Question
When you start with practice matches, what
mouthpiece do you use? Something softer or
something harsher?
E.T. I think that at this stage in which the horse is
already playing, it is a question of your sensation
according to your sensibility, and later, when
you are more in competition, you see if it is not
responding properly if you need something else…
at that point it is normal that you should need
something harsher. At the beginning I don’t think
it is any use to use something strong, because you
are forcing it to make an extra muscular effort…
Now, if it then doesn’t stop when you require it to,
then yes, something harsher.
P.M. I agree with Ernesto: if you have already
given it all it needs to perform well and it doesn’t,
then you get firmer… but it all depends on the
criterion and sensibility of the person in charge of
each horse.
HEALTH IN TRAINING
E.T. I consider this to be a very important and
essential issue in polo pony keeping, because it
is the most difficult part of all. Because a horse
doesn’t speak, and we spend fortunes on this and
it doesn’t tell us anything. It is the responsibility
of the professional work team, and if something
turns up it is their responsibility to decide whether
it is an injury or pain that may continue or turn into
injury. Before there were no ultrasound scans or
technology to reveal these things properly, and
not enough knowledge on how to deal with them.
Nowadays we have many more tools to help us
keep the horse healthy.
“I insist again on the
importance of the groom,
because it is he who lives
with the horse and if he
works well he will detect it
beforehand.”
Ernesto Trotz.
P.M. I carry my own diagnosis of all my horses.
Although I have complete faith in my work team,
after every game I go on an inspection tour of my
stables and see each case in particular to learn
about every detail. And those are the first alarms
so that the other 33% who are responsible for the
horse and the vet may help you to see how you
will continue. It is a sensation which the horse
transmits through whether it ate or not; if it has
an inflamed tendon, and many other details that
one has to understand and which the horse is
communicating.
E.T. In this case, I insist again on the importance
of the groom, because it is he who lives with
the horse and if he works well he will detect it
beforehand, from some slight stomach ache which
can be solved and if it goes undetected may turn
into colic. Every attention given in time avoids
more serious issues later.
The AACCP wishes to thank Ernesto Trotz and
Pite Merlos for sharing their know-how, and for
all those who attended for having interacted in
the Training Talks.
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