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POLOCROSSE COMPETITION
Polocrosse is the thrilling King of the One Horse Sports. It is a high paced, agility based sport developed here in Australia, for Australian conditions and Australian temperments. The thundering of hooves on soft ground brings thrills and excitement for spectators, and is sure to bring out the competative nature of players and viewers alike.
As the name shows, Polocrosse is a combination of polo, lacrosse and netball. When a couple from Sydney traveled to England in 1938 they visited the National School of Equitation where the riding instructors had developed a training exercise for the benifit of equine suppleness and rider control. The rider scooping a ball from the ground with old polo sticks with the mallet removed and replaced with a squash raquet head and throwing the ball into a net. With this idea they travelled back to Australia to create an outdoor horse sport to be played by a person of any age.
Each team consists of six players, divided into two sections of three who play alternate chukkas of a maximum of eight minutes each. Every player is armed with a polo stick shaft which is attached to a raquet type head with loose twisted thread net, in which the ball is carried. A full match comprises of six or eight chukkas, with the three team members on the field consisting of a No.1 or "Attack", a No.2 or "Centre" and No.3 or "Defense". The "Attack" is the only member able to enter the Goal Scoring Area and succeed in throwing the ball through the goal posts, the "Centre" being confined to the centre of the field making the crucial passes to the No.1, and the "Defense" insuring the alternate team fails to score by intercepting the ball or dislodging it from the opponants raquet.
In this sport, ducking, weaving, and generally outsmarting your opponant are key elements, and as each rider only has one horse (as opposed to Polo, with a string of ponies), making sure your mount is highly trained and fighting fit is paramount. We welcome Polocrosse to the EQUITANA Melbourne ranks.
  
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