Polo Pony Rescue

02/23/2025

Shedding season has begun! Volunteer Abby got a ton of hair off these shaggy critters today and I’m sure they feel so much better!

02/19/2025

Let's talk about what has been a thorn in my side since we started PPR - the polo --> college polo program --> free on the Internet pipeline.

You should not be donating horses to a college riding program if they aren't sound to ride, yet it happens all the time. This mare, Galleta, was posted free on the Internet by the Stanford polo program. At age 12 (yikes!) she has neck arthritis and can't be ridden.

Where did she come from? Who did she come from?

Did they REALLY not know she had this serious of a problem?

Have they been contacted and are they even aware she is not rideable?

Why is there no backup plan for these horses, ever? I have watched them repeatedly get handed off to (a) hoarders/fake rescues (b) people who can't afford them (c) auctioned off to the highest bidder.

This is appalling and if you are an alumni or a parent paying for your child to go there, you should be upset.

Why is there no plan to:
(a) vet check donated horses and decline to accept horses with serious problems in the first place
(b) provide pasture board for horses who have been useful members of these programs and have become unsound during their time at the school

Obviously the schools vary in terms of how responsible they are with regard to their old horses - some are much better than others. Regardless, this problem keeps coming up and in the 13 years since we started PPR, I've yet to see anyone seriously discuss a solution that is financially workable and humane.

If you played polo at a university (or did any kind of riding there, since there are also h/j programs and other types of programs), did you provide retirement to one of the horses you used? I know some of you have done just that.

At what these universities are charging for tuition, why is $350 pasture board too much of a hardship? I'm not buying it. What I've always heard is the schools don't think this is their problem. Maybe it's time that the public (and most of all, their donors and parents) informed them that it is.

02/15/2025

Erin got this great picture of Fenna and Lola grooming each other this morning. Lola used to always stay on her own and it's taken almost a year here for her to really make good friends and start enjoying her life as a herd member!

02/14/2025

Don't forget the old ponies today! No chocolates for them, they prefer a contribution toward keeping the endless buffet of fine-stemmed hay and old horse soaked pellets fully stocked.

02/12/2025

You know you are a horse person when the forecast says cold and rainy and you are ecstatic because that’s 24 blankets you don’t have to take off at 10 am just to put back on at 4 pm. 🤣

(And no, I don’t want to hear your arguments for not blanketing in response - it’s a joke, laugh or move on. If no one has convinced me not to blanket in 50 years with horses, you will not be convincing me today.)

02/10/2025

Thank you to the U.S. Polo Association for this great donation, presented to us at the U.S. Open Women's Polo Championship yesterday. Thank you to Meghan Gracida and Angela Russo for accepting on our behalf. And thank you to the La Fe/Eastern Hay team for selecting us as their chosen charity!

02/08/2025

This is the team we'll be cheering for in the finals of the U.S. Open Women's Polo Tournament tomorrow - not just because they're awesome but also because they picked us to receive a donation in their honor from the USPA!

BIG NEWS OUT OF SOUTH FLORIDA!!!!!

Team La Fe / Eastern Hay, with Cornell Polo's own Naomi Tachibana Marlough (along with Pamela Flanagan Devaleix, Hope Arellano, and Fatima Balzano), is playing in the Finals of the 2025 U. S. Women's Open Polo Championship this Sunday, 2/9 at 3:00 PM on prestigious Field One at the National Polo Center in Wellington, FL..

We're so proud of them, and so thrilled to see the BIG RED represented on the big stage!!!!!

They will be playing Buena Vibra in a rematch of the 2024 semi-final that saw Buena Vibra emerge victorious over Team La Fe, and continue on to become the 2024 Champion!!!!

Tune in to the Live Stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS06QzYI4I8



📸: Tatiana Frayssinet, 2025

02/05/2025

Chores last night, watching one of our groups of horses. Everybody was on the alert because of weather changes. There was a chance of rain rolling in, but not enough to blanket given how warm it was.

I watch these guys every day, and I think about how many horses are locked in a box 24/7. While we argue endlessly over types of training, with the traditional folks arguing back and forth with the R+ folks at a rage level that resembles U.S. politics, almost no one talks about the most widespread abuse in the horse world, and that's 24/7 stall keeping.

It's so accepted, and you hear all of the excuses. Yes, but I get them out twice a day to work (better than not, but imagine if you were only removed from your bathroom's shower stall twice a day to work. I wonder what your work performance would be like?). Yes, but he likes his stall (because that's where the food is, and any healthy horse is very food motivated. He doesn't like being in a box. Yes, sometimes they will pace/weave at the gate but that has to do with being herdbound, not hating the outdoors so put his buddy out *with* him) Yes, but I don't have time to clean up a muddy horse when I ride (waterproof sheets and blankets for outdoor use are inexpensive these days and keep most relevant parts clean). Yes, but I don't have time to catch a horse and he's hard to catch (sounds like a training problem to me).

You can argue over it forever but the fact will always remain that you're taking an animal that travels around 20 miles a day in nature, and putting it in a box for your convenience. It is bad for them both physically and mentally. It's a primary cause of your training problems and your vet bills.

