Anuario Raza Polo Argentino Anuario2017 | Page 244

Gonzalo Campo
“Genetics are a great help, but training is
essential in order to breed”
“What is your opinion of Polo Argentino horses
in Tucumán as regards growth?”
“We have been working for eight or nine years here
in Tucumán, and are very grateful to the AACCP
for their cooperation and guidance, which have
enabled us to grow alongside the breeding of polo
ponies. I think we are growing and doing things
right. We are at the stage in which we are seeing
the results in horses that we started to breed years
ago, and after raising; breaking-in and training,
we now are approaching the final touch: the polo
field, which is what the polo pony needs.”
“What do you remember?”
“Well, in my case, I always received great support
from Fede Pasquini, who started before I did in all
this, and at the time we were able to buy a couple
of dams from the Heguys and a stallion which we
bought together with Fede Pasquini and Roberto
Zavalía, which is how we began with our breed.
We have bought blood-lines from the Heguys,
Aguerres and Novillo Astradas. Later on we started
to do embryo transplants and today we are working
on the fruit of all this because thanks to genetics
we were able to advance a lot. For example, in my
case, I have had Thoroughbred Racehorses, and
when you come to break-in, the polo blood-lines
are easier to tame.”
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“What were those first steps with the Heguys
like?”
“I remember that at the time I traveled twice to La
Pampa, and following their advice brought back a
couple of mares from their herd and bought some
others in order to extract embryos from them, and
we invested a lot of energy and enthusiasm to
be able to grow. I have adolescent children who
are also very keen on all this which helps us to
continue along this path.”
“Selected genetics are always important,
aren’t they?”
“Of course, that was crucial in being able to find a
polo-pony bloodline; genetics are always a help.
Training is also essential: for example, that the
AACCP should have brought specialists to the last
exhibitions such as Marcos Adorno; Bonilla, who
are National benchmarks, and that they should tell
us more about what we have, with that life-style of
theirs that accumulates so much knowledge, was
great. And fortunately they were surprised at the
quality they found here and at how we worked.”
“Was the AACCP’s support another important
factor?”
“Of course it is important. We started off here by
breeding horses. When the foals appeared, we
started asking about every detail, from taming to