Hi my name is Alexandra Oldbury Davies and my main discipline is horseball. Now if you’ve never seen or heard of Horseball here’s a quick rundown of what it is!
Horseball has been described as quidditch or rugby with netball – what! I hear you say.
Let me explain, horseball is a fun, fast and tactical team game of two teams each comprising of 4-6 players on horses, The aim of the game is to beat your opponents by scoring the most goals.
A football is used inside a 6-handled harness over the ball, so that it can be caught and picked up from the floor whilst on your horse. In order to score, a team must make three passes between three different players on their team, and then go to their opponents’ goal and score. The goal resembles a basketball hoop turned on its side.
The ball can only be held by a player for 10 seconds before passing
Defence involves using your horse to block out your opponents, as well as grappling the ball away from the opposing players, by pulling alongside them. If the ball is dropped, any player can pick it up, as long as you are travelling in the same direction as the play is going to avoid collisions!
To start a game, a coin toss is made between the two captains of each team as to which team will start in attack or defence. The winner of the coin toss can choose to pick up first or which end they want to shoot. The game starts when the attacking team picks the ball up from canter. If all four players miss the ball then the defending team is awarded the ball to start play.
A Horseball game lasts for 10 minutes per half with a three minute half time where the team will then swap ends of the pitch and shoot in the other goal.
Horseball actually originated in Argentina in the 1700s as the game of pato. Although it was banned almost a century later due to the initial dangerous nature of the game – though it has come a long way since then and is now very safe! Back then, believe it or not, the game was played with a live duck instead of a ball and in other countries live goats but thankfully times have changed (we bet the animals are pleased because we are!).
Horseball resurfaced and became regulated in the 1900s with safety rules being put in place to avoid dangerous collisions as well as injuries to the horses. That’s Horseball in brief so now you know how to play let’s introduce me and my horses !
I started Horseball following a have a go session at Quob Stables due to my showjumping horse going lame. I started to attend training on school horses with Coach Rui Gil. In April 2014 I brought my first horse for Horseball and played a few matches with North London second division team.
In 2015 I brought Casper or Corso Palladio, originally brought just for Horseball we’ve ended up doing everything! He loves hisHorseball, showjumping, dressage, eventing and hacking. He’s an ex racehorse by Montjeu who was very successful even ridden by A.P. McCoy. We’ve played with the North London Red team from 2015 successfully coached under Stuart Copeland and Jim Copeland, as a team in 2015 we successfully won the second division league. In 2016 we were promoted to play in the pro elite league. Both years Casper and myself won best turned out horse and rider combinations.
In 2017 I played on a mix of Casper and my new horse Orders From Rome or Orders; another ex racehorse who I brought to produce and sell on but he’ll be staying as I’ve fallen in love. Oops!
Orders is by Holy Roman Emperor and raced until he was 6 years old ridden by Frankie Dettori a few times before retiring due to a breathing issue when
pushed. He was retrained to polo for a few months before having the winter off where I brought him and retrained him for Horseball. He’s also shown a flair for dressage and we’re working with Olivia Oakley on improving his control and power which only aids his Horseball as well.
We were fortunate enough to be able to try out for the GB ladies team and trained with the squad under international coach Christophe Desormeaux and although we didn’t make the final squad all the training we received was incredibly beneficial. We had the chance to compete as part of GB ladies at the Chambly World Tour in France in a friendly competition.
As well as competing in Horseball, I’ve been coaching for the past two years which I took over when our coach Rui Gil left. I’ve been coaching an under 16’s team of six players and Southampton university teams and a senior team. This year two of my junior riders successfully achieved a place on the under 16s international team who went on to compete on the European Championships in Saint Lo, France.
We are always looking for new players if you’re interested look for your local coach and clubs on the British Horseball website.
