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You don't necessarily have to be bread from polo stock.
You could take almost a kid off the street and if you put him in the right organisation.
If you plugged a kid into that and you gave him twenty years of playing from that age
he may turn out to be one of the best players in the world.
Rituals in polo is really very important. You start preparing for the game properly
48 hours before Then you start getting into a bit of game
mode You get to the venue and the nerves start
to kick in For me I think it's a good thing to have those
nerves, they help you focus It is a dangerous sport so things can go wrong.
I think most people would agree that the horse is 80% of the game.
I can be one of the best players in the world and you can be a beginner. If you're on thoroughbred
and I'm on a donkey, you're going to go around me, it doesn't matter.
The horses are on very strict rituals for their exercise, so many times per week.
Once we have that ritual down, they will stick to it and then we can make little changes.
These are equine athletes. Polo is a very traditional sport. I think
it's the oldest team sport in the world. The equipment that we use - its all been crafted
over hundreds of years. For example, the stick. They've never worked
out a modern way of doing it. It's the old bamboo cane. People have tried over the years
to come up with something and none of it ever works.
I love competing and winning and I love playing in top level competitions. I was lucky to
play with my mates on a nice summer's day messing around. I get as much enjoyment out
of that as I do trying to win. It doesn't feel like work if that's what you
want to call it or a career. It's a real passion and it's a wonderful game.
As far as I'm concerned there's nothing like it.