you’ d give him a wooden horse and he’ d make it fly all the same … I believe in break-in; I respect systems, but all the same, I believe in talent. In the case of those horses that I hand over to any tamer, I do so when they are‘ very new’, so that they are returned to me‘ new’, and after that I try to correct all their defects.”
MG:“ Is there any mare you remember that was handed back to you and didn’ t work at first and then turned out good?” APH:“ I remember Tres Marías, of Gaviña stock: I tried her and loved her, but she used to rear and fall back. I took her to the farm and taught her to walk backwards, and she got to play two chukkas at the Open final. Horacio’ s Paya María, which I had on the farm, was a mare that had thrown Tito Lezcano off a couple of times because she jumped so much. I loved her. I got hold of her and worked on her and she became very good. That must have been the time that Lezcano believed that I had‘ special powers’. One day Horacio had pulled a muscle and asked me for her, and never gave her back: she was one of the best mares in the United States Copa de las Américas.
Not long ago I sold Piti Dabas a mare because he wanted a daughter of Pureza. And after taming her he didn’ t find her that good, and when he told me I asked him to give her to me because I couldn’ t believe that she was not good for polo. The truth is that I don’ t know what happened in between, but I have her on the farm and she is really excellent. Diosa is her name, and I am now waiting for the Chapaleufú Open to start, to give her to the highest ranking player in the tournament to see how she performs on the field. I always found those things fun, and still do, because when I was not able
“ I believe in break-in; I respect systems, but all the same, I believe in talent. In the case of those horses that I hand over to any tamer, I do so when they are‘ very new’, so that they are returned to me‘ new’, and after that I try to correct all their defects”
to buy expensive horses, and saw some with very good qualities, I would try to find the way of bringing them to my farm. There are a lot of horses that don’ t fall into the right hands. For example, when I taped the video on how to reach 10 goals, there is a part where you see contradictory orders; where nothing is done as it should, and you could see how the horse could not properly understand the orders its rider was giving it.”
MG:“ The thing is that the average person needs to have the horse handed to him / her already broken in …” APH:“ Yes, and I respect that … I was invited to Polito’ s when Jango Salgado was there. I was not able to go because I was blocked out by water, and now they brought another tamer, Zeca Macedo.”
MG:“ Did you try out the Monty Roberts system, with a round pen?” APH:“ Well, yes. Once a famous veterinary surgeon in the United States, Linfoot— a 9-goaler who replaced me when I broke my hand in Coronel Suárez— put on an exhibition in a round pen with a wild colt. He put a tape around its neck and 20 minutes later he had mounted it. I did that with five colts that were given to me by Garbers, a famous Vet who specialized in
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