One of the coolest live equine demonstrations that happened at Breyerfest was Horseball. A fast paced sport that reminded me of soccer? What’s not to like!
Taken from the sport rules, Horseball is described as being ‘played between-two teams of six players who must pick up a ball from the ground without dismounting, and using a game of attack and defense attempt to score in goals at each end of a pitch’.
There were two goal on each side of the area that the teams scored on.
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When reading the sport rules, I found that tack choice is pretty lax. There are some restrictions (such as no Camarguaise, western or racing saddles), but generally anything that is well fitting and safe seems to be allowed. I also read that all horses must wear a pick up strap ,standing martingale and over reach boots.
There was two referees. One was on horseback and the other was on the sideline.
After the match, I went to the booth and asked if there were certain positions that the players played. Interestingly enough, it goes by the horses. I also took a picture of the ball!
Doing a performance set up of this would be fun to try. I think the ball would be a lot of fun to make. The Sport rules has everything you need to know. Dimensions of the goals, game play, etc are all in the sport rules. Here are some more pictures of Horseball!
Also, I forgot to mention that I did finish reading Go Set A Watchman. A brief opinion of it is I wish I’d listened to my initial gut reaction instead of ignoring it and not read it. It has a beautiful cover, but that doesn’t make up for the book. Now, it wasn’t written badly, but To Kill A Mockingbird is the better version of the story.
Kristian Beverly 