The May Bank Holiday weekend saw our very first horseback archery hunt track competition, indeed it was the first ever to be held in the UK. The venue was Black Cat Archery near Swindon and they were very helpful, providing their big show field and some of their targets for our use. The field wasn’t as dry as we’d hoped thanks to some heavy rain the week before but the top end of it was still useable and we adapted the planned track accordingly. The hunt track isn’t straight, but must contain wide curves in both directions and a variety of targets, front, back and side shots, a long shot, as well as ground and offside shots on the prelim plus track.
On Saturday we held a training day, after a warm up we took everyone around the course on foot to practise the different shots, then later we rode around the course to familiarise the horses with it. Some additional challenges for them were suspicious looking sheep in the field next door and noise from the air rifle range at Black Cat. Finally, we were able to ride round the course at a walk and shoot at all the targets.
Sunday was the competition day, and after repositioning some of the targets, we held the prelim walk class. Next was the prelim plus at trot, although one section needed to be ridden at walk due to an unavoidable boggy section of ground. Finally two of our members braved the canter class, again with a walk section, but the rest of the course was firm enough for a canter. The canter entrants were both left handed archers which meant the course began with a sweeping left hand curve past the long shot target, 30m from the track with 2 FITA 80 target faces, each hit scored 10 points as long as it was somewhere in the scoring zone of the targets. Then the track curved right towards a side shot, a front shot and an offside shot, followed by a circle to the left and a low deer target on one side. Continuing the track after the circle gave archers a second chance at both the front shot and the side target followed by a ground shot, another side shot and finally a back shot on the way to the finish.
Although the ground conditions curtailed the track somewhat, it was still a good introduction to the hunt track, especially for the horses who had never seen one before. The owners of the venue are already talking about next year’s event, which we hope will be bigger and better (and drier!)
Results:
Polish Prelim Walk
1st Nick White on Conquistador
2nd Oli Secker on Mercedez Spritz
3rd Cora Moore on Zavon
Polish Prelim Plus Trot
1st Helen Barnes on Elentari
2nd Ali Barnes-Short on Kinna
3rd Nick White on Conquistador
Polish Prelim Plus Canter
1st Cora Moore on Zavon
2nd Ali Barnes-Short on Zavon
Cotteswold Mounted Archers 