What’s been happening?

CVHA has now introduced 6 new horse archers to the sport and has more beginners booked up for September.

So what’s involved in a beginners session? We start off on the ground to familiarise you with handling the bow safely. We’ll suggest techniques that will suit individuals and make sure you are comfortable drawing our starter bows.

After some shooting we bring the horses in to desensitise them to arrows and the bow from the ground. Nothing is rushed, horses are allowed to investigate the kit and the targets in their own time and are incrementally exposed to the sounds and sights of archery, only moving on to the next level when they are totally happy.

We then get riders mounted up and riding down the track past the targets with and without the bow.

Lastly, we lead you while you take your first shots. How quickly people progress from being led to not completely depends on the horse and the rider-there’s no expectation or pressure for either to be doing more than that.

After a beginners session, archers are welcome at Club events. These generally consist of a ground and ridden session although ground only sessions will also be held. Ground archery introduces you to the techniques you’ll need in the saddle and there’s a lot to learn, especially early on.

As a club we welcome ground archers-if you don’t currently have a horse, or horse transport or if you just fancy trying this type of archery etc we will have specific beginners ground archery events, after which you are welcome to join in the ground session of any club event. The BHAA has a lot to offer ground archers, there are monthly ground postal matches, Range Safety Officer and Referee qualifications.

So what’s next? We have a beginners ground archery session on September 2nd (sold out),  a club session on September 10th and a beginners session on September 24th. We have spaces on this one so please message if interested.