Pushball, (from English: pushball) is a fairly unknown and low-skilled ball sport with a variant in equestrian sports. For the variant with people, see: Pushball (persons). Pushball on horse
The principle of pushball on horse is comparable to that of football; It is a playing field with two opposing goals and two teams of riders. The intention is a big solid ball by kicking the horse into the other goal. A shetland pony plays with a different size ball than a shire.
Pushball on horseback is the official international name of this hippic team sport. In 1902, this sport was first practiced at Durland's Riding Academy in New York, USA. It is the only hippic team sport where the horse itself with its fore legs and shoulder picks up a big ball. Some pushball horses really have "ball feeling" and go to the ball by themselves. In the other horseball sports like polo and horseball, the rider maneuvers the horse and the ball.
This sport has emerged globally in recent years: in the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, it has been practiced in several stud farms for decades, in addition to pushball, a variant is known as "horse football" in the Netherlands, and in the United States States are currently playing Horse Soccer and Equine Soccer. In New Zealand, this sport is called "main ball". The United States Riding Police uses horse soccer as crowd control training to train service horses for actions against, for example, hooligans.
The sport is not yet organized internationally. There are currently no match rules. In Germany game rules were found in 1928, originally prepared for the Italian cavalry.
It's a sport where two teams of four to five players and any alternate players play twice ten minutes with a little break in between. The referee also preferably drives a horse; for the overview and for its own safety.
Many rules focus on animal welfare and safety for rider and horse. For example, the size of the ball is very important: the ball is at least the height of the horse's leg. For ponies the ball is therefore around a meter in diameter and for the warm-blooded horses the ball is at least 1.20 meters high. The right size ball ensures that the ball can not get under the horse's belly, or it can hit between its front or rear legs. This would otherwise cause nasty injuries to the horse and / or rider. In addition, the ball should preferably be burst resistant so that the ball does not splash apart when there is a possible leak. A suitable ball will run out of leak with a soft puff so that the horses will not scare.
The sport is played in jogging, because in galloping the horse can jump / steal or trim over the ball more easily. The horses must not bite, strike, scoop or goats. Their horsemen will be warned and possibly removed by the referee.
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