Feature Patrick Beresford
He pioneered pony welfare in polo; he won the Gold Cup with Prince Philip and he steered the British equestrian team to Olympic success. Lord Patrick Beresford, the Irish aristocrat who last month accepted a Lifetime Achievement honour at the Audi Polo Awards, talks to Herbert Spencer
F
ew horsemen can have had as varied and successful an equestrian career as Ireland’s Lord Patrick Beresford, 76. He was a winning amateur jockey, managed a medal-winning Olympic team, worked as a bloodstock agent, led riding safaris to exotic places and played high-goal polo. Most importantly, however, he has been a leading campaigner for the protection and welfare of polo ponies, establishing good principles that have spread far beyond the shores of the British Isles. This spring the US Polo Association (USPA) inaugurated its first drug-testing programme for horses, so welfare was one of the first subjects Patrick and I discussed when I visited him at his home in Binfield, Berkshire.
“I was delighted to see that the Americans have finally followed our example by incorporating substance control into their rules,” Patrick said. “Polo players recognise and accept the risks in
polo, it’s our choice. But the horse doesn’t have a choice, it must do what we ask of it. That is why we must show the greatest of respect for our ponies and do everything possible to ensure their safety and welfare.”
Until a couple of decades ago, rules of equine welfare in polo lagged far behind those in other horse sports. Then, in 1992, the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) established a Polo Pony Welfare Committee and appointed Patrick as its first chairman. “The top polo vet, Peter Scott Dunn, was my co-chairman,” Patrick recalled, “so we had expert professional advice in immediately establishing new HPA directives that then became part of our rules.
62 July 2010
www.polotimes.co.uk Patrick at Palermo, being recognised for judging the best playing pony at the Argentine Open
Amongst other things we listed prohibited and permitted substances and brought in drug testing.” Realising that polo was too international to confine new regulations to just one country, Patrick contacted the USPA, suggesting it follow England’s example. This led in 1993 to the USPA’s Veterinary Committee, later to become the Equine Welfare Committee that brought in pony testing this year. Patrick remained as chairman of the HPA committee until 1997 before passing the reins to David Morley, though he still serves on the HPA body as well as the pony welfare committee of Guards Polo Club. Lord Patrick Tristram de la Poer Beresford was born on 16 June 1934, younger son of the 7th
Marquess of Waterford; the title dates back to the 1700s. Two members of the family gained prominence in the early days of polo in England. Lord William “Fighting Bill” Beresford of the 9th Lancers played in the first match on British soil and won the Victoria Cross in the Zulu war. John Beresford of the 7th Hussars played the 1900 Westchester Cup against America and that same year won a polo gold medal in the Paris Olympics. Like his antecedents, Patrick chose a military career and learned his polo in the army. After Sandhurst he served with the Royal Horse Guards (the Blues) for 11 years, including deployment to Cyprus to fight the EOKA. He transferred to No 1 (Guards) Independent Parachute Company, seeing
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Photographs by James Mullan and courtesy of Patrick Beresford
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