Horseball

Horseball is a game played on horseback where a ball is handled and points are scored by shooting it through a high net (approximately 1.5m×1.5m). The sport is like a combination of polo, rugby, and basketball. It is one of the ten disciplines officially recognized by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports.

The sport originated in France in the 1970s. It gained success and has spread across Europe and overseas. The International Horseball Federation has eleven members including three outside of Europe: Brazil, Israel, and the Cayman Islands.

International competitions

There're several international competitions organized by the International Horse-Ball Federation the European Championships, the World Championship, and the clubs FIHB Champions League

The European Senior Championship is the older international tournament (the first was in 1992 at Paris and wasn't organized by the International Horse-Ball Federation), and there were fourteen editions of this tournament until Saint-Lô 2007 (France), were was the latest edition.France is the only national team to ever won this tournament and the Portuguese team is the one that has more Silver, and Belgium has more Bronze. And currently the titles are Gold for France, Silver for Spain and Bronze for Portugal. The First European Lady Championship was disputed at Abano Terme 2003 (Italy). As in mixed teams version the Lady Championship is totally dominated by the French national team, that won all five editions, but the other teams with most good results are Germany (has more Silver), and United Kingdom (has more Bronze). The latest edition of the tournament was held at Ponte de Lima in 2008 (Portugal), and was won by France, United kingdom won Silver and Spain won Bronze.

The Under-16 Championship (mixed junior teams), is also dominated by France, although Spain managed to win the latest championship and break the French total domination at Ponte de Lima 2008, were France also managed to get Silver, and Italy got Bronze.The Under-16 Championship is the youngest of the European Championships. The First European championship was held at Lamotte-Beuvron 2004 in France and there were 5 editions of the tournament.

The First World Championship (senior mixed teams), was held at Ponte de Lima in 2008 and was won by France, Spain got Silver, and Portugal got Bronze.The teams that played in the championship were, France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany and Canada.

The first club level organized by International Horse-Ball Federation competition, is the FIHB Chambions League. The First (and so far only) edition of this league was held at Stockholm Sweden, and was won by Chambly Horse-Ball (from France), the Portuguese team Sporting Clube de Portugal CEJC got Silver and Caramel from Belgium got Bronze.

ee also

* Pato, a similar (but earlier) Argentinian sport

External links

* [http://www.fihb-horseball.org/ International Horseball Federation]
* [http://www.horseball.de/ Deutscher Horseball Verband]
* [http://www.horseball.pt/ Horseball Portugal (Portuguese Horseball Players Association)]
* [http://www.too-xtreme.be/ Belgian horse-ball team]
* [http://www.horseball.org.uk/ British Horseball Association]