Polo in Palm Beach

Last weekend my sister, Kelly and I ran away to Florida. Thanks to Kelly for the idea and inspiration! We traveled to Palm Beach to see my aunt, Claudia who lives there. We took in some local sites and activities. This post is about our very first polo game! It was about 40 minutes from our hotel. Polo is an expensive sport, as can be attested by the cars of the members below...!!!

As we were driving in I saw a hanging horse. Yes, hanging and swinging! I snapped a picture as we drove by. Turns out it wasn't a real horse, but it's a cool get-up!

We bought standing tickets and almost bought lawn chairs or towels to sit on. Turns out it really was standing!! Good thing we called them before we got there. As we walked across the polo fields to the stadium Kelly remembered we needed a hat!! Here are some ladies who remembered their hats!

The polo fields were filled with cuts in the grass, divets they're called. They looked to be filled with lawn care stuff and fertilizer. We looked forward to "half-time" where we got to go onto the field and push in the divets. They passed out free ice cream and champange while we did lawn care. Not bad for a lawn care job! I had pictures of us and the ice cream and champagne, but alas, they got lost somewhere. :( But at least you can see the divets! I know, you're so relieved. :)

There were some photographers there, taking pictures of course. We got to chat with a guy from a magazine in Toronto. He was on vacation, taking pics for fun, if the magazine used them fine, if not, he had fun taking them. He said that polo was a fun game to shoot. He got some great pics when two of the players fell off their horses. The horses were fine, we were told in the game, no word on the players. I call this picture big, bigger and biggest. :)

My best action shot got lost, but here is a pony coming back from the game. Each team of 8 guys (4 guys on the field - 4 backup) has about 60 horses. According to Wiki each horse can only play 2 chukkers in a game. Each game has 7 chukkers. (A chukker is like a quarter in a football game.) Not only do they swap out the horses a lot, but the mallets too. The mallets are about 52 inches long and the handles are made of bamboo, so they break fairly often.

One of the original things we discovered is that the teams don't have a goal. Each team can hit into either goal!

So there you have it. Palm Beach Polo. It was a fun game to watch. We'd love to go again. The ice cream was yummy (Blue Bunny vanilla bars) and the company was grand! More of our adventures later.