Has anyone every given this a try or is doing it on a regular basis? Ive been looking at sites for a couple years and am really interested. I even bought a bow!
There is a group in Pemberton, BC, up past Whistler. Mostly youngish kids, but looked like a happy group when I saw them at Thunderbird last year.
The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) has an equestrian division and mounted archery competitions.
There are some very clever people who have fashioned some truly believable helmet covers that look like period hats or armor helms, too.
After going to the Georgia RenFest this year, I thought, “this Festival really needs some mounted archery going on in between the jousting event.” 
It just looks like a blast… Ive got a 2 yr old that is going to be ‘my’ girl and I think she would be great for a sport like that.
If any of you saw the Mythbuster’s piece on mounted archery the horses used were Mangalarga Marchadors at a ranch in Oregon. The owners are active in that sport and have participated in competition in the U.S., Brazil, Malaysia, and other exotic locations.
I think the style that is dominant is an Asian style (Japanese/Korean, IIRC) but many cultures have successfully used the bow from horseback. In the U.S. the Commache were likely the best at it, but all of the Plains tribes mastered the art. I tried searching for some Indian/Native archery groups but didn’t find any.
There’s one group: http://westernshootinghorse.ning.com/group/mountedarchery
G.
I didnt realize that people actually do this! I have a compound bow(…might make it a little trickier) for hunting, and Ive always wanted to shoot it off my horse. It looks like a lot of fun!
I’ve done it a bit. It’s a lot of fun! I never was a good shot but it didn’t matter. 
I used to love archery and the movie clips I’ve seen of Japanese battles involving archers on horseback are just the coolest. I would love to try this but wonder if I shouldnt start with nerfarrows, its been a loooong time.
Also wondering if there are rules concerning bow hunting on horseback. I’m thinking Bambi, not Bison but it would be like shooting fish in a barrel and probably not sporting. I have ridden up to deer many times and gotten awful close…
[QUOTE=jeano;5640135]
I used to love archery and the movie clips I’ve seen of Japanese battles involving archers on horseback are just the coolest. I would love to try this but wonder if I shouldnt start with nerfarrows, its been a loooong time. [/QUOTE]
:lol: I was never good with archery on foot or on horseback, but I found it pretty easy not to shoot myself, my horse, or any innocent bystanders! Do start with a cheap/lightweight bow though if you’re doing it on a horse who is new to it, you’ll probably wind up having to drop it a lot if my experience was anything to go by. :lol: I used a $10 one I picked up at a flea market until I got my horse used to the process.
Mounted archery as a sport would be interesting.
The Mongols were noted mounted archers. It’s from them that we get the stirrup. They needed a “step” to stand on to draw their very powerful re-curve bows. Many other horse cultures did not use such a powerful bow and mounted archery was more a hunting activity than a military practice.
The British longbowmen at Crecy demonstrated just how effective foot archers can be.
Sport archery is like what you see in Robin Hood movies. Military archery is more like what you see in some reditions of the story of the 300 Spartans at Themopalae, where Leonidas and his men were killed under clouds of arrows fired by thousands of individual bowmen. That’s what happened at Crecy.
As a defense against this the Roman legions of their time could form a “turtle” where the Legionaires crowded close together with the outer rank using its shields vertically and the inner ranks using them horizontally making a “roof” over the formation. When the archers ran out of arrows the Legion would change formation quickly and charge. It was a very effective tactic.
It takes a good rider on a well trained horse to do this sport right. 
G.
[QUOTE=Guilherme;5639971]
If any of you saw the Mythbuster’s piece on mounted archery the horses used were Mangalarga Marchadors at a ranch in Oregon. The owners are active in that sport and have participated in competition in the U.S., Brazil, Malaysia, and other exotic locations.
I think the style that is dominant is an Asian style (Japanese/Korean, IIRC) but many cultures have successfully used the bow from horseback. In the U.S. the Commache were likely the best at it, but all of the Plains tribes mastered the art. I tried searching for some Indian/Native archery groups but didn’t find any.
There’s one group: http://westernshootinghorse.ning.com/group/mountedarchery
G.[/QUOTE]
The Navajo have an active archery team at their college…and I think so does the Lakota college. I think in my research I found there was a Lakota/Nakota tribal member who led a clinic on mounted archery- Ill try to find it again. A class mate of mine had used a type of yew long bow traditional to the east and SE tribes. They wouldnt have had mounted archery as good as the plains, but the bows are very nice:yes:
This link had some great video
http://roguemountedarchers.com/?page_id=263
Here is something on the horses mentioned above:
http://montanamangalargamarchador.com/Montana_Marchadors/Home.html
Learn something new every day… never heard of this horse before…
[QUOTE=Guilherme;5640489]
Mounted archery as a sport would be interesting.
