Basque rural sports

These 18 categories are (in alphabetical order): Literally "axe test", this rural sport more commonly known as aizkolaritza, from the Basque word for a wood-cutter.

This is a very popular sport today but its origins are to be found in the rural wood cutting and charcoal burning communities of earlier periods.

In this competition, the wood cutter has to chop through a number of tree trunks arranged on the ground in rows as quickly as possible while standing on the log to beat his competitors.

There are usually two stone-lifters competing in each event, taking turns in one or several attempts, to perform the greatest possible number of lifts.

The four types of stone most frequently used are rectangular, cylindrical, spherical and square and were established at the beginning of the 20th century.

Together with aizkolaritza (wood chopping), stone lifting is another example a widely performed rural sport at local festivities all over the Basque Country.

They take turns in using a long metal pole (called laztabin) to punch and drill a hole into a large rock upon which they are standing, pouring water onto the working area while the third person gets to rest.

The anvil has the shape of an obtuse triangle with a stump at one point or an elongated T and is traditionally used in shoeing horses.

Literally hay bale lifting, this sport involves raising a hay-bale with the aid of a pulley.

Contestants have to lift the back of an ox cart weighing 360 kg (790 lb), 40 cm (16 in) above the ground.

Traditionally, as with most Basque sports, the competitors would make a profit by betting but monetary prizes have been put up since the 1950s.

But a number of segalari have achieved fame nonetheless, for example the legendary Pedro Maria Otaño Ezeitza, commonly known as Santa Ageda from Beizama who was also an aizkolari and competed up until 1915.

Another famed event was the competition of 1925 in Iturriotz when, before a crowd of 6,000, Pedro Mendizabal from Aia and Jose Arrieta from Urnieta battled each other.

There usually is no time limit but the weights weigh between 50 and 100 kg (110 and 220 lb) each and may not be put down or supported by any other part of the body.

It usually takes the form of a relay race in teams of 3 where the runners have to carry heavy sacks across their shoulders.

The rams are trained and fed on a variety of secret diets involving things like beans, apples, red wine, carrots or egg yolk.

The Basque Government controversially banned the Iurreta ahari topekas in 2007 on animal welfare grounds.

Teams now have to row out and a designated person must jump up, grab the goose, hang on to it and try to remove the head before falling off.

[3] There is a large number of variations of the game but most are similar to skittles and centre around a set of pins that must be knocked down with a ball.

The most important competition in the Bay of Biscay in summer takes place the first two Sundays in September: the Kontxako Bandera, where the best teams compete against each other, following a tradition which is over a hundred years old.

Unlike most European soapbox cars, the goitibeherak are three-wheelers and the early versions simply consisted of a triangular frame on three wheels or even scavenged ball bearings with a plank to sit upon, which children would race down the slopes found in many Basque towns.

This variant of the Neapolitan greasy pole game is usually played on a yard that is suspended horizontally over water.

Traditionally four or five members of either gender of a baserri family are picked to compete as a team, the task being to turn over a plot of land as quickly as possible.

With the advent of modern farming machinery, its use is now restricted to area machines cannot reach, for example on high slopes, and kitchen gardens.

The palankari (thrower) throws a palanka, a traditional mining tool weighing between 8 and 25 kg (18 and 55 lb) as far as possible.

Some techniques by name are: The origins of this sport are in the mining industry where the palanka was traditionally used to prepare the holes into which explosives were then placed from the 15th century onwards.

This sport involves a pitcher variously called eu:pegarra, bera, es:pedarra and kantarue in Basque.

It is carried on a head cushion called burutea and the aim of a race is to get to the finish line without dropping the pegarra.

This is game involves throwing small objects like pebbles, balls or coins across a distance, trying to hit the target, a vertical metal pole.

Traditionally the euskal artzain txakurra or Basque shepherd dog is kept but border collies are also increasingly popular.