Claudio The way you play the horses also has a great influence, because even if the horse is six years old, it is used to playing slowly and then you give it to a good player … you may think they’ ve ruined it when the thing is that it has never been properly put to the test.
Gastón Yes, that’ s true; one must always look into the history of each horse; one must interpret what the horse is“ telling” you, although that is very difficult.
If you have a pony that becomes pregnant during her first practice matches, must one interrupt her training? And if so, would she lose what she’ s learned in that time? Could breeding at that time make the mare mature?
Claudio In my experience, either if they become pregnant or injured could help the horse become better, because you don’ t force or hurry on the learning of that mare. I had two cases in which I had to interrupt their training, and over the years they became great mares. Maybe if I had continued training them I could have spoilt them. But I don’ t believe that what they’ ve learned is wasted if they become pregnant.
There are those who say that when you have a wild mare, the best you can do is to get her pregnant and when she returns she’ s more mature. But these are all things that have to be done with a lot of time and no hurry. If the horse has the skill and one works responsibly, you can obtain a very good pony. The most important thing is to work with them, and even though they don’ t speak, you feel them in your seat and in your hand.
THIRD STAGE:“ TIGHTENING THE SCREWS”
Gastón When the horses travel to Buenos Aires is when we consider them to be in the third stage, when they’ re fairly mature around the mouth and have played some practice matches on the farm. It is the most dangerous stage, because it is when they change their natural environment. Removing the horse from the farm is where the change is most abrupt for the animal. This is when the horse starts feeding on rations and one must see to every detail because new injuries could appear, or they may not get used to the feed or several other things that could happen and cause their careers to be shorter. When the horse reaches the age of 8 years it is fully trained, it’ s a question of maturity. That is when they really start doing well, and sometimes on the following year, when it seems as though they are completed, they become part of batch A and very often they change on the second year, which shows that they are still very new, not at the same level as a horse that has been playing several seasons.
Tomás In our case the five-year old mares start playing progressive practice matches, according to the level of each horse. It is when they start to mingle with playing ponies and we try to make it a natural transition for them. From the sanitary point of view we also try that they rest more, and as in other stages, we always work on tameness and trying to advance towards continuing this stage with more intense matches until they reach top level tournaments, which is when the training stage ends. Because it is also key to train them to the liking of each player, as it is they who will be playing them throughout their careers. When we consider that they have played enough polo, we try to hand them over having played three or four tour-
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