Anyone for Polo? Not Me!!

Horsemart reader and blogger Louise Harris owns a very special horse – her very own ginger ninja called Jimjam. This week Jimjam plays some polo.

You may have noticed by now that Mum and if we like it we try it again, if not, we bin it! It wasn't always like this though, when we first met, three years ago I was a polo pony. Admittedly this was my second career after racing.

Mum was learning to play and I was quite good, being small, slight and fast. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of being at a big yard, there were 36 of us, but polo is a tough game and I may be a little too sensitive for it, I think in hindsight. However, at the beginning of last season, my mum thought it would be good to get back into the polo scene and so we decided to go and join in some novice chukkas.

My mum loaded me into the trailer and off we went. We arrived safely and my mum unloaded me, tacked me up and we headed for the field to warm up. We trotted and cantered around, I got quite excited by the atmosphere, and I was getting a lot of compliments from people who hadn’t seen me for over 6 months. I continued to canter around the field and some other horses came on, which was ok. Then lots more horses came on the field and I started to panic, firstly they ran towards me, which frightened me, then they ran away from me, and I wanted to race them - it seemed I had forgotten all my training!

I panicked so much that I upset myself and started rearing and bucking and then I completely broncked! Yes, that’s a word. It’s that rodeo type action that involves lifting all 4 feet off the floor, and then giving herculean effort to lift your back higher than your neck and hind quarters. If you have truly completed the move correctly, you will have created a triangle with your rider at the apex! This is an advanced level ninja move – not to be attempted by lower level ninjas. Needless to say, my mum was not very happy with this move despite the effort I had put in. Bless, she did only have one hand free as she had a polo mallet in the other one! She took me home in disgrace and we haven’t really mentioned the incident since but I could tell she was upset, she didn’t call me handsome for quite a while after that.