The Original Polo Ponies Of Manipur Are Battling Extinction

IT’S TIME TO ACT

- Sunzu Bachaspatimayum

I have always considered myself a proud owner of the original Manipuri Polo Ponies. In fact, I owned four, including an extremely rare breed, whom I lovingly named, ‘Koiyang’. Polo players, who assumed their upkeeps on the condition that my horses play only for their team, say there are only about 4-5 sagols like Koiyang. Sagolis the Meitei word for horse.

Later, I confirmed from experts that Koiyang is indeed rare. He belongs to the breed that is fighting a losing battle against extinction. He has curly furs and is of slightly smaller size but stoutly built and famous for their tenacity. They also confirmed that being tabiano in colorization and curly, Koiyang belongs to the rarest breed of Pony, existing in the world today. I bought him in 2013, when he was around one and half year old and I named him Koiyang indicative of his curly furs and swiftness. ‘Koi’ means curly and ‘yang’ translates as swift. Naturally, I was super proud that he is mine.

Abung who owns a local polo team was probably happier than me, for he is actually the one who gets to rear him up, tame him and transform him into a full-fledged polo player and play polo with him. For Abung, the prospect of Koiyang, becoming one of the top polo playing horse of Manipur was a surety that he took it for granted.

Koiyang did not disappoint him either. He exhibited versatility, swiftness as well as agility, the three cornerstone characteristics of a good polo pony. Koiyang was almost ready to take the field. While Abung was raring to ride him to victory, I kept postponing Koiyang debuting in the game. I had my reason. For a colt to be fully ready for Polo, he had to go through a mandatory ritual that I was not ready for.