Horseball, which is recognised by the FEI as a potential Olympic sport, is a fast and furious combination of basketball and rugby on horseback and will provide spectators of the European Pony Championships with yet more exciting equine competition to watch.
This is the third time the horseball pony championships have run alongside the European Pony Championships having run previously in Rome in 2005 and in Saumur, France in 2006.
The British Horseball Association’s head of training and development, Dave Pettifor, was instrumental in confirming the sport’s presence in the programme for the 2010 European Pony Championships and he’s delighted that horseball will now feature in the itinerary.
He said: "It really raises the profile of horseball when it is included alongside the Olympic disciplines.
"It gives our junior players something to aim for and the spectators something different to see."
Event organisers are planning four days of horseball action in the College’s Olympic-standard Bishop Burton Arena, and are hoping to welcome at least six European teams from Great Britain; Italy; France; Belgium; Spain and Portugal.
The matches will be divided between the four days with two games on each of the first three days of competition and the final on the fourth day.
Each match is divided into two halves of ten minutes each with a three-minute interval and will guarantee the crowds fast-paced, end-to-end play.
"The squad’s been together since last year," Mr Pettifor continued. "We don’t want to select too early as junior competitors can improve quite dramatically so we’ll be keeping a close eye on the riders and selecting as soon as we can.
"It’s a fast, exciting sport that might give some of the spectator’s ideas on other uses for their horses.
"It’s a great participation sport too, we always get plenty of cheering and support from the crowds."
As an up-and-coming sport in the UK, horseball has enjoyed some success including a junior European bronze and a World Championship silver medal for the ladies team.