The Mongols were noted mounted archers. It’s from them that we get the stirrup. They needed a “step” to stand on to draw their very powerful re-curve bows. Many other horse cultures did not use such a powerful bow and mounted archery was more a hunting activity than a military practice.
The British longbowmen at Crecy demonstrated just how effective foot archers can be.
Sport archery is like what you see in Robin Hood movies. Military archery is more like what you see in some reditions of the story of the 300 Spartans at Themopalae, where Leonidas and his men were killed under clouds of arrows fired by thousands of individual bowmen. That’s what happened at Crecy.
As a defense against this the Roman legions of their time could form a “turtle” where the Legionaires crowded close together with the outer rank using its shields vertically and the inner ranks using them horizontally making a “roof” over the formation. When the archers ran out of arrows the Legion would change formation quickly and charge. It was a very effective tactic.
It takes a good rider on a well trained horse to do this sport right.
G.[/QUOTE]
Thats the kind of bow I bought-- a replica Roman recurve.
http://www.recurvebowshop.com/Roman+traditional+recurve+bow+from+Grozerarchery.htm
Im tellin ya-- this sport looks like it would be so much fun. I did note the original site mentioned her horse was something like 23 yrs old? That may have something to do with it :lol:
LOL
Practice on the ground tho…
wouldn’t want to come back here to read “Wehrlegirl done shot her horse!!”
[QUOTE=Alagirl;5640888]
LOL
Practice on the ground tho…
wouldn’t want to come back here to read “Wehrlegirl done shot her horse!!”[/QUOTE]
snort you’re not kidding… Im still trying to figure out how to string the darn thing.
Yeah!
[QUOTE=wehrlegirl;5640533]
This link had some great video
http://roguemountedarchers.com/?page_id=263[/QUOTE]
Ha! I was at the International Horseback Archery Challenge in the first video – I’m the one waving the start flag at the beginning of the run. It was a fascinating event, with many different styles of archery represented, some very good archers, and some very good horses! It was hosted by the fellow from Oregon that Guilherme mentioned.
I’ve also done it myself, though I’m not up to the level of the folks in the videos, and I’m a bit out of practice right now. The hardest parts are nocking an arrow while your horse is in motion, and not accidentally poking your horse (or your thigh) with the end of your bow – they don’t like that much. The risk of actually hitting your horse with an arrow is tiny, since it’s physically difficult to point an arrow anywhere near your horse while sitting in the saddle. But it’s always a good idea to practice with blunt arrows at first anyway, because who knows what else might get in your way!
I’d suggest this progression:
- practice shooting on the ground with either blunts or sharp arrows depending on the target you’re using
- practice on the ground with your horse standing nearby to get used to the sound
- practice from horseback with the horse standing still, so it can get used to the sound and movement more, and so you can figure out where is the best place to attach and use a quiver, etc.
- move up to a walk, then a trot, etc – you know how it goes.
I can also say that if you always have the same number of arrows in your quiver, after which you have to dismount and re-collect the arrows again, expect your horse to learn this number very quickly!
'plash
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=209
found this, maybe some helpful hints among it?
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/yabusame/yabusame02.html
and here you can practice til you get the bow strung!
I decided I wanted to try this at some point…and found this great link:
http://www.ashmoorhorsebackarchers.com/TrainyourHorseHorsebackArchery.pdf
I think my horse would be ok - but I don’t know how well I’d actually be at it. I’ve got a recurve, but I need to be pretty close to the target to hit it! Start moving the thing and I’m pretty sure it would be a lot of arrows into the ground.
That’s what I did and the progression was really smooth. I was still lucky if I ever even hit the target (well, I wasn’t quite that bad…) but like I said, it was fun anyway. I never put any serious time into it.
I think riders definitely have an advantage. I was doing it in a group of newbies, most of whom were archers without much riding experience. I was much better than most of them (even when it came to marksmanship) probably because I didn’t really have to think about my riding, I could just focus on shooting. I also actually shot from horseback before I had ever picked up a bow on foot, and was already better than most of those archers. I admired them though, I thought they were pretty brave. You could tell a couple of them didn’t know what they had signed up for, though. :lol:
I will say though that when training my horses, I skipped trotting. I got them used to it at a standstill and a walk, then went right into the canter. Of course both my horses I was doing it with were dressage horses who were very comfortable at the canter (one was 18 and the other was 4, I preferred the 4 year old because he could run a straight line better, the older horse kept trying to swerve over to eat the hay bales serving as targets! :eek:). Really, unless your horse is very spooky I think most horses get used to it pretty quickly. Either that, or my horses are so used to me doing ridiculous things with them that archery hardly even registered.
