Horseboarding

Horse Cultures of the World

The latest extreme sports craze that has come out of the UK of all places is one for the thrill seekers among us. Horseboarding is where participants are towed behind a horse on an off-road skateboard. Invented by professional stuntman Daniel Fowler-Prime when he was messing around on a farm, this once daredevil stunt has developed into a fully fledged sport with a championship event taking place in the UK each summer.

One horse and two riders make up a horseboarding ‘team’. The mountainboard rider is towed behind the horse on a quick-release line. During a competition each team is required to complete two courses over a two-day period. The first race, the Horseboarding Drag Race is a run along a 100 metre drag strip with two teams, in separate lanes, competing head to head. The competition is run in heats, with a final knockout stage to find the winner. In the second race, Arena Horse Boarding, teams must negotiate a series of ‘gates’ around a complex twisting course, against the clock. And if you’ve seen any of the YouTube videos out there depicting this sport, you will understand that speed, accuracy, guts and teamwork play a huge role in the success of the team.

Co-founder Tom Kilroy describes it as “three brains working as one”. In an interview he gave with Horse Network he said, “That’s why it’s such an intense team sport. One element, one brain gets it wrong, or is thinking something different, and the team falls apart.”

Obviously one of those ‘brains’ is the horse. But it doesn’t matter the size or breeding of the horse, as long as it has a good attitude and wants to run it’s a candidate for horseboarding.

Does anyone have a horse they think might be good to use for horseboarding globetrotters?

Reference: Horse Network

Image credit: Horseboarding UK