POLO, a five-part docuseries about the sport, is now streaming on Netflix, and it will be easy for anyone watching to forget that the very best players in the world enter the sport with a love for horses and competing at the highest level with an intelligent and powerful athletic partner.
It has been our privilege at TSB to work with 10-goal polo player Adam Snow and his wife, veterinarian Dr. Shelley Onderdonk, on their book WINNING WITH HORSES. In it, their incredible experience gained from a lifetime of competing horses and caring for equine athletes provides thoughtful guidelines for us all, whatever style boots we wear or saddle we ride in. They demonstrate how the horse can come first, and we can still pursue human-made goals together with him, without sacrificing his well-being.
In 2022, Adam had the opportunity to help choose the teams of polo ponies for the countries competing in that year's world championships. His experience analyzing over 185 horses over a period of two weeks is a fascinating look at the superb equine athletes at the heart of POLO. It is our pleasure to share his reflections related to this experience here.
Since 1987 the Federation of International Polo (FIP) has hosted world championships every three years in different locations around the world. It is the closest thing the sport of polo has to soccer's World Cup. Horses are provided by the host country and pooled among the participating nations in order to give teams equal conditions for the 10-14 goal tournament. In 2022, the United States hosted this tournament in Wellington, Florida. Approximately 185 polo ponies were leased by the US Polo Association (USPA) from the Valiente organization in order to mount the eight participating teams.
My job as "Horse Master" was to assess and help distribute these ponies into eight equal groupings, which would be drawn for by the qualifying countries – Argentina, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain, United States, and Uruguay. I had two weeks. I think I practiced or rode over 100 horses myself during this period, and the others I watched others ride or practice, and considered the advice of Valiente management.
When I heard the title of the position –"Horse Master"– I knew I wouldn’t be able to say no. It’s not that I harbored any illusions of mastery, or that I think it’s even possible, but rather that I could use the experience as another step in the process of learning about these animals and what makes them tick. And what a great group of horses to get to know! The more I rode, the more my favorites began to present themselves.
I was well aware of the quality of breeding, care, and management that constituted Bob Jornavez’s J-5/Valiente operation. Manager Robertito Zedda and his assistant Juani Vidal knew the horses cold. When I arrived in Florida, there were 130 horses stabled in the Valiente barn and approximately 50 more living in the surrounding corrals. Stall doors displayed name tags, which slid into a frame; and, on the corral gates, duct tape and names markered on with a Sharpie did the trick.
Afternoons, I liked to arrive at the barn early, during siesta, and walk or bike the aisles with my clipboard – lists of horse names; A,B,C rankings; and scribbled descriptions – just observing all the polo ponies. I remember one gelding, Swamp, who had long ears and was as curious and friendly as can be – he thought my clipboard might be something yummy – and I never passed his stall without stopping to give him a rub.
Another mare that I gelled with, this time on the practice field, was a larger Thoroughbred mare named Puntana. She felt like silk, made the ball look big (even at close to 16 hands), and seemed to make everything feel easy, flowy. Kind of like riding a current of water.
I remember my very first practice chukker on a tall, six-year-old gelding named Java. I started quietly – it was only the horses' second or third chukker of the season – but he did everything, and it all felt smooth, and soon I was just enjoying the polo and trusting that I had a nice horse under me.
For years I had been trying horses for myself and the teams I played for. Now I relied on this experience, my feel, to assess (with notes on a roster sheet) and distribute these ponies in an objective manner.
But sometimes our favorites are the ones that just make us happy to be connecting with them...
On the eve of Oct. 24th, just days before the tournament’s launch, we gathered around a long wooden table by the fireplace on the upstairs porch of the Valiente barn and made our first attempt at eight even horse groupings. Two large dry-erase boards and a pack of erasable markers were propped on easels, and one of the grooms, Micky, oversaw an asado roasting on a nearby grill, for after the work was finished.
Somebody had taken care of all the details.
We started at the top – where I was most opinionated about my favorites – and began entering horses one at a time. Nina, Matilde, Premiada, Scuffle, Puntana, Chaqueta, Pigmea, and Loteria filled the first row, from left to right. And then we entered what we deemed to be the next best eight horses, returning back from right to left. In this manner, we worked our way down the list, row by row. It took a couple hours, but in the end we had distributed 174 horses into eight groupings of 21 ponies plus 6 reserves in case of injuries. Rough draft complete, we tucked into Micky’s bbq, and agreed to finalize the lists in the morning.
By making a handful of trades between teams, we created a final draft that showed as much parity as we could imagine. Each team now had 21 horses. We were ready for the draw.
At the technical meeting the following morning, coaches selected folded pieces of paper from a polo trophy, then team members proceeded to the Valiente polo fields, where they rode their 21 ponies for the first time. The following day teams practiced their horses. And on Saturday, Oct. 29th, tournament play commenced.
The most challenging part of my role was complete, but there were ongoing assignments. For each match, I was responsible for picking a Best Playing Pony (long-eared Swamp won for Italy!). When injuries occurred we chose the best available replacement from the group of reserves, and coaches were notified of the substitution. After each round of matches, any issues were assessed by a veterinarian, and it was her decision when a horse had to stop playing. I tried to be transparent, and teams appreciated that we were making the best decisions possible for the horses.
When Spain’s #3, Pelayo Berazadi, sent a 90-yard bomb through the uprights in the second half-chukker of OT, he brought the tournament to a dramatic close. My host nation, USA, had come within a whisker of winning the title. And they had made us all proud. From the tournament organizers, one could sense a collective sigh of relief for a job well done. Spain had secured its first-ever FIP World Championship, and the USPA had hosted an inaugural finals at the newly acquired National Polo Center (NPC). The tournament’s success had required a close collaboration between the USPA, FIP, and the J-5/Valiente polo operation. Reflecting on my role later that evening, while enjoying pizza and beer back at the Valiente barn, I felt privileged to be accepted by the group – grooms, managers, horses – which surrounded me. I also felt exhausted, but being “all in” for a few weeks never hurt anyone.
The horses will always keep me coming back for more.
Adam Snow's most recent book, co-authored with his wife Dr. Shelley Onderdonk, is WINNING WITH HORSES, proudly published by TSB and available wherever quality horse books are sold.
Trafalgar Square Books, the world's authority on equestrian publishing, is a small business based on a farm in rural Vermont.