WHEN retirement age looms it's usually time to take it easy. But for Polo the pony, being well over the age when horses are put out to pasture hasn't put him off his day job - helping Gwent youngsters learn how to ride.

Polo, at 42, is now one of the oldest working horses in Wales. And he is to represent Wales at the Veteran Horse Society class at the Royal International Horse Show in Olympia in December, and will be judged on physical agility, condition and temperament.

Owner Jane Smith, from Undy, took Polo in 14 years ago. She was looking for a horse for her daughter, Emily, then seven, to learn on, and was contacted by a lady who had rescued him but had no idea how to care for him.

Mrs Smith said: "He had been badly neglected and was living on a patch of ground with no grass, fed the wrong things and was bleeding all over as he was suffering from sweet itch.

"He recovered really well."

Now she says he is a model of good health and brings great happiness to the five local children learning to ride on him.

She said: "Since my daughter, 39 local children have learnt to ride on Polo, the youngest aged only three."

His stable door is covered with pictures, poems and postcards from his many friends and riders.

One of these, nine-year-old Ella Mountstevens, from Undy, is to ride Polo at the competition on December 18, cheered on by some of Polo's other riders from Undy.

Mrs Smith said: "It's a real accolade to get this far. It's a bit like the horse version of Miss World."