Horse Soccer™

By September 30, 2009 Horses

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Horse soccer is a fun game where riders on horseback push a large 40″ rubber ball around. It was invented a couple of years ago by Renee Miller. Sometimes the objective is for an individual to move it through an obstacle course or in another version there is a soccer like goal at each end of the arena and two teams compete to push the ball into their goal. And I’ve seen relay races.

Riding instructors and owners can use horse soccer to energize lessons, to encourage confidence, social skills, riding ability, and more. Horses and riders improve their reigning and leg work and both horse and rider get the exercise, coordination and fun needed for a healthy happy partnership

Youth_1ERiders are not allowed to touch the ball so the horse must push it with their legs or their chest. Some horses get the idea right away and others take a while but eventually most will like the fun.

This is a good game to test how “soft” your hands are. You don’t want to spend the entire time (or any time!) pulling on your horse so the focus should be on using your feet and neck reining. It’s a great test of how well you are communicating with your horse because he will often not be sure what to do and is listening for cues.

The official horse soccer website is HERE.

If you have problems seeing the video below click HERE.

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