polo – Page 2 – Sporting Road

A Day at the Races, Behind the Scenes

Shesasmartypants by Smarty Jones gets a bucket of oats Racehorses Get A Lot of Exercise They get turned out walking on a hot walker for 20-45 minutes once or twice a day. They get galloped, breezed or worked (each is progressively faster and the work is a timed workout reported to the track which must be completed twice in 60 days if the horse hasn't been raced in 6 months, and every 6 months thereafter for horses actively racing). And they share a lot of useful remedies with other disciplines to keep horses sound, but they have some of their own. Their Bits are All Snaffles Racehorses Eat A Lot Fiber is an energy source that is often overlooked in horse nutrition. Horses have a highly developed hindgut that houses billions of bacteria and protozoa capable of fermenting large quantities of fiber. The end products of fiber fermentation can be used as energy sources throughout the day because fermentation continues long after a meal has been eaten. Racehorses are generally fed unlimited hay, which amounts to a staggering 15-20 lb (a whole small bale) per day of clean grass hay such as timothy or oaten hay. Smaller quantities of alfalfa hay (2-4 lb or 0.9 to 1.8 kg per day) may also be offered. This level of hay intake will meet the racehorse’s maintenance DE requirement and help protect against gastric ulcers and colic. Feeding hay alone would leave the racehorse with an energy deficit of around 15-20 Mcal DE, and this must be supplied from other energy sources. Traditionally, these extra calories needed to fuel the racehorse were supplied by straight cereal grains such as oats, corn, and barley. The main fuel source in

By Sporting Road|October 6th, 2021|Categories: Hunting, polo|Comments Off

Why We Hose Off Polo Ponies After Playing

From Dr. David Marlin HORSES, HEAT, SWEATING, COLD-WATER, COOLING, SCRAPING At the risk of preaching to the converted, as a few people are still sending me articles, often written by lay people, sometimes from vets, and telling me how wrong I am, I thought I'd try a pictorial approach 🙂 Per litre, Ice-Cold water (0-5°C) removes heat faster than evaporation of 1 litre of water or sweat. Per litre, the complete evaporation of 1 litre of sweat or water removes 13x more heat than 1 litre of ice-water BUT evaporation takes 10-15x longer to remove the heat. COLD WATER = QUICK COOLING, BUT WASTEFUL OF WATER (INEFFICIENT) - USE FOR RAPID COOLING EVAPORATION OF WATER OR SWEAT = SLOW, BUT DOESNT WASTE WATER (EFFICIENT) - USE FOR KEEPING HORSES COOL MYTHS Myth 1 - “You should never put cold water on a hot horse"Explanation - Ice-cold water(0-5°C) on hot horses does not cause shock, laminitis, kidney damage, muscle damage, tying-up or heart attacks! Myth 2 - “Water left on a horse will heat up and insulate and make the horse hotter."Explanation - Flawed physics! Water is a better conductor of heat than air. A wet horse will actually cool faster than a dry one, even if humidity is 100%. Myth 3 - “Scraping is essential." Explanation - Scraping just wastes time that could be better used putting more water on to cool by conduction. Scraping also wastes water when water is in short supply. Water which could evaporate on the horse. Water evaporating on the ground doesn't cool horses down. Myth 4 “Concentrate on large veins, arteries inside the back legs, large muscle groups"Explanation - NO. Cooling by evaporation or conduction works by cooling

By Sporting Road|August 17th, 2021|Categories: Hunting, polo|Comments Off

Candy Man a/k/a Snickers

She Had Some Horses BY JOY HARJOI. She Had Some Horses She had some horses.She had horses who were bodies of sand.She had horses who were maps drawn of blood.She had horses who were skins of ocean water.She had horses who were the blue air of sky.She had horses who were fur and teeth.She had horses who were clay and would break.She had horses who were splintered red cliff. She had some horses. She had horses with eyes of trains.She had horses with full, brown thighs.She had horses who laughed too much.She had horses who threw rocks at glass houses.She had horses who licked razor blades. She had some horses. She had horses who danced in their mothers' arms.She had horses who thought they were the sun and theirbodies shone and burned like stars.She had horses who waltzed nightly on the moon.She had horses who were much too shy, and kept quietin stalls of their own making. She had some horses. She had horses who liked Creek Stomp Dance songs.She had horses who cried in their beer.She had horses who spit at male queens who madethem afraid of themselves.She had horses who said they weren't afraid.She had horses who lied.She had horses who told the truth, who were strippedbare of their tongues. She had some horses. She had horses who called themselves, "horse."She had horses who called themselves, "spirit," and kepttheir voices secret and to themselves.She had horses who had no names.She had horses who had books of names. She had some horses. She had horses who whispered in the dark, who were afraid to speak.She had horses who screamed out of fear of the silence, whocarried knives to protect themselves from ghosts.She had horses who

