Polo is a high-intensity sport, and the horses who participate in it are known to receive a high workload on their hearts. Having cardiac disorders can impair their athletic performance or even increase the risk of collapsing during the game. In sport horses, murmurs and arrhythmias are commonly-found physiological conditions; nevertheless, many of them are related to heart diseases. Though numerous studies on murmurs and arrhythmias have been done among several kinds of horses, the information in polo horses is still limited. This study was done to investigate the prevalence of murmurs and arrhythmias in performance Argentine polo ponies by field screening with fast and convenient methods. A hundred and ninety-six performance Argentine polo ponies (162 mares and 34 geldings) with ages between 6 – 20 years old were included in this study. Cardiac auscultation with a simple stethoscope was done to detect and grade murmurs, and electrocardiography with an iPhone ECG (electrocardiogram) recorder was done at the same time to find if there were any arrhythmias. The results showed 98 ponies (50%) that probably had cardiac abnormalities, these could be divided into 61 ponies (31.1%) with only murmurs, 18 ponies (9.2%) with only arrhythmias, and 19 ponies (9.7%) with both murmurs and arrhythmias. In conclusion, murmurs and arrhythmias were found frequently by field screening of this study; cardiac examination should not be overlooked, and those ponies with murmurs and/or arrhythmias should be examined further to determine whether they were pathologic or not.

High-intensity laser therapy (HILT) is an alternative technique that should provide better results than therapeutic ultrasound in the treatment of tendinitis. However, there has not yet been a study to support this hypothesis in horses, especially in polo ponies. This study aims to follow up the outcomes of high-intensity laser therapy and therapeutic ultrasound in tendinitis polo ponies in Thailand. Twelve limbs with tendinitis from 10 ponies were included in the study after lameness examination; the limbs were confirmed to have tendinitis via ultrasonography. The ponies were randomized to high-intensity laser therapy and therapeutic ultrasound group. Recordings of the severity of the cross-sectional area (CSA), echogenicity score, fiber alignment score (FAS), lameness examination and pain responsive were performed on day 0, day 8, day 30 and day 60. The samples were randomized to six limbs in each treatment group. The results show that there was no significantly change in the CSA within treatment groups (HILT: p = 0.2; therapeutic ultrasound p > 0.9) and between the treatment group (p > 0.9), echogenicity score or FAS within and between the treatment group in 60 days of study. None of the ponies in this study experienced skin reactions from the treatment. In conclusion, both high-intensity laser therapy and therapeutic ultrasound are safe to use in the tendinitis of polo ponies and have the ability to decrease inflammation. However, a rehabilitation program is still the most important part that should be controlled along with the treatment.