in the Annual review no. 3 (1989), about the breeding and training of polo horses, another interview given by Mr. Miguel Novillo Astrada (polo Player and breeder, at present 10 goals Hcp), talking about his polo organization, and a conference about genetic, organization and horsemanship in the breed of Polo horses in Argentina given by Mr. Gonzalo Pieres ( ex polo Player - 10 goals Hcp , now PA breeder and one of the most important words in Polo today), and Mr. Horacio and Marcos Heguy (present Polo Players- 10 goals HCP and PA breeders), that make a must read issue if you are in the breeding of Polo Horses from any part of the world.

About breeding horses

First of all, a few words about the principles of breeding. Sport horses are not machines, and they are not bred like cows. They are animals with an ability to play a sport/ to jump/ to run. This ability is the most important trait they have, it is a gift that can be stronger or weaker, but it is posed from day one and could be exploited by a well organized enterprise with clear decisions and knowledge of the greatness of this quest.

The Coram says that "heaven is granted to those who care and feed horses", and after years of reading from different sources I came to these conclusions that I hope could be useful to those who find their heaven between horses in this activity.

Once the main activities are defined the next step will be to find the people that could help to find the foundation of the organization, the mares without which it is impossible to start breeding (obvious, isn´t it?). But it´s not that easy, it depends on different issues where the investment could be a limit but as significant as in other activities. Great breeders like Tesio found great mares from dormant mare lines at cheap prices. It all depends upon the knowledge of whom is looking, like going to a flee market, but you have to fish where you know the fishes are, or someone tell you so. In other activities, like in the petroleum exploration, you can determine different ways where to look for oil business, where nobody is looking or where the analysis (geologists) says that could be, or where it´s already known as well exploration. These guidelines can also be used when you are looking for mares. You can find great horses in incredible places, like the story of one of the foundational sires of the TB “Godolphin Arabian”, (brilliantly written by Marguerite Henry in “King of the wind”), in which the horse was found carrying a two wheel chaise in England. This was a real story, and things like these happen. For years Argentine polo players sold horses to their patrons all around the world, so there are some very good or extraordinary polo horses lines somewhere next to you (!), mostly in England, USA, France or Australia.

In the search of non expensive polo horses, near the great cities of Argentina you can find polo horses raised by countrymen or “peones” that provide the best for the Argentine middle handicap polo players. They are found in not a great shape due to the inexpensive way they are raised, because this is done by people who work in activities related to polo, like tamers or “domadores”, and also by grooms, named “petiseros”, that work for the polo breeders or players . Their main source are criollos mated with TB stallions (most of them coming from the Cuadreras, similar to quarter horse races ) or PA stallions (registered or not, some young PA stallions given away because of conformation problems) That was the origin of the Argentine polo ponies. They give personal care and attention to these homemade horses because their pride is to see them later in great hands of well known polo players, and because if they sell them it means an extra in the family income. These horses are very well educated from their break in/tame, due to the many man-hours of teaching on them by their owners, that sometimes also do these same activities.