Polo: Core of the Game..

Polo is played on a field 150 yards wide by 300 yards long. At each end of the field there are goal posts. The game is played on horeback using shafts of tapered cane called Polo Mallets and a ball made of plastic.

The match is split into time periods called chukkas. A standard match of Polo consists of about four to six chukka's, each chukka lasts seven and a half minutes.

There are four players per team in a game of polo and each player is numbered from one to four. Players will ride on a new horse for each chukka and will thus require many horses for a match comprising many chukkas (i.e. a player may require six different horses for a match of six chukkas).

In Polo a player can play a horse twice although it requires that the horse is not played for at least one chukka in between. So that the teams are fairly equal in skill, the handicap of the team is added up. They should be fairly equal for the level that they are playing at.

A horse can be played twice in a game of polo but it must be allowed to rest for at least one chukka before being played again. To ensure that one team does not have an unfair advantage over the other, teams with a handicap are awarded a certain number of goals as a head start before the game commences.

In certain situations a team may be awarded half a goal, this is entirely dependant upon how much of a handicap the team is considered to have. Only a team considered to be weaker than it's oppostion will be granted this advantage.

The game begins with both teams lined up and facing each other in the centre of the playing field. An umpire (also on horseback) then throws the ball into the middle to start the game. The game is adjudicated by two mounted umpires.

The objective of the game is to drive the Polo ball between the goal posts. The team with the most goals at the end of the game is declared the winner. The teams will swap ends everytime a goal is scored.