The Hunt
My ten-year-old this Sunday afternoon after I showed him the photos of the Hungarian horseback archery on Transylvanian Horseman. (Julian in Romania, you have inspired us here in New Mexico!) And this video of a horseback-archery competition in "The Valley" with Lajos Kassai and his students. I've found a couple of really interesting looking books on the subject as well. Here's a fascinating paper based on Kassai's techniques here-- How to Train Your Horse for Horseback Archery.
C. practiced the "Mounted Archery Shooting Positions" on page 15 of this paper on the vaulting barrel, and then we moved to the horse. I don't know anything about this sport, except that it is simply gorgeous, but it seems key to me that the rider has the kind of balance and independent seat gained from vaulting. So I felt competent to school the positions (in a very elementary fashion) shown in the paper.
Teyla, the appaloosa of steel, took this in stride. (She's been hunting many many times.) Branded with the Bar N on her left shoulder, she's originally from the Navajo Nation. I wonder if she has ancestral memories of hunters and bows and arrows buried down deep somewhere inside?
I know my mare, and I know what she is capable of, and what she's not at this point. I let C. hold the bow, not release it, and no arrows, while she walked and trotted on the left and right reins. He's had plenty of practice shooting this little compound bow (which he's nearly outgrown) in the back yard, on his own two feet.
I doubt the horsemen of the steppes started out with their mom holding the other end of the longe line, but I think it definitely gave C. something to think about.
C.'s been fencing all summer (and so has his sister) and has continued into the fall, and thinks he's ready for the full-on medieval experience. Well, I think he was impressed with how difficult this sport would be, and I was equally impressed with how fluidly he sat the horse and maintained his balance, holding the bow in his hands, pointing to the front diagonal, to the side, and to the back diagonal with his bow, although he adapted a bit of a chair seat, but there's an awful lot to think about, it seems to me, when operating a bow and riding.
Initially, I think it's most important to allow the learner to explore, to become excited and inspired, and then you can coach him more thoroughly about technique. But ignite that passion first.
That ember, that flame, is so precious.
And even if we never try this again, can you imagine the combination of a ten-year old boy, a swift moving spotted horse, and a bow filled with imaginary arrows?
