Adrenaline junkies have found a new way to get their fix – horse boarding, a fresh extreme sport where boarders on off-road skateboards are dragged by horses, reaching speeds of over 35 mph.
Horse boarding was invented three years ago, by Daniel Fowler-Prime, after he tied a rope between his mountain board and a horse, and decided it was a pleasurable experience. He was just messing around on the farm, and laughing with his friends, but soon realized this could actually be considered a sport. This summer, he’s proud to be organizing Britain’s first Horse Boarding Championship.
According to Daniel, ”We have people from all over the country coming to the training ground to try it. It’s very accessible for people of all abilities, you only need a bit of space and a lot of guts,” Easy for him to say, he’s a professional stunt horse rider and has made appearances in films like “Kingdom of Heaven” and “The Da Vinci Code”, but for regular people, holding on to a rope while maintaining balance at 35 mph has to be pretty tough.
Horse boarding riders wear protective pressure suits and communicate with the horse rider to adapt speed and acceleration, but people thinking to try out the sport have to be prepared for some serious bumps. Falling off the board at high speeds has been compared to jumping out of a car at 30 mph, which I suspect is pretty serious. But Daniel says ”there’s a raw surge of natural power you wouldn’t get from any other sport, and the acceleration is explosive” so, what’s a few broken bones?
As the newest equestrian sport in a while, horse boarding is gaining a lot of popularity, really fast, so its inventor saw an opportunity to organize the first championship, in the coming summer. Competing teams, made up of a board rider, a horse and a horse rider, will race on a 100 meter course, with the one that crosses the finish line first being declared winner. So if you like horse riding and skateboarding, you’ll want to keep your eyes on this one.
