Sir Joseph Swan won four times in a four-year racing career – now he and young rider Ryan Hagger are internationals in Britain’s horseball team
It probably wouldn’t be fair to dismiss him as an ugly duckling on the racecourse – he won four times, more than most horses can manage – but it took a major shift of focus for Sir Joseph Swan to shed those dowdy feathers and fly. Now, you know, he’s the best in town.
Yes, the lights have come on at last for Sir Joseph Swan, named after the inventor of the incandescent electric lightbulb, renamed ‘Joey’ by his new people.
They show him in a very different aspect, as less than a year after his final start on the track he is shining brightly in his new sport of horseball – a fast-paced cocktail of rugby and basketball elements – and taking himself and young rider Ryan Hagger on a thrilling journey into this all-action discipline.
“He took to it straight away,” says Hagger, 17. “It was as though he’d been meant to do it all his life.”
Joey’s pedigree indicated otherwise, as his grand-dam Celia Brady is a half-sister to multiple G1 winners Warrsan and Luso and multiple G1-placed Needle Gun and Cloud Castle, all alumni of former trainer Clive Brittain’s school of fearless campaigning.
However, it took him 14 starts to break his maiden and a career largely spent on all-weather tracks in very minor long-distance races was taking him nowhere very fast. Then, very quickly, everything changed.
“I’d been riding another former racehorse but it wasn’t really working,” says Hagger. “Then I saw on a Facebook post that Joey was available for sale, and although it was a long drive we went to check him out, and as soon as we saw him we knew we wanted him.
“This was only a week after his last race, so he was obviously still super-fit. We bought him, I began riding him, and then just a week later we went for tryouts for the British horseball team – and we were picked. He’s just amazing.”
Leading lights
Joey is based at Lancing College, on the south coast of England near Brighton, where he is one of the leading lights of the well-established Lancing Equestrian programme.
Horseball – derived from pato, the Argentinian national sport, and redeveloped by the French in the 1970s before spreading internationally – is an integral element of the equestrian division at Lancing, as director Amy Baker explains.
“Any horse can be used for horseball, from little fat Thelwellian ponies up to Arabians and Thoroughbreds, so one of the sport’s great strengths is its accessibility,” she says.
“That is a good fit with our main goal at Lancing, which is to open up opportunities for grassroots riders and horses. We also run jumping clinics, all types of dressage events, mounted games, equitation lessons, but horseball is massive at Lancing and it also provides a great transition to other equine disciplines.”
Horseball is a six-a-side sport – four on the pitch at any one time with two rolling substitutes on the sidelines – and games last 20 minutes, ten minutes each way with a three-minute break at half-time.
Goals are scored when a rider throws the ball – a football enclosed in a case with multiple handles, for easy pick-up as riders hang perilously by a stirrup leather – into the metre-wide ‘basket’ at either end of the arena. At many levels there are mixed teams of men and women, and ex-racehorses are popular acquisitions within the horseball community.
Athleticism, stamina, intelligence
“Thoroughbreds are particularly well suited to the sport – their athleticism, stamina, intelligence and love of speed make them natural horseball horses, while the discipline itself allows them to channel that energy in a positive, structured way,” says Baker.
“Riders frequently have both hands off the reins, meaning horses must be highly responsive to seat and leg aids, confident in their environment, and happy working as part of a dynamic team. Riders typically stay with one horse long-term, allowing deep partnerships to develop – something Thoroughbreds truly excel at.
“Horseball adopts elements of rugby with throw-ins and penalty starts, uses the scoring structure of basketball and the direction of play of polo, and is played in an arena with [inflatable] cushioned ends and sides. This innovative set-up creates a safe, forgiving environment for the horses.”
There are three other former racehorses among the 25 residents at Lancing – Well Chilled, the gateway horseball horse for learners; Kendor Blue, horseball Horse of the Year in Italy; It’s Trix Time, now ready to begin competition in earnest – and the trio, like Joey, are also registered riding-school horses.
When Joey is not representing Britain in competition his workload includes hacking out around the South Downs, a little bit of jumping, and being an amiable mannequin for beginners to practice the rites of tacking up and other equine formalities. He is also renowned for throwing his food everywhere, although his table manners are easily forgiven given his demeanour and star status.
“He’s so laid-back, always interested in everything, everyone loves him,” says Hagger, one of the runners-up in the 2025 Horse & Hound Amateur Rider of the Year awards and recognised as the highest-ranked under-21 player by the British Horseball Association.
Real talent
“He has a real talent for horseball. During the game horses are turning constantly, this way and that, and he really can turn on a sixpence, he’s very nimble and athletic.
“The only thing that took a little time to iron out was his reaction to the noise of a goal, when the ball goes into the net. He was wary of that to start with but it didn’t take him long to get used to it.”
Joey and Hagger have competed at Pro Elite level with the Derby Horseball Club, winning their league and representing Great Britain in Belgium. They have also competed at the European championships in Le Mans on the U21s GB team, but Hagger’s favourite moment of their partnership came even before the first swish of the ball into the basket.
“It was when we went to France with the GB team,” he says. “He’d never been abroad before and you might expect a horse to be a little bit flighty.
“The game arena is very loud, there’s a huge atmosphere, smoke and horns and cheering, but he didn’t turn a hair. He just stood there taking it all in, not worried about anything. That’s when I knew it was going to work for him, and for us.”
Untapped versatility
An arena full of smoke, noise and high energy is a far cry from Joey’s earlier experiences at less febrile places such as Wolverhampton and Southwell, but his capacity to adapt without fuss is emblematic of the frequently untapped versatility of the Thoroughbred, for whom racing is always the first option but not always the best.
The official British charity for the welfare and aftercare of former racehorses, Retraining of Racehorses (RoR), is a long-term supporter of horseball and its potential to be a second career post-racetrack – something Baker describes as a “win-win situation for everybody, the horseball community and the horses themselves” – and will be sponsoring various events at the Sussex Horseball Club, based at Lancing, later this year.
Hagger and Joey will have their part to play there in increasing awareness and enthusiasm for horseball, but their sights are set firmly on more testing competition.
“The tryouts for the British horseball team are in February and the new league season starts in March,” says Hagger.
“Those are the next big dates and we’ll see how things go. We’ll just take it slowly, I don’t want to rush Joey and skip something that is important, because every time I ride him at home or in competition I learn something new about him.”
• Visit the British Horseball Association website and the Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) website
A life after racing: NY-bred millionaire Naughty New Yorker thrives as aftercare ambassador
A life after racing: G1 winner My Trusty Cat living the good life at Our Mims Retirement Haven
A life after racing: ‘If you build it, they will come’ – spotlight on rich new ex-racehorse event
A life after racing: course specialist Corazon Espinado eases into new role as Epsom ambassador
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires