Neal Stephenson on the Polo-Pony Ranches He Chose Not to Write About
The Long Now Foundation
In a conversation at the Long Now Foundation marking the launch of Polostan, the first book in his new Bomb Light series, Neal Stephenson was asked how he handles the research digressions that pull every writer of historically grounded fiction off course. His answer centered on one example, the polo-pony ranches of 1930s Wyoming. He described it as a rabbit hole he recognized and deliberately stayed out of.
A Book Full of Rabbit Holes
The host, Charles C. Mann, a nonfiction author, opened by listing a few of the subjects Polostan covers without trying to summarize the whole novel. They included the strategy of polo, exactly what was exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair of the early 1930s, how machine-gun smuggling worked, and Soviet steel production. Mann said that to someone who writes nonfiction, every item on that list signals a rabbit hole.
Mann then described his own habit. His research leaves him with many carefully worked-out excerpts of three or four thousand words that turn out to be completely irrelevant and "just die" on his hard drive. He asked, half reluctant to hear the answer, whether the same thing happens to Stephenson.
Stephenson said it does, and that he is trying to move away from that way of working so he can be more efficient. Mann replied, "good luck." Stephenson added that he can now identify a rabbit hole when he sees one, and that learning this skill takes a while.
Why Polo Kept Appearing in the 1930s
Stephenson's main example came from the book's setting, mostly the 1930s. He said he kept running into polo unexpectedly and found it strange. Today polo looks like the ultimate niche sport for fancy, upper-crust people. Stephenson said that in that era it was far more widespread.
His explanation was military. Armies still had horse cavalry, and wherever there was active cavalry there was polo, because polo was the training technique for maintaining riding skills. As an illustration he pointed out that even the Soviet Red Army had a polo team. In his framing, the game was training for war as much as a leisure pursuit.
The Ranches Near Gillette, Wyoming
Following that thread, Stephenson said, led him to something he "did not see coming at all." There were ranches around Gillette, Wyoming, that bred and trained polo ponies for a worldwide market. According to Stephenson, that market was much larger then than it is now.
Breeding the animals was not enough. He explained that the ponies had to be taught to play the game to some degree, or they were useless to buyers. So the people who worked on these ranches all knew how to play polo, because it was part of the job. Stephenson described the staff as white cowboys, Black workers, Native Americans, and Hispanic workers. The result, in his description, was "incredibly multi-ethnic teams of expert polo players" riding around Wyoming and training animals for a sport associated with the upper classes.
Wealthy people from all over the world would travel to these ranches on something like vacation safaris. They looked over what was for sale and went home with expensive horses.
Choosing Not to Go There
Stephenson called this "a rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes." He said he takes some pride in not following it in the book. When Mann asked whether this meant there was no 150-page section about it, Stephenson confirmed there is not, though he acknowledged there easily could have been.
The novel instead mentions the ranches only briefly, as a fact about the world. The detail does have a narrative job, though. The main character, a young woman named Dawn, once worked on one of these ranches. That history explains how she knows how to play polo even though she clearly does not come from the social class that normally plays it.
In Stephenson's account, the research still mattered. He used it to give a character a plausible background, and he declined to turn it into an extended digression.
I'm not going to go into everything the book is about, but say that among the subjects covered are the strategy of polo, exactly what was in the Chicago World's Fair of the early 1930s, the workings of machine gun smuggling, and Soviet steel production, a whole bunch of things like this. As a person who writes non-fiction books, all of these to me say rabbit hole. Yeah, right.
And I kind of don't want to know the answer to this question, but when I do this, I have lots and lots of beautifully worked out 3,000-word, 4,000-word excerpts that are completely irrelevant and just die in my computer hard drive. Is this the same for you?
Yeah, I'm trying to get away from that method, to be more efficient. Good luck. Because like you, I can identify a rabbit hole now when I see one, which takes a while to learn that skill.
So for example, this book takes place during the 1930s mostly, and so one thing that I kept bumping into unexpectedly was polo. I found it very strange that this kept coming up, because of course to us today polo is the ultimate fancy upper-crust people's niche sport, but it was much more widespread then.
And the reason is that they still had horse cavalry, and where you've got active horse cavalry, you've got polo, because that is the training technique that you use. So even the Soviet Red Army had a polo team, because you had to do that to maintain your abilities. So it's training for war.
And so I started paying attention to that, and I then stumbled upon something that I did not see coming at all, which was that in the vicinity of Gillette, Wyoming, there were polo pony ranches that existed to breed and train these ponies for the worldwide market of people who played polo, a market that was much bigger then than it is now.
And it's not enough just to breed them; you've got to actually kind of teach them to play the game a little bit, or they're useless. So the staff who worked on these ranches, who were sort of white people, you know, cowboys, black people, Native Americans, Hispanics, they all knew how to play polo because it was part of their job. So you'd have these incredibly multi-ethnic teams of expert polo players riding around in Wyoming, training these animals how to play this upper-crust sport.
And fancy people from all over the world would go there on kind of vacation safaris and see what was on the market and go home with expensive horses. So there was a rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes, and I sort of pride myself on the fact that I did not go there in this book.
So there's not a 150-page section? No, there's not. There could very easily have been, but instead it's just mentioned that this is a fact, and that the main character of the book, a young woman named Dawn, had worked on one of these ranches, which explains why she knows how to play the sport even though she's definitely not from a social class that would normally be, you know, polo-playing kinds of people.
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