By Sporting Road|October 29th, 2020|Categories: Foxhunting, polo, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Do It Yourself Polo Mallet Repairs

Have a minor repair that is needed on your mallet, well here is the brochure on how to do it yourself from a reputable polo mallet manufacturer.HowToDoItYourselfPoloMalletRepairsDownload

By Sporting Road|July 31st, 2019|Categories: polo|Comments Off

Useful Remedies for Your Horses

Most of our kit of remedies are based on veterinary advice we have received over the years. Consult your own veterinarian, but here is what works for us and our horses: If a large ring snaffle doesn't work, try a D-ring snaffle. Need more stop, then try a rubber pelham bit. All horses will go well in one or the other. If they don't is probably a teeth issue and not a bit issue. Get your horses teeth floated annually. For polo we start with a large ring gag, then a rubber pelham on most that don't stop well, adding increasingly longer shanks, but if you need the horse to be more straight, then add draw reins. Shapley's Original M-T-G for rain rot, skin infections in the spring, rub on affected areas with your hand and leave in. Bluelite or Morton's lite table salt on game and hunt days for electrolytes. Feed Equine Senior for steady horse feed that won't make them hot, but if you want to add weight then go to Purina Ultrium. Spray Absorbine on sore backs and legs after hosing the area down, if you have issues with soreness. Roach polo pony manes and whiskers, together with trimming the sides of tails monthly. Get a Oster Volt cordless clipper, those are the best, but pricy at $350. Use a 10 wide blade for body clipping. Use Dove dishwashing liquid detergent to clean sheaths (this needs to be done annually on geldings) and just use Dove liquid soap in place of all of your expensive horsey shampoos and conditions. This was recommended by our vet. Use triple antibiotic ointment on small cuts and Scarlet Oil spray on large cuts and scrapes. Bute

By Sporting Road|May 21st, 2019|Categories: polo, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Bits-The Snaffle, the Pelham, and the Gag
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Bits-The Snaffle, the Pelham, and the Gag

I just read an article entitled "It's All About the Bit That Works Best For You." I couldn't disagree more, it's all about the bit that works best for your horse. Like all things American, we have gone crazy for the latest gadget when it comes to bits. Wilson Dennehy and Marvin Beeman only used two bits, a snaffle or a pelham, for show jumping, hunting and polo. Why? Because "I never found a horse that wouldn't go well in one or the other," they both independently said to me. As for the Snaffle, there are a few kinds worth mentioning. First, the Eggbutt Snaffle: The Eggbutt is a very common multi-discipline style of cheek piece for snaffle bits. The eggbutt snaffle minimizes two problems that can arise with its cousin, the loose ring snaffle, whose rings can pinch the edges of the horse's mouth, and which doesn't provide much lateral stabilization. By flaring out the ends of the mouthpiece and joining the rings with flush swivel joints above and below where the lips contact the edge of the bit, the eggbutt can be a more comfortable alternative for many horses. The edges of the mouthpiece are less likely to pinch the horse's lips, and because the cheek is fixed in relation to the mouthpiece, the bit offers moderate lateral control. When the bit is pulled laterally through the mouth, there is some resistance on the opposite side, which can help encourage the horse to turn with less danger of pulling the bit through the mouth than exists with a loose ring snaffle, though more than with a dee-ring or full cheek snaffle.By having rings fixed to the mouthpiece, the eggbutt does give up some

By Sporting Road|June 15th, 2018|Categories: Foxhunting, polo|Comments Off

Whitening Spray for Grey or Paint Horses
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Whitening Spray for Grey or Paint Horses

For keeping grey or paint ponies white, some swear by Orvus + blueing + oxyclean in water; rinse; ketchup soak; rinse; leave in conditioner. We like to use 1/3 wintergreen alcohol to 2/3 water in a spray bottle, with a few drops of cowboy magic shampoo into the bottle, is equally as good as any of the green spot removers. It's inexpensive, easy and very effective!

By Sporting Road|October 20th, 2016|Categories: Foxhunting, polo|Comments Off

Colorado Mills opens a new U.S. Polo Association store today.
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Colorado Mills opens a new U.S. Polo Association store today.

