TO the hum of Spanish chatter, Argentine grooms saunter past, riding and leading at least three, enviably nonchalant in that gaucho uniform of a jaunty boïna and espadrilles. In the tack room, a pot of maté tea stews; rope headcollars are flung over a stable door and immaculately hogged ponies wait patiently in their stables with rugs cleverly made from Argentine coffee bags.
It's only the honey-coloured stone walls and courtyard stable yard worthy of an old-fashioned toy farm that jolt you back to reality: drizzly Gloucestershire, 7,000 miles from the polo fields of Palermo.
When England polo player Mark Tomlinson's parents, Simon and the late Claire, bought the idyllic Down Farm outside Tetbury in the 1980s, the couple's string of high-goal ponies was put up in the 30-box main yard, with its clock tower and
