land rover masterclass
of Mark’ s older mares who’ d had injuries – pre-season schooling to get them more supple, soft and balanced. Even Mark’ s Argentine grooms got interested and became quite open to it, which was nice.
“ One of the ponies I’ ve done some work with, Vodka, has moved into the top echelons of his string as a result of this schooling. It’ s not about flashy movements, but about teaching them to carry themselves and use muscles correctly. Good training of horses is about making the horse physically able and to understand what you are asking of it.
“ I love any horse sport at the top level and I think the best people in each discipline have that ability to make a horse become an extension of themselves, rather than being a disruption to the horse.”
So has Laura learnt anything from the polo world?“ I’ ve realised that horses can deal with a lot more than I thought they could,” she jokes.“ No, I’ ve definitely learnt things through Mark’ s set-up – they do some really interesting stuff with the foals at the beginning, and through their handling of youngsters. Also how much more settled horses are when they are worked and handled as a herd. Their horses are a lot less high maintenance; so chilled compared to a lot of sport horses. That’ s interesting from a management side.”
Laura admits that she knew nothing about polo before she started going out with Mark.“ I was surprised by the sheer speed and aggression of the sport – it’ s basically rugby on horses – and by how athletic the ponies are in their own way. It’ s a totally different type of athleticism to dressage horses, but athleticism nonetheless.
“ Polo ponies may have more speed and acceleration than dressage horses, but Mark took my old Olympic horse for a hack with me and he took off with Mark several times – he ended up getting off quite quickly! I think that was an eyeopener for Mark – polo players are used to power, but a very different type of power and one with less physicality.”
Max admits he found the lesson quite a humbling experience, but clearly enjoyed himself.
“ There’ s no doubt that polo ponies would benefit from more training – but remember that with the large amount of ponies we need, finding time to do much would be difficult. And I’ m not sure my body would take it – I don’ t think I’ ve ever consciously used my inner thigh muscles before!”
64 guards polo club official yearbook 2017