2.2.08

Pushball in Offental, Germany (1982)


The first time a Dutch Fjord Horse Team was invited for a real pushball game: Germany - Holland. They have scored against the Germans! And that for a first play against a team of the German Competition. It was fun. Look how fanatical the horse kicks the large leather ball!
Now we play pushball again in the Netherlands and with an other leather ball for the Warmblood horses (1,30 meter high ball, like the one of the British Lancers a century ago).

Picture from: the Dutch Fjord Horses Studbook

5 comments:

Judy Osburn said...

Thank you for sharing this pushball on horseback history. Here in the U.S., for the first time in 100 years, "horse soccer" or "equine soccer" has recently re-emerged as a "new" equine activity. Thank you also for your comments on several YouTubes about the importance of using a ball large enough not to get caught between all four legs--a situation that I never want to ever repeat!
My family, friends and I now use a 48 inch (121.9 cm) "cageball" that holds up well to our most competitive games, which we call "hoofball."
Kicking her hoofball around is my filly's favorite activity. My horse and I play ball control pattern exercises around cones as a reward to us both for good work in the arena. The ball control practice is such fun for horse and rider, and informal, competative fast-action games with family and friends bring out smiles and giggles every time.
Plus, practicing ball control has improved my filly's stops and turns, as well as adding to her incentive to please me with arena work so that I will reward her by bringing out her ball.

Judy Osburn said...

Hi again, I was just checking to see that your page is still up before giving your link to another U.S. forum where people are interested in horse soccer. Lots of great information here that I had not seen before. Keep up the great work!

Thank you for the link back to my page. Minor correction on that, however, as I did not connect you with the Hoofball article link that you have credited to me at http://www.4beatgait.blogspot.com/

The article that I did find is the April 27, 1907 New York Times article, "Equine Push Ball Fascinates the Pacific Slope."

Thank you for all you do!

Lenus88 said...

Hi Judy,
Nice to hear from you again!!
Watch my new information site www.pushball.nl about Pushball on Horseback. Sorry, at this moment only in Dutch. This month everything will be translated in English and lateron in German.

www.pushball.nl is published in June this year, and already visited by people from 12 countries like Canada, USA, some Western European countries but also exotic ones like Sweden, Spain, Poland, Czech and Israel!

Wait till all my information can be read by foreigners lateron.
At this moment you can watch the pictures in my Gallery, which is an international language. Just view and enjoy yourself!
Let me know if you put my site names on USA forums. Then the Pushball Network can grow further. And hopefully we all can learn from eachother, that is the goal of this site (as you remember!).

Judy Osburn said...

Your new gallery at pushball.nl is beautiful! I'm very much looking forward to reading the English translation when ready.

Today I posted a link to your homepage here at:
http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/equine-soccer-286465-3.html

As usual, I also passed along your ball size safety tip with my own experience of why it is so important to use a ball at least as tall as your horse's breastbone (page 2 of the above thread).

Glenn.usa said...

Lenus88,

I am very much interested in possibly getting one of the larger balls...(1.2-1.3 meters in height)...to try here in the United States. Although our balls are said to be <40"> balls, they actually are only 34.5" in height when fully inflated. You say that the larger leather balls are made somewhere in Germany?...Russia?....could you check on this for me, as I would really like to see how the larger ball would work for us here. Let me know.

Thanks, Glenn.usa....azhorsesoccer.com