Ponies, platters and polo will come together Sept. 9 at the Taste of Polo event to raise money for clinical scholarships for children with special needs.

The event, hosted at Chukkar Farm Polo Club, will help support the Innovative Health Foundation.

The Innovative Health Foundation was founded in 2011 by Johns Creek resident Dr. David Cantor and works to provide therapy for children with special needs whose families could not afford it otherwise.

“[Dr. Cantor] was seeing often families needed therapy for their children they couldn’t afford,” said Executive Director Patricia Muesse. “Our primary mission is to provide scholarships for their therapy.”

In the future, Innovative Health Foundation hopes to expand into research and other ways to help the special needs children, but for now they are focused on the therapy aspect which can include speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy and some more innovative therapies.

“Usually these children need lots of different kinds of therapy,” Muesse said. “Many of these children also use hippotherapy.”

Hippotherapy uses horses to aid in different kinds of therapy, and Muesse said that is one reason they decided on a polo event for their inaugural fundraiser.

“It‘s not your typical fundraiser,” she said.

The Taste of Polo event will feature a polo match, tastings from local restaurants, a silent auction and various contests such as the Best Hat contest throughout the event.

The event will be Sept. 9 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Chukkar Farm Polo Club at 1140 Liberty Grove Road in Alpharetta. Tickets are $50 for adults and $5 for children. There is a special rate for families with disabilities where the whole family can attend for $50.

Information: http://www.innovativehealth foundation.org/taste_of_polo.