Horses who live out almost never colic - it's not impossible but it's extremely rare. I'd chalk that up to two reasons: first, horses are biologically designed to eat, move, eat, move, not eat and stand. A pipe you're constantly shaking isn't going to clog. Second, many colics are stress related and horses standing in boxes all day are stressed. They've done studies and most stall kept horses have ulcers. Not some. Most.

Older horses with arthritis are exponentially sounder living out than standing in a stall, and if you're over 50 and have sat in one position too long and then limped off, you won't have any problem understanding why.

Do I think it's a problem if they go out all day and into stalls at night for protection from the worst weather or to eat a meal separately? No. Do I think it's a problem to keep them in for a day or two during bad weather? No. Do I understand that sometimes horses have an injury that necessitates stall rest? Yes, but I don't agree with doing it as often as it's prescribed - horses who don't have a catastrophic injury are often better off walking around in a small paddock (U.C. Davis was doing studies on this, I went to a seminar about it about ten or twelve years ago).

It is a huge problem that most of our boarding facilities here in the city are structured for individual stalls with very little turnout space. 12 x 12 or 12 x 16 are the norm. Horses get out to ride, and often that's it. You do see the good owners out there scrolling on their phone while their horse enjoys some turnout time in one of the three paddocks available for the 50 horses on site. (A lot of these paddocks have a 15 minute time limit).

The odds of getting enforced regulations that mandate daily turnout for all horses are pretty slim in a world where we can't seem to manage enforced regulations to stop fentanyl or human trafficking, so it's up to all of you to vote with your wallets. Find those boarding facilities that offer all day turnout or pasture board, be willing to drive a little farther to go to them, and for heaven's sake, leave the trainers who tell you dumb things like that your horse can't be turned out because he will hurt himself.

02/03/2025

Daphne, wondering what those volunteers are giggling about!

02/01/2025

Probably the fastest I have ever had a horse gain her weight back. No issues just needed food! I’ll put the before in the comments.

01/31/2025

Shout out for volunteers!

Polo Pony Rescue is looking for more volunteers who can come during the week. We always seem to have plenty of people for Monday through Friday, but the after-school shift during the week, 3 or 4 PM, could use some new faces. Mucking, dumping and scrubbing waters, and blanketing.

Experience is not necessary but always welcomed. Minors welcome with a parent present. Happy to sign off on any paperwork needed to prove you volunteered!

Send a message or email us at [email protected]. We are in Littlerock, which is adjacent to Palmdale.

01/30/2025

Great post! It's so easy to get into a tug of war with a horse, but we are the smart ones. It's on us to figure out how to make it easy for both of us!

Normalised discomfort

When I was training in USA I called into a barn that looked pretty cool, so I went on in, introduced myself and offered to help for the day.
It turned out to be the barn or a Grand Prix dressage rider. At the end of the day she offered for me to ride her GP horse, who she said “I just had to feel” and she “felt like butter” to ride.
But when I got on, there was nothing there - it felt like I was riding a piece of wood. Heavy in my hands, heavy under my legs.
I’d just come from training at a facility where the horses were more than softer than butter, it was more like they went off a thought! Off the slight shift in energy, a pinky finger movement on the rein…
It was a big lesson for me, and I thought ‘if this is considered soft, then what is not soft?!’

It was a lesson in normalised discomfort.

You shouldn’t have to wear gloves to stop your hands hurting.
Your hands shouldn’t be pulling.

You shouldn’t have to have nose bands to keep your horse’s mouth closed, or bigger bits for control.

You shouldn’t have to have legs that feel worn out from keeping your horse going.
Your legs shouldn’t be constantly on or nagging.

They shouldn’t even a start point to achieve softness, we want to begin with the end in mind.
So, let your cue begin the moment you think it, then the moment your energy shifts, then your physical cue, and make sure it’s a subtle as possible…the whole time being aware to notice when your horse notices, as soon as their mind comes to you in the slightest way. That’s when we want to reward them.
This is the way to soft as butter!
Let’s normalise ease - it feels much better for both the horse and rider!

01/24/2025

This is an absolutely great post. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard, I can’t report them because they’ll know it’s me. You are the witness. You are the one who has to do it. Animal Control does not give a crap if I call them with a rumor. They are only interested in hearing from eyewitnesses.

She is talking about a case where 27 dead horses were found on a property in Northern California and a LOT of people knew how bad it was.

01/21/2025

Most of the time, when someone is super excited about the idea of raising a foal, it is because they haven’t raised one yet. I say all the time, working on breeding farms removed ANY desire I might have once had to breed horses. 🤣

01/18/2025

After-breakfast hang out and nap time for our old fart pasture. From left to right: Andy (31), Penny (26), Redhead (24), Cece hiding behind the tree (25), Pi***la (28) and Mantarraya (20).

01/17/2025

I've done this so much and yet I'm always staring at these horses going, are they gaining? Do they look better?

Then you put their pictures side by side and...yup. I think she'll be just fine. I can't wait to see the March version!