BergaA Catalan, born in 1993 in the small Berguedan town of Avià, has recently been chosen as the best player in Europe horseball. This is Nil Seall, who has also won the Champions League in this equestrian discipline with Serrat, a team from Moianès. But what is this sport unknown to the general public and in which Catalonia reigns on a European scale?
He explains it himself: “I always say that the horseball it’s like playing basketball on horseback, although I’d also add rugby, because there’s a lot of contact.” He laughs a little while he comments, but he also projects the passion of someone who has just been recognized as the best continental athlete in this curious discipline. The horseball it originates from Argentina, where they played with a dead duck that they used as a ball. After this somewhat Dantesque beginning, he would arrive in Europe from a French family that had known this discipline as the pato in Buenos Aires. “You could say that the cradle of this modality is France. There is much more love for the world of horses. They bring us a lot of advantage, they have a better school and a better base”, explains Seall.
This equestrian sport pits two teams of four riders against their respective horses on a playing field bounded by you’ll – inflatable ones like those at fairs – between 60 and 75 meters long and between 25 and 35 meters wide. The objective of the game is to score more points than the opponent in a vertical basket with a diameter of one meter located at a height of 3.5 meters. In the horseball it is played with a special soccer ball. For the size, a hair smaller than usual, and for the shape, given that it has six handles incorporated so that when it falls to the ground it can be picked up more easily from the horse or even to recover and intercept aerial passes with more precision.
The passion of Nile Seall
And how does a Catalan end up in this sport and end up being recognized as the best in Europe? Seall has always been passionate about animals. He runs a family pet accessories business founded by his uncle and father, from whom he also inherited a passion for horses. He has been climbing since the age of 8, and in 2005 he discovered a sport that started in Catalonia at the beginning of the century and that has captivated him. “I have tried many equestrian disciplines, but for me the horseball it’s the best”, he explains. “It is a very complete sport that requires speed, endurance, dressage, agility… Once you are on the horse and start moving the ball, you forget everything and let yourself be carried away instinctively. Unlike polo, for example, where you always have your hands busy—one with the reins and the other with the club—in the horseball you let go of the reins and the horse goes almost alone to the basket. And this is pure adrenaline”.
Seall believes that the horse-rider combination is crucial: “You can already be very agile, very good with your hands and read the plays very well, which if you don’t have total complicity with the horse, it’s of no use. You need a functional horse”. That’s why they treat them like athletes, giving them all the attention they deserve, from vets to physiotherapists and even dentists.
However, it is an under-sponsored and subsidized sport, and the “maintenance and travel” cost makes it less open to people. El Nil is part of Serrat, a team based in Moià, with which he has been proclaimed European champion riding Getxo, his horse, a 14-year-old purebred English horse that was awarded as the best horse in the world years ago. The Champions of the discipline took place in Le Mans (France). Seall explains the key to success: “We are a very well-rounded group. The title is a recognition of the sacrifice we have made all this time with our colleagues and with the horse, all the dedicated hours and the cold we spend training”, he explains proudly. “We have always had a very good relationship with Getxo from the beginning. He is a very agile horse and very attentive to what I ask of him: he pays more attention to me than to everything around him”, he argues.
An entirely Catalan selection
El Nil i el Getxo també són bicampions d’Europa amb una selecció espanyola formada íntegrament per catalans. “Catalonia is eight steps ahead of the rest of the State and we are getting closer to the French,” he believes. In 2017, Spain won the first European Championship in Saint-Lô (Normandy), a historic event, because until then France had always won. In 2019, in Ponte de Lima (Portugal), they revalidated the title. “The level of the league here is getting higher and closer to France, even though they have more people and more resources”, he regrets. “But we have the best prepared horses. The French play more with the ball and we play with the horse. They are more technical and we are more tactical”.
With 29 years of age and great experiences under his belt, Nil Seall still faces the future with his homework done, but with a new European on the horizon and with the challenge of continuing to enjoy and learn riding the Getxo. “Being with my horse gives me a lot of peace of mind, it’s a way to escape from all the problems. For me, there is nothing better”, he concludes.
