CMA Birthday Bash

It’s hard to bellieve that our little club is 10 years old already! To mark the occasion, clearly a party was in order. And what a party it turned out to be!

The event was based around an HBAE (Horseback Archery Eventing) competiton, the first such competiton to be held in the UK with a full IHAA Hunt track. But of course we also had to have some fun events alongside the more formal competition, such as the Beer Trot which proved very popular!

Day one began with the first walk event, the Arena 30, which saw some impressive scores mount up, including a British record-breaking 117 from Maria, our Chair. Then the first of the HBAE tracks, the Raid 233 was run, and run rather quickly by some of the horses, making for some exciting watching!

Day two was the main event, the IHAA Hunt Track. Two runs of a winding 500m course with 12 targets to hit, including a longshot at 30m, ground shots and an offside shot. The course also contained a technical element, a stop box where competitors needed to keep the horse absolutely still whilst taking their shot at a Tabla target. A real test of riding as well as shooting!

We also ran a shorter intermediate Hunt track that could be done at walk or trot. After the excitement of the hunt track, there was an unmounted Wand Shoot, aiming for a very narrow target with only 3 arrows allowed in a fast knock out competition with increasing distances from the target. Some sharp shooting from Katherine saw her take the prize for this one!

Then the final event of the day – the Beer Trot. Riders needed to carry a pint of beer down the 90 metre run in trot spilling as little as possible. Marks were also awarded for style. We had a lot of people clearly highly skilled in not losing their beer, since they got to drink the beer afterwards! Top prize went to Becca for this one, and a special prize for Dom who not only didn’t spill any beer whilst trotting but also not even when her pony decided to rear!

Finally the day was rounded off with a barbecue and firepit with marshmallows to toast……

Day 3 was for the final HBAE track, the Tower 90. Some very impressive scores in this competition and not one but two British national records set, Katherine shot a senior record and Issy a new junior record!

We also ran a final fun event, the Two Towers, just at walk but with a tricky Orc target to hit as well as two tower targets.

Final results for the HBAE competition, congratulations to winner Nick, with Michael and Katherine runners up. We would like to thank all competitors, helpers, judges Helen, Maria, John, Alick, Mike, Chris and Black Fox Archery for being such an excellent host. Here’s to the next one!

Results:

Arena 30

1. Maria Williams
2. Victoria Brown
3. Amy Lewis

Intermediate Hunt

1. Amy Lewis
2. Helen Barnes
3. Lynsey Henserson

Wand shoot

1. Katherine Robinson-Park
2. Rachel McIlroy =2 Oli Secker

Field Archery

1. Leia Sunter
2. Rosie Reed
3. Oli Secker

Two Towers

1. Rebecca Hills
2. Nick White
3. Cora Moore

Beer Trot

1. Rebecca Hills
2. Eowyn Barnes-Short
3. Oli Secker

Raid 233

1. Nick White
2. Michael Ruby
3. Issy Young

Tower 90

1. Katherine Robinson-Park
2. Issy Young
3. Leia Sunter

IHAA Hunt

1. Rebecca Hills
2. Nick White
3. Michael Ruby

Overall HBAE winners:

1. Nick White
2. Michael Ruby
3. Katherine Robinson-Park

Full results available on ihaa.eu