Anuario Raza Polo Argentino Anuario2017 | Page 249

them around in the area and so many started
getting enthused, such as Gonzalo Ocampo;
Roberto Martínez Zavalía; Marcelo Paz… And they
all put their names down and started receiving
visits from the AACCP, and thanks to them and
the enthusiasm of the breeders in Tucumán, the
first Exhibition took place, and from then on we
always aim at the training courses, with the course
for grooms, and today we have several clubs and it
has all started growing.”
“How did things advance when they became
members of the AACCP?”
“Everything went smoothly. First we were invited
to become delegates in the region, and in time
other breeders from other provinces also joined
and we started to work and learn a lot about all
this. I remember one case in which we started to
think about how to improve marketing, and I had
brought up the idea, and they said: ‘The first thing
we must do is to breed well’. That was Santiago
Ballester, and he was very right. We had to learn
what to breed from; how and where to invest our
time. Later on one goes learning a lot, although
there is really no end to it, always under the wing of
the AACCP. We took part in every kind of course:
tamers; farriers; grooms and anything that might
contribute towards growing. The guiding hand of
the AACCP helped to make the private drive go in
the right direction, because before then, many of
us were building our bloodstock but didn’t know
very well where we were heading.”
“In your case, you started to come more often
to Buenos Aires, right?”
“Yes, for a few years now I’ve been coming to
Buenos Aires with my horses and those of several
friends, and I sell them in the district. I started
getting into several clubs and nowadays I am in
Pilar with the horses very well set up.”
“What would you recommend to breeders who
are at that initial stage that you were once at?”
“Some magazine interviewed me a few years back
and I said something that I still believe, which is
that us small breeders must aim at breeding from
all that has already been proven, such as the good
blood-lines; good pedigree; genetics. Whereas
the big breeders, those who play the Open, are the
ones who have to discover the VPower fuel; what
is new. For small breeders what I recommend is
that they go to the AACCP and start breeding from
what is a sure thing, with whatever bloodline they
like, but that has already been proven, because
that way you lose much less time and the horses
become trained more quickly; it is easier and you
spend much less money.”
“Would it be a good thing for other provinces to
seek to improve their horses?”
“I wish that something like what happened in
Tucumán would happen in all provinces. I think
the AACCP is doing a lot towards that, so that
more people should approach them and that there
should be that feedback, the aim of which is to
grow.”
“And what is your opinion of the AACCP’s help
during this process?”
“It is considerable. In every detail of our growth.
The truth is that I am always grateful to so many
people who helped me and other small breeders
selflessly, with the sole aim of promoting the breed
that was created years ago and continues to grow.”
Santiago Ballester
“There is a great amount
of proven genetics, and
we must lean on that”
“One must let the big breeders with maternal
blood-lines be, so that they may continue to
grow and build new genetic lines. At the AACCP
we continue to work to provide breeders with
information; learning to read a good pedigree you
discover a lot of information.”
247