Polo Ponies

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A horse used in the game of polo is called a pony, but is almost always bigger than the officially recnognised maximum height of a pony; 1.47 meters
A polo pony(14.2 hands). Most polo ponies are between 14.3 - 15.3 hands. They are typically either Thoroughbreds (often failed racehorses) or Thoroughbreds that have been crossed with the native Argentine criollo breed. Australian Stock Horses are very popular in Australia, Quarter Horses, Appaloosas and Paints are also seen in use, especially at the lower levels of polo in America.

Polo ponies need to be almost fearless, and not afraid to bump into other horses, and they can't shy at mallets swinging near their heads. They need to be quick and agile so they can turn and follow the ball through it's many changing movements. Polo ponies have their manes hogged before a match which means to cut it down to the neck of the horse. This is done so that the polo mallet will not get tangled. There are many different quarters in a game and so each team has one or two horses per quarter, called chukkas. There is usually 4 - 6 chukkas per match, each lasting 7 minutes.

The Australian Stock Horse (or Stockhorse), has been especially bred for Australian climatic conditions. It is a hardy breed of horse noted for endurance, agility and a good temperament. Its ancestry dates to the arrival of the first horses in Australia, brought from Europe, Africa and Asia. It is used today in a wide variety of disciplines, and is still valued as a working horse by stockmen throughout Australia.
The criollo (in Spanish), or crioulo (in Portuguese), is the native horse of Argentina (1918), Uruguay (1923), Brazil (1932) and Paraguay. It may have the best endurance of any horse breed in the world next to the Arabian. In fact, due to the crioulo's low basal metabolism it may be a better long distance horse than the Arabian in prolonged races over a week in duration with no supplemental feed. The breed is most popular in its home country, and is known for its hardiness and stamina.

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