The Open Paddock Trust arose from a long and intimate life with horses, shaped by inherited traditions of horsemanship, care, and stewardship that reach back across generations. It was not conceived in haste, nor assembled by institution or design, but emerged naturally from years lived in their company — knowledge passed quietly rather than codified in books. These are traditions that do not begin with a single life, and were not expected to end with one.
Its foundations were laid, in part, through earlier work devoted to the preservation of South Asia's indigenous horse breeds: the Marwari, whose history runs deep through the soils of North India, formed by desert and plain and long bound to the martial and cultural memory of the region; the Bhutia, bred in the hills of Bengal and the Himalayan foothills, compact, sure-footed, and resilient in steep country and thin air; and the Zanskari, Waziri, and Yarkandi, the distinctive breeds of Jammu & Kashmir, each bearing in its conformation and temperament the unmistakable impress of high passes, secluded valleys, and frontier landscapes little altered by time.
These horses are more than repositories of genetic inheritance. They are living testaments to landscape, culture, and human history — histories first received through kinship and land, long before they were ever formally studied. To those for whom such connections are a matter of inheritance rather than interest, the responsibilities they carry are of a different order: less chosen than assumed, less philanthropic in spirit than simply dutiful. Their survival depends upon a form of labour that is attentive, knowledgeable, and patient — the kind most often sustained not by distant institutions, but by families whose stake in the matter is personal, enduring, and older than memory conveniently reaches.
Alongside this work ran a steadfast commitment to the welfare of polo ponies — animals of rare courage, athletic brilliance, and generous temperament, upon whom extraordinary demands are placed, and whose service to the game is too seldom repaid with the dignity, security, and tenderness they deserve in later life.
In time, these two callings — the preservation of the rare and the protection of the working — came together in the Trust's present form. Their union was a natural one, for both are guided by the same quiet conviction: that the bond between horse and human imposes obligations which do not expire when usefulness wanes, when a breed slips from fashion, or when the cost of care becomes burdensome.
Today, the Trust is devoted to equestrian welfare in its fullest and most serious sense, with a particular focus on polo ponies, while continuing to bear the wider heritage and responsibilities that have long accompanied this work. It proceeds without fanfare. Its manner is thoughtful, discreet, and grounded in long experience — qualities that, in this field, carry a weight at least equal to any formal credential.
- I.
On the Retirement and Care of the Polo Pony
A polo pony may give a decade or more to the game — years of early mornings, hard ground, and the particular kind of courage that asks everything of an animal and relies upon its willingness to give it. The Trust holds that such service deserves more than a quiet disappearance when it is done. What follows the playing years ought to be considered, dignified, and worthy of what came before: pasture, rest, companionship, and the unhurried pace of a life honourably concluded.
- II.
On the Preservation of Indigenous Breeds
A breed, once lost, cannot be recovered. The indigenous horses of South Asia and its frontier regions carry within them centuries of landscape, memory, and human endeavour — not as metaphor, but as fact, written into their bone and blood. The Trust is committed to ensuring that these animals endure: that their numbers are tended, their qualities understood, and their place in the living world defended with the seriousness the matter demands. This is work with a long horizon, and it is undertaken with that understanding.
- III.
On the Confidential Reporting of Equine Distress
Those who witness suffering are not always free to speak. The Trust exists, in part, as a place where concern can be brought without fear — where what has been seen does not have to be carried alone, and where discretion is not a courtesy but a cornerstone. The welfare of horses depends, in no small measure, on the willingness of people to come forward, and on the absolute assurance that they may do so safely.
- IV.
On the Upholding of the Trust Charter
The Trust Charter sets out the values by which this work is guided and the standards against which it is measured. They are not declarations of intent but articles of conduct — the quiet architecture of an organisation that takes its obligations seriously and expects to be held to them.