In Part One of this excerpt from the new book Equine ER, Selena, a Bluegrass polo pony belonging to a college student, was found critically injured in a field. Will she survive?

“The horizon is the edge of your polo field, the earth is the ball in the curve of your polo stick. Until you are blotted out of existence as the dust, gallop and press on your horse, for the ground is yours.”
Ð Twelfth century Persian poet Nizami’s advice on how to live a full life

Picture the college sophomore: She is slender, long black hair, green eyes, a face that belongs on a Roman coin. It is late January. Mia Proto is beat; she played six chukkers (seven-minute periods) of polo, round-robin style, last night at the Kentucky Horse Park on the University of Kentucky polo team. In her calculus class, she gets a text message from the farm where her horse, Selena, is boarded. It says to call right away, it’s about her horse, the vet is coming. Proto runs out of class and speeds to the barn in her old blue Volvo.

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