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Polo ponies with freakish natural talent tend to be hot blooded, sensitive and generally unsafe for small children, so it’s a rare horse that can come off the feld from a high goal polo game to babysit a 6-year-old. But in addition to being a high-goal superstar, Tommy Wayman’s placid, intelligent La Fortuna was the keeper of a young girl’s heart. And when he was inducted into the Polo Hall of Fame on February 18, 2011, La Fortuna’s story became a polo classic.

An acclaimed American 10-goaler and Hall of Famer himself, Tommy Wayman also managed an extensive polo-breeding program from ranches on two continents, in San Antonia, Texas, and San Martin de los Andes, Argentina. Whenever he visited his vast Argentina estancia, Tommy made a habit of calling around the neighboring estancias to search for polo prospects.

It was during one of those searches that he came across La Fortuna, a grey gelding of unknown breeding with a signifcant parrot mouth. In the late 1970s parrot mouth was thought to be a genetic defect, and Dicky Santamarina, the owner of the neighboring estancia, wouldn’t let Tommy try La Fortuna for fear that his reputation would be ruined if the gelding left the property. But Tommy persisted, and was fnally allowed to ride La Fortuna. He knew immediately that the horse was meant to be a high goal polo pony and set upon Dicky to let him purchase the gelding. Finally, Dicky let him have La Fortuna for free as long as Tommy promised not to tell anyone where he had found the horse.

Tommy brought La Fortuna to the Wayman family’s San Antonio, Texas ranch, and began training him up for the high goal. The placid gelding immediately earned another fan in Tommy’s 6-year-old daughter Tory. He was trustworthy enough to carry Tory up and down the sides of the polo feld wearing just a halter, and like any child who’s lent the power of a cantering horse, she fell head over heels in love, and decided that La Fortuna had to be hers to own.

When Tory told her mother of her plan, she was given a penny and sent to speak with her father. Tory very seriously placed her offer on the table, but Tommy responded that a penny just wasn’t a high enough price for the parrot-mouthed gelding. However, young Tory could purchase him for a penny and a kiss.

And with that, Tory was offcially deemed owner of La Fortuna. As the gelding became Tommy’s go-to high goal pony, Tory watched over “her” horse.

“Whether it was polo or taking care of me, he always knew what his job was,” Tory remembers. “After a game they’d throw me on him bareback with a halter and away I’d go. And no one had to worry about me because I was with La Fortuna.”

But it was inevitable that La Fortuna would catch the eye of others. When Tory was 8 years old, a buyer who offered a very large sum in exchange for the gelding approached the family. “My dad told the guy, ‘I can’t sell him, he belongs to my daughter’,” Tory relates. “And the guy said to tell me that I could have the money for La Fortuna, and he would give me a replacement horse that would be just for me.

“So my father called me in and told me about the offer, and to this day I remember looking straight at him, and telling him that I wouldn’t sell La Fortuna for any price.”

And so, La Fortuna remained in the family. He went on to become Tommy’s anchor pony throughout the highlight of his career, playing high goal polo in every corner of the country. He was named Best Playing Pony in countless U.S. Open tournaments, Best Playing Pony in every major high goal tournament of the early 80s, and at the time was considered to be one of, if not the most famous horse in polo.

“My dad always said that the horse was one of the reasons he got to be ten goals,” Tory says. “He could go from 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds, stop on a dime and turn on a nickel. They went to ten together, and he never let me forget that if he hadn’t sold La Fortuna to me for a penny and a kiss, he might not have gotten so far.”

La Fortuna was retired at the age of 15, and lived out his days on the Wayman ranch in Texas, babysitting weanlings and teaching them manners. He passed away in 2001, but with his induction to the Polo Hall of Fame, he’ll always be remembered as one of the greatest ponies in polo.

And as for Dicky Santamarina, he eventually came to the conclusion that parrot mouth wasn’t such a defect, after all. His estancia in Argentina is now known as “ La Fortuna ”.