Polo Pony of the Month: Nala

We will be featuring one of our polo ponies each month to share with you a little about their backgrounds and special roles they carry at Franklin Polo Academy. We hope you enjoy getting to know our horses and encourage you to seek them out at polo matches to say hello as they ride by!

The first Polo Pony of the Month for 2017 is our simple-looking Thoroughbred mare named Nala. Nala is a bay and doesn't have any white markings on her legs but has the smallest trace of a white star between her eyes. She is so quiet that you will often find her napping at the trailer before playing a chukker or being ridden in a lesson. However, if you bring her a treat, this cookie monster will wake up with eyes wide, ears perked forward, and tongue stuck out until you give it to her! 

Nala was actually Franklin Polo Academy's first official polo pony purchased for the school in October of 2015. After a few riders tried her out in chukkers over a couple weeks, Nala easily proved that she would be a great foundation for our polo pony "string" we hoped to build. We know Nala was trained as a polo pony after a short career on the racetrack. She is now 9 years old and one of our most quiet horses. We tend to put beginners without riding experience on her because she has no problem going a slow, safe speed. However, for our advanced riders, she perks right up when asked correctly and can be a great mount to have during a game. We can also (as seen below) fly a flag off of her so our umpire has used her for this during the opening ceremonies and then umpiring the matches with her

Yes, Nala was named after Simba's best friend in The Lion King.
She also won the Best Playing Polo Award at Poloween last year. (shown below)

We hope you've enjoyed learning about Nala and look forward to next month's feature polo pony! We would love to hear about your personal horses and how they're special to you so please comment!