By Alex Webbe

I have spent much of the last two days answering phone calls and e-mails about the horrific scene that I witnessed on the grounds of the International Polo Club in Wellington. 

Less than an hour before the start of the Sunday 3 pm match, as the Lechuza horses were being unloaded, a sense of panic took over as horse after horse began to fall.  Others on shaky legs struggled to keep their balance.  With over a hundred volunteers lending their assistance as they carried bags of ice to help lower the elevated temperatures and assisted the many veterinarians present with IVs to lower the heart rates.

There is no secret that players will inject vitamins into their mounts for peak performance, but the problem is when you get a trainer or veterinarian who plays chemist that creates mixtures with unknown consequences and injects a string of horses.

I’m not saying that is what happened in Wellington, but it is a possibility not just here and now, but in the future.

I have been reading the many articles that have appeared across the country and around the world and am disappointed that there isn’t more anger.  I am upset that there isn’t a proactive stance made by the USPA or the polo community in general to demand drug testing so that tragedies like this doesn’t re-occur (again, I say that there has been no proof of wrongdoing by any particular person at this time).

I would think that the Equine Welfare Committee would be embarrassed to go to their meeting this weekend without something that they had already drafted in their hands to present for ratification.  I would like to think that these people would take the time to create some document that could be presented rather than discuss the pros and cons and take another six months to come up with a “proper” document.

Many of those who were stunned by the massive losses suffered on Sunday are coming out their trance-like states and are enraged.  There is anger over the loss of life, there is anger over the possibility that the horses were “juiced” there is anger over the fact that two of the horses reportedly died while they were loading the trailers to go to the game and that no one thought that was a bad sign. 

Then we come back to the “feel good” part of it.  We hear how wonderful it was that the entire polo community came together for the horses.

As nice as that is, it didn’t save a life and it doesn’t erase the responsibility.

This is a huge black eye for the sport, and shows how apathetic we have gotten with our “hobby”.  This is a dangerous sport that is played at top speed.  Bones break on horses and riders alike.  Deaths happen on and off the field, but it is time that we got proactive about our approach to THIS episode.

It’s time for a drug-testing program to be created for the sport of polo.