Ruifino

Her story began in Argentina where she was a favored mount of the hard-riding Manuel Andrada. As Fred Post told it, in 1934 he sent an agent (Wiley Jones) back to Argentina to buy her after having seen her play the year prior and apparently regretted not having bought her then. Renowned horseman J.C. Cooley asked for first crack at her upon her arrival in the states as a potential mount for Jock Whitney. Whitney played her one period and “that settled it.” For the next six years, she played as part of his string of stars.

Her courage and ability was exemplified by her play in the 1935 Monty Waterbury Cup that may be summed up best by an excerpt from POLO, Nov. 1935: “No one who witnessed it can ever forget the picture of the gray mare and Tommy Hitchcock in the sixth chukker, when Greentree from being three goals behind came up on even terms with Templeton. It was one of the supreme chukkers of polo, easily the highlight of the year, and the engraved record of what happened will be, as long as this cup exists, mute testimony to a gallant animal giving of her very best in the hands of a supreme performer.