[Villages Kahuna]

I use a Canon EOS 20D DSLR with a 75-300mm digital zoom lens mounted on a monopod to take polo pictures.

While I know that none of the polo players that play on teams at the polo field are actually Villages residents, I really can't answer about the "ownership" of the teams that play there. During the spring and fall seasons, there are a couple of dozen regular players that play there. They form teams for various purposes. Sometimes there are teams that represent one village or another. Other times there are U.S. teams that play teams representing other countries. The players from the other countries are not regulars at The Villages polo field. They travel here from either other parts of the U.S. or foreign countries to play. As is the custom in polo, the host team provides or arranges for the horses for the visitors to use. Some of the horses are kept in the area directly north of the polo field and others seem to be trailered in from other horse farms in the area.

Today I was shooting from near the sidelines and you could clearly hear the U.S. players communicating with their teammates in English while the Argentinians communicated with one another in Spanish.

As far as who owns the teams and how they are financed, the admission is $3 per person, which even with a large crowd doesn't seem to be enough to maintain the facility, pay the staff, pay the game officials, maybe pay the players, etc. So I guess the answer is that a lot of the money needed to provide the polo program comes from our amenities fees thru the Recreation department.