Bonnie J

Bonnie J was a dun mare who 10-goaler Cecil Smith recalled as the best pony he ever owned. At first, she was just a five-year-old ranch horse from Texas, comfortable around cattle but with no interest at all in sticks, balls or learning how to play polo. But when she took the field with other horses, something clicked, and she became a legendary pony of the 1930s. Smith wrote, “She had the softest mouth you could want… I just touched the rein to put her where I wanted her. If the ball bounced off a divot, at the last second, she could flip over to where I could hit it.”

One of her signature moves was to stop and whirl in an instant. On one occasion, a following horse and rider could neither believe what they were seeing nor stop in time to prevent a collision that broke Smith’s collarbone.

When the Old Westbury team was gathering horses for the 1937 U.S. Open, Sonny Whitney made Smith an offer. “You can’t afford to keep that horse,” he said. “I’ll buy her and you can play her in the Open.” Later, after Old Westbury emerged victorious, Whitney gave the mare back to Smith.

Smith played Bonnie J in England in 1936 and 1938, and in a ’38 match she was judged the best playing pony. A British sports writer singled her out as, “uncommonly fast… perhaps the best in the lot… gallant and amazingly quick off the mark.”

Charles Wrightsman on Bonnie J, England 1938

Cecil Smith on Bonnie J, England 1938

Watercolor portrait of Bonnie J (Top Photo) by artist, Melinda Brewer; www.poloart.ca