Prized polo horse gunned down in Thermal
A senseless act of violence has left a prized polo horse dead and the owners looking for answers.
Early Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning someone apparently shot and killed Missy, a 7-year-old mare, at the Mesquite Ranch in Thermal.
Ben Smith owns Seattle Polo and Equestrian Club. Once a year for the past six years Smith and his family have come to the Mesquite Ranch to get ready to compete at the Empire Polo Grounds.
“It’s stupidity, it’s someone who is a coward, and to just pick on an animal and shoot it for no reason it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever,” said Smith.
Missy’s body laid in the pasture all night and was partially eaten by coyotes. Ranchers didn’t know Missy had been shot until they flipped the body over and saw the bullet holes.
Ben’s son, Cameron Smith, rode Missy in polo competitions. Missy was just named “Best Playing Pony” at the 2015 Seattle Cup.
“My son played the horse so my son remembers the plays that he made on that horse, he remembers going down the field and making those shots, and scoring the goals, and those are the things he’ll remember with the horse. He didn’t sleep at all last night he was devastated,” said Ben Smith.
Not only is there an emotional toll on the family, the financial loss is substantial.
“The horse is valued at about $40,000 and so that’s a big financial loss for us and the harder loss is not the money, but losing the horse, then to bring another horse up to that level takes about two years of training,” said Smith.
Getting insurance for polo horses is very costly and usually not an issue, so Ben Smith had no insurance on Missy. After the shooting, Ben doesn’t know what to do to keep the rest of his horses safe.
“What do you do? You just have to leave them out and you can’t stick them in your backyard,” said Smith.
Missy’s body is going to be taken to San Bernardino on Friday for an autopsy.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to call Investigator Ed Ortega at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, Thermal Station at (760) 863-8990.
Information can also be reported anonymously through Crime Stoppers at (760) 341-STOP (7867).
