We received an email from our colleagues in Greece who have established the sport there. Below is a small introduction they sent us along with some pics from their very good website.

“Hellenic (Greek) Horseback Archery start since February 2005 in Kaposmero’s Valley, when a Greek horse-passionate, Aristotle, met a modern Centaur named Kassai Lajos. Aristotle was searching around world to obtain equestrian knowledge as in modern Greece, despite its ancient tradition, such a knowledge is non-existent! After many adventures around a lot of stables in central Europe, Aristotle, upon faced Kassai Lajos discovered that Centaurs never disappeared into the long-long river of the centuries, as in that small village of Hungary, Kaposmero, still exists one of them : a wise, powerful horseback archer, simple as well as brilliant, able to transmit the entire ancient Greek tradition of mount Pelion where was the camp of historic Centaurs.
Kassai Lajos is exactly what history confess about Centaur Cheiron, in a few words, the Leader! And Aristotle feels happy for himself discovering on his path, a real warrior to exchange life-experiences and to obtain knowledge from him. So, the Hellenic Horseback Archery Team was realized in Athens.
One and a half year later, when the Greek Archery Federation asked by Aristotle to organize the opening ceremony for the 17th European Archery Games held in Olympic Complex (Markopoulo-Athens) it was very simple: the pupil begged his Master to open those Games and Kassai Lajos did it in the Olympic Equestrian Arena of Athens before many attendants who were surprised when Kassai Lajos galloping and shooting in the middle of a target introduced Horseback Archery before champions of horse-riding and archery. Next day, a great seminar on Horseback Archery was held in Olympic Equestrian Center (Markopoulo-Athens) by Kassai Lajos and the Greek press wrote dithyrambs (http://www.horsebackarcherygr.com/press1.htm , http://www.horsebackarcherygr.com/press2.htm ) !
After that the Hellenic Horseback Archery Team “Centaurs Kassai” is active in a daily basis, working not simply on the track of Horseback Archery than to product Equestrian Culture . So, we ride according to the Natural Horsemanship rules (similar those Xenophon dictated) our novices try to ride without using bits, reins, spurs, stirrups and whips and, of course, we are shooting “Kassai” bows. Our basic training center is Kassai’s Valley which we are visiting at least three times every year. We are aiming to improve our equestrian skills so we are riding different horses in different countries, studying different equestrian cultures and methods. Until now we have ride in Hungary, in Poland, in Austria, in Germany, in Italy, in Slovenia and in Mongolia ( http://www.horsebackarcherygr.com/mongolia2007.htm ) where we have spent one complete month last year riding wild Mongolian horses and visiting primitive tribes in order to understand better their naturally relationship to the Equines and their riding style. Furthermore, our Team was last year in World Traditional Archery Festival ( http://www.horsebackarcherygr.com/2007wtafkorea.htm ) invited by the Korean Government among other national Teams and same we accept a new invitation for this year. We use to inform visitors of our website about all our experiences, and we are happy because through that many people from inboard as well as foreigners are contacting us about Horseback Archery.
Now, we examine two alternatives for our permanent installations: it seems that Horseback Archery in Greece has many enthusiasts! ”

Dear horseback archers throughout the world,

We, the German Mounted Archery Association “Die Steppenreiter”, would like to invite you to the 1. European Open Championship in Mounted Archery.

The championship will take place at the Hummelhof in Northern Bavaria

Address:
Hummelhof 1
97514 Oberaurach
Germany

Google-maps-link: http://tinyurl.com/2sn9lc

on the 6th and 7th of September 2008.

For more information please refer to the > Registration Form and > Brochure (both PDFs).

Additional info & competition illustrations:

> Hungarian Competition: http://www.diesteppenreiter.de/img/hungarian_engl.jpg

> Korean Competition: http://www.diesteppenreiter.de/img/korean_engl.jpg

> Mogu Team Competition: http://www.diesteppenreiter.de/img/mogu_engl.jpg

> Picture-Show of last year event: http://www.steppenreiter.de/filme/festival.html
If you have any questions feel free to contact us and please inform other horseback archers about this event.

Regards

Niels Lüders and Christian Schrade
Chairman Steppenreiter e.V.

The Long Riders’ Guild’s new Equestrian Wisdom and History series has been brought to our attention. The series is designed to re-publish the most important equestrian books previously written, as well as publishing indispensable new works by the world’s leading equine academics, equine investigative journalists and riders. There are approximately one hundred titles scheduled for production and the books will be available in a host of languages.

At present some of the titles include:

Mounted Archery in the Americas (Edited by David Gray and Lukas Novotny)

This fascinating and amply illustrated book charts the history of mounted archery from its ancient roots on the steppes of Eurasia thousands of years ago to its current resurgence in popularity in the Americas. It also provides the reader with up-to-the-minute practical information gleaned from a unique team of the world’s leading experts.

Mounted archery is shooting the bow and arrow from horseback at the canter and after a century and a half of neglect on the Great Plains of North America, interest in this thrilling activity is rapidly spreading from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Capricorn.

This is the story of the reappearance of this exciting discipline in the Americas.

Horseback archery has its origins in two of the great grasslands of the world—the United States Great Plains, and the vast steppes of Eurasia. As far back as 3,000 years ago Asian mounted warriors thundered down on their enemies in lightning surprise attacks, loosing showers of arrows which stunned and hopelessly dissembled their pedestrian opposition.

The horseback archery culture of the American Indians reached a similar level of development and sophistication, but emerged much later and was a shorter phenomenon. Horses spread north from the Spanish colony of Mexico through the Plains beginning in the mid 1600’s, but this dynamic equestrian culture virtually vanished with the demise of the buffalo in the mid 1800’s.

The Centaur Legacy (Bjarke Rink)

This immensely entertaining and historically important book provides an in-depth study into how man’s partnership with his equine companion changed the course of history and accelerated human development.

It took a cultural nomad and intellectual maverick such as Bjarke Rink, who was born in Denmark and now live in Brazil, to think outside the box of traditional equestrian theology.

The dedicated horseman spent years studying the symbiotic blending of human intellect and equine speed, documenting how these two unique life-forms connect to each other to create a superior being — the legendary centaur!

“My challenge was to find the human role in the neurophysiology of equitation and to crack the Centaur enigma,” Rink said.

The author’s pioneering research blends the ancient art of horsemanship with cutting-edge 21st century scientific thought, taking the reader on a galloping tale stretching from the ancient Central Asian birthplace of horsemanship to the laboratories which are helping to fuel the great equestrian renaissance which is occurring around the world today.

Read more about the series>  The Equestrian Wisdom and History Literary Collection