Horse Boarding
Horseboarding rouses some mixed opinions. EvilAdmin doesn’t like it, Matt and Amon do.
I can see why people have such vastly different opinions. Anything that draws two very different things together always risks alienating and annoying people from both groups. The horse riders probably wonder why on earth anyone would want to drag a mountainboarder behind them, and mountainboarders probably wonder why they would want to be dragged along by something out of their control.
For me, from a vaguely marketing perspective, I ask, ‘What makes it unique?’ If the horse just provides propulsion for mountainboarders to go over wooden kickers, then it’s a poor substitute for gravity, and the horse rider is going to get bored pretty quick. For horseboarding to develop it needs to offer a sporting activity that is a challenge for both of the humans involved. It has potential, it just needs to do something different.
Horseboarding could offer endurance/cross-country mountainboarding that isn’t possible using gravity or wind power. Mountain biking has it, why can’t mountainboarding. Imagine 3 mile timed races along the South Downs, or super-enduro courses that are 7 miles long winding up and down bridleways in the Chilterns. The courses could have up hill sections, flats, and of course down hill sections that test the riding and horse control skills of the horse rider and the leg strength and board control skills of the board rider.
So, with a bit of thinking outside the box and offering something unique, and something that both participants can enjoy, maybe horseboarding does have something to offer. Let’s keep an open mind.