Colorado Mills opens a new U.S. Polo Association store today. The brand carries clothing for men, womenand children as well as accessories, luggage, watches, shoes, home furnishings and more. While many think this brand is a knock off of RL Polo, it is actually the original polo gear and is made under an exclusive labeling agreement by Jordache. A portion of all the USPA clothing sales benefits the United States Polo Association (USPA), which was created on March 21, 1890 by H. L. Herbert. The USPA was formed to act as the national governing body for the sport of polo in America and Canada. The USPA is dedicated to growing recognition for polo, organizing tournaments, establishing rules, creating educational programs, coordinating interscholastic and intercollegiate competitions, and providing the handicaps for polo players all over the country. The organization is continually creating new programs for people to learn the sport and develop American players, as well as maintaining guidelines for the safety and wellbeing of the polo ponies. There are over 250 clubs registered with the USPA and over 4,500 members. The USPA is always growing and building stronger roots for the sport of polo. For more information visit: www.uspolo.org.

By Sporting Road|November 7th, 2013|Categories: polo|Comments Off

Legging Up Your Hunter
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Legging Up Your Hunter

The fox hunting season proper is not far off and many of us are thinking of getting our hunters out of pasture and legging them up for the season. Many foxhunters continue to use their hunt horses throughout the summer months for showing, eventing, polo, trial riding or pleasure riding, thereby eliminating or reducing the legging up for the season issue. But many others give their field hunters some well-deserved time off at the end of the season and conditioning for the hunt season becomes an annual ritual. We have been fortunate to enjoy field hunters who had double lives in the summer, also excelling at as polo ponies or show jumpers. We have also been fortunate to have field hunters who simply enjoyed three or more months off in a pasture, not having been ridden at all in the off-season. There is no right answer to the “to turn out or to not turn out question.” Some horses seem to do better being in work all season, while others seem to benefit from the time off and develop a bad attitude if they don’t have some time to just be a horse. For the entire article, click this link... Legging Up Your Hunter in Covertside Magazine 2013. For the most thorough veterinary article on horse conditioning click this link: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/hrs6942 FOR LEGGING UP POLO PONIES, OUR PRO AT DENVER POLO CLUB RECOMMENDS AS FOLLOWS: Pre Season (Exercise) As we approach polo season, I thought it would be a good idea start thinking about getting yourself and your horses ready for the season. These are a few tips and suggestions to help keep you and your horses healthy for the entire season. Don’t wait until it

By Sporting Road|September 6th, 2013|Categories: Foxhunting, polo|Comments Off

BlueLite and Sand Clear for Your Horses
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BlueLite and Sand Clear for Your Horses

It's that time of summer when colic can hit tired, dehydrated horses and sand often builds in horses pastured in sandy paddocks. Two of our favorite products recommended by our veterinarians are BlueLite electrolite pellets and Sand Clear Crumbles. Equine BlueLite Pellets are so tasty, you don't even have to top dress them on feed. Just pour a scoop in each horses bucket for them to receive added nutrients and electrolytes. Our horses go straight to drinking a lot of water after eating the pellets, which is a reassuring process after a hard day of polo. In addition to having a balanced salt block available near the horses' water, BlueLite pellets provides instant results when your horse needs it most to restores the essential nutrients lost during heavy workout and improves recovery time. While other remedies such as Morton Lite Salt also provides electrolites, we think the BlueLite pellets are worth the extra money for their ease of use. The pellets provide salt and potassium chloride blended with iodide and a free-flowing agent. BlueLite is a balanced electrolyte formula which is easily digestible, non-abrasive, and contains essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Top dress Equine BlueLite Powder on the grain ration according to the degree of dehydration based on the following pony/horse weight: 300-600 lbs - Routine or Mild Activity (1-2 oz daily), Extensive Activity (2-3 oz daily) 600-900 lbs - Routine or Mild Activity (3-4 oz daily), Extensive Activity (4-6 oz daily) 900-1200 lbs - Routine or Mild Activity (5-6 oz daily), Extensive Activity (6-10 oz daily) 1200 + lbs - Routine or Mild Activity (7-8 oz daily), Extensive Activity (8-10 oz daily) Bluelite can be ordered online from many sources: http://www.techmixglobal.com/equine-bluelite Sand Clear pellets contain psyllium

By Sporting Road|August 28th, 2013|Categories: polo|Comments Off