These are my last pictures from Championships. If you haven't gotten your fill of horses yet, check out last year's pictures under the label section on the sidebar to the right.
Polocrosse is one of those rare Pony Club sports I'd always heard of but knew nothing about. So I jumped at the chance to see Polocrosse in person. I'm glad I did because it ended up being one of my favorite things that I did the whole week.
Polocrosse is basically lacrosse on horses.
In Polocrosse the horse has polo wraps and bell boots on all legs to protect them from getting hit with balls, rackets, and other horses. Each rider has a racket. The "referee" is dressed in a striped shirt and also rides a horse and carries a racket.
The game begins on the edge of the field along the middle line. Each team consisting of 3 players line up in ascending numerical order.
The "referee" then throws in the ball and everyone tries to catch it in their racket. The riders then peel off and make a beeline for the goals on either end of the field.
The ball is passed to whatever player is open at the time.
If the ball is dropped, everyone circles back and tries to pick it up with their racket to claim it for their team.
However, a successful pass from teammate to teamate is ideal.
Once you have the ball it is a race to the edge of the field.
CHARGE!
On each edge of the field is a 30 yard line which the ball cannot be carried over. Therefore the ball must either be passed from one player to another over the line or one teammate can "bounce" the ball across the line, however they must be able to recover the ball.
Another rule is that only the #1 player of the team attempting to score and the #3 player of the defending team are allowed past the 30yd line. This keeps things from becoming crowded. The defending #3 player tries to keep the #1 player from scoring by blocking their path and/or knocking the ball out of their racket.
Once a point is scored, everyone heads back to the center to start again.
This continues until the end of the "chukka." Each chukka lasts for 8 minutes and the goal is to score as many points as possible in that chukka. After the chukka is finished, players dismount their horses and lead them off the field to cool them off.
When we hiked out to the polocrosse fields, I was excited just to watch the game played. However, in an attempt to raise interest in polocrosse they graciously invited anyone who wanted to to ride a polocrosse pony and play a short chukka. They supplied us with rackets, balls, helmets, and horses.
I and many, many others grabbed our rackets and started practicing.
This is the horse I would eventually ride. He was a sweetie.
My quiz teammate got her chance first.
She got to play a 3 minute chukka
Then it was my turn.
We traded horse, helmet, and jersey, and I mounted up.
It was very strange riding a horse in shorts...
But I was very, very happy. When I went down to CHAMPS I never expected to have the opportunity to ride a horse much less play polocrosse!
We lined up for my chukka... it was kinda chaotic since none of us knew what we were doing.
When the ball was thrown in, no one caught it and it landed on the ground in the middle of the field. Several people tried to pick it up off the ground but to no avail -- Picking a ball up from atop a horse is no easy thing. Suddenly, I saw and opening and headed for the ball.
I unconsciously put to use all the skills I'd learned in mounted games practices and somehow managed to scoop the ball off the ground. I trotted off toward the goal. (These practice chukkas were kept to walk/trot for the safety of the inexperienced players and the health of the tired horses.)
Since I was player #2 on my team, I couldn't score the point or pass the 30 yd line so I called for my #1 player. I tried to pass it to her over the 30 yd line but the ball hit the ground. Fortunately, she managed to get it off the ground and scored the point!
So, that is the story of how I learned about polocrosse and also got to ride a polocrosse pony and play in a chukka. It was an experience I'll never forget and I'm so glad we made the choice to go all the way out to the polocrosse fields.
I wish my region had the ability to play polocrosse -- at least for fun.
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