Buying and leasing ponies — the practical guide

For most players, access to a horse — not talent — is the real gatekeeper in polo. Fortunately there's a whole ladder of options between “never play” and “own a dozen-horse string,” and most serious players climb it gradually. This page walks through the practical choices, alongside our broader look at what makes a polo pony.

Hiring for lessons and beginner chukkas

Almost every accredited club offers hired ponies by the lesson or the chukka — typically calm, experienced “made” horses used to teaching newcomers, sometimes described informally as the schooled “professors” of the string. This is the standard, sensible starting point covered in our learning to play guide, and plenty of club players never move past it, simply hiring for each session indefinitely.

Leasing and share arrangements

As players progress beyond hired lesson horses, leasing — paying for exclusive or shared use of a specific pony over a season, without buying it outright — becomes a common middle step. Share arrangements, where the cost and use of a pony (or a small string) is split between two or more players, spread both the cost and the workload on the horse, and are a well-established way for developing players to get more saddle time on a consistent mount without the full commitment of ownership.

Buying: green versus made

• Made ponies — fully trained and tournament-experienced, priced for that readiness; the safer, more expensive choice for a player who wants to compete sooner;
• Green ponies — young or only partly trained, cheaper to acquire but requiring the time, skill and patience to finish their schooling, described on our ponies page as a process that takes years, not months;
• Many players buy a mix — a made pony or two for reliable match play, alongside a green prospect being brought on for the future.

Vetting before purchase

A pre-purchase veterinary examination is standard practice before any significant pony purchase, checking soundness and general health before money changes hands — the same basic principle that applies across equestrian sport generally, adapted to the specific physical demands polo places on a horse's legs, wind and temperament.

The ongoing costs

Purchase price is only the start. Livery or stabling, farrier work, routine and emergency veterinary care, transport to and from matches, and a groom's wages for proper day-to-day care all recur for as long as the pony is in work — the honest cost picture flagged on our getting started page as the point where polo's reputation for expense is actually earned.

Syndication among patrons

At the higher-goal end of the sport, it's common for the cost of a strong string to be shared among a syndicate of owners or investors rather than carried by one person alone — a structure that spreads both cost and risk, similar in spirit to ownership syndicates in horse racing.

Retraining and retirement

Many polo ponies begin life in other disciplines — ex-racehorse Thoroughbreds retrained for polo are common in several countries — and, at the other end of a career, ponies are frequently stepped down through lower-goal polo and schooling roles rather than retired abruptly, a welfare-minded pattern described in more detail on our ponies page.