For all you horse enthusiasts here in Baja, last November marked a chance to meet new people and enjoy, what for most of us, is a new kind of sporting event-a polo match played on a real polo field.

Polo was played on the beach here in Los Cabos last year, and there is a little midget polo field on the fourlane near Cabo Real, but now southern Baja has a real honest-to-god polo club at a new development called "Club Polo Cabo."

Club Polo Cabo is a 130-acre equestrian-themed development currently under construction (just seven miles outside of Cabo on the way to Todos Santos) and will be ready to sell homesites around polo fields after January 2010. Besides the three planned polo fields (two grass and one indoors) there will be homes, swimming pools, tennis courts, a horse club, and a luxury hotel at some point in the future. Right now it's one graded flat dirt field. The Fiesta Americana Resort in Cabo, which is part of the Posada Corporation, and is one of the biggest luxury resorts in Latin America, is one of permanent sponsors of Club Polo Cabo for all of its events.

The founder of Club Polo Cabo, Tony Yahyai, is an American born in Iran (which he points out is also the birthplace of polo more than 2,500 years ago). He is a commercial insurance broker who began playing polo more than five years ago.

Four years ago, at the age of 50, he started playing polo and fell in love with the sport.Yahyai was determined to bring polo to Los Cabos, even though currently there are no other teams playing in Baja, and chose this area for the new development because, as he states, "Cabo seems to have it all. Luxury accommodations, beaches, stylish restaurants and weather."

In order to further the sport down here, Yahyai and his partners bought 25 polo ponies and shipped them from California to Cabo.

"That way the players who come here don't need to ship their horses from other locations around the globe," Yahyai explains.

These horses, who have undergone two years of polo training, are currently boarded, fed, shaded, watered and exercised on the property right next to the graded polo field where the matches will be held during the upcoming winter season.

For those whose knowledge of polo is limited to the Ralph Lauren logo, it is an ancient stick and ball game played on horseback and was introduced to the United States in 1876 by James Bennett who brought western horses east to be trained for the game. The golden age of United States polo was during the 1920s and 1930s. Today polo is mainly played on a club level under the U.S. Polo Association. Yahyai is a member and follows all the rules and regulations of that association. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Mexican Federation of Polo and the Federation of International Polo (FIP).

Polo matches are divided into periods which are called chukkas. Each chukka usually lasts seven minutes. Games can have either four, six or eight chukkas although six is most common, with four minute breaks in between.

Teams have four numbered players, and each number has a different job to do on the field.

Players have handicaps and the team with the larger combined handicap sometimes will get free points to compensate for this.

Obviously, the players are all mounted on polo ponies - although these tend to be fully grown horses rather than ponies. Many people say that the pony accounts for much of the talent and skill in a polo game. The object of the game, put simply, is to score goals to win. The goals are scored by hitting the ball with the mallet. However, the ball can cross the line in numerous ways, including if it is knocked through the goals by the pony.

Polo can be a contact sport although this is limited - players can only push each other at a 45 degree angle. There are also a number of fouls, although, as a general rule, polo is a gentle sport. Players appeal for a foul by raising their mallet above their head. One common foul is line of ball - when a player crosses the line the ball is traveling in, at the expense of another player.

On a recent afternoon, Yahyai's wife fed the horses cookies while her husband suited up and mounted several different ponies in order to keep them in shape. Exercise is very important. For this very fast game, the horse must gallop, stop in his own length, turn on a dime, swing round in a pirouette and start off from a stand still at top speed in any direction. The quick stop and turn at 180 degrees are the most important of all maneuvers on the polo field, therefore, like any athlete, they need to be in tiptop shape, properly fed, and exercised.

Polo is not a poor man's game. Ponies are expensive and at least three ponies are needed to play a match, plus a reserve pony should one get injured. The same pony can only handle two chukkas before they need to rest. They simply can't gallop for two hours, and being a gal who's father raised polo ponies, I have seen a horse fall down and die of a heart attack, so caution is necessary. Club Polo Cabo will be offering polo classes as well. "This way kids can learn about taking care of their horses and learn the game of polo," says Yahyai. Students will be responsible for caring for their pony both on and off the field. Recruiting these rookies, based on their past performances, is certainly one way to get the poop picked up.

• For more information on Club Polo Cabo, call (858) 345-7172, or e-mail: tyahyai@clubpolocabo.com

• For information on taking polo lessons at Club Polo Cabo, please e-mail: miguelvadel@clubpolocabo.com

• Located 7 mi, or 12 km north of downtown Los Cabos, on Hwy 19 (along the Pacific coast), on the way to Todos Santos, immediately after Rolling Hills.

• Future Polo Tournaments at CPC, with the sponsorship of the Fiesta Americana Resort in Cabo: January 30-31, March 20-21, May 15-16 (close of season). The Polo Season is typically from October to June.