21 polo horse deaths mysterious
WELLINGTON (AP) – Women in their spring dresses and men in casual linen suits sipped champagne and nibbled hors d’oeuvres as they waited for the U.S. Open polo match. What they ended up with was a field of death.
Magnificent polo ponies, each valued at up to $200,000, stumbled from their trailers and crumpled one by one onto the green grass. Vets ran out and poured water over the feverish, splayed-out animals, but it was no use. One dead horse. Then another. Then more. Within a day, 21 horses were dead.
State veterinarians are still performing necropsies, but suspect the horses died from heart failure brought on by some sort of toxic reaction in their bodies. Possibly tainted feed, vitamins or supplements. Maybe a combination of the three.
While polo club officials and several independent veterinarians insisted the deaths appeared to be accidental, it remains a mystery that puzzles and saddens those close to a sport that has long been a passion of Palm Beach County’s ultra-rich.
“The players, the owners of the horses were in tears. Bystanders and volunteers were in tears. This was a very tragic thing,” said Tony Coppola, 62, an announcer for the International Polo Club Palm Beach in this palm tree-lined town some 15 miles west of the millionaire enclave of Palm Beach.
Spectators at the Sunday match had difficulty making out what was happening when the frenzy of workers and trucks hovered around the horse trailers. Soon blue tarps were hung and trailers were shuffled into place to obscure their view.
The match was canceled, replaced by an exhibition game, to keep the crowd busy.