I received a nice letter from one of our colleagues in Argentina who has recently taken to hunting with bow & arrow but on horse ……

Dear Neil:

I am a hunter with a traditional bow since the age of 11.  I am now 41 years old and am an engineer and marketing manager for the biggest mobile telecommunications company in Argentina (SKYLIGHT),  I usually establish contact with archers’ societies to arrange hobby trips where they do not pay  foreigners’ taxes for the shooting down of animals but wholesale, local prices.
My first professional bow was in my hands at the age of 12.
I have journeyed, as many of us do, from’re-curved’ bows and to ‘pulleys’ before arriving at the traditional bow.
I now make my own bows and I also design them and give them to friends to make, I do not use a specific bow but for every hunt I rotate them according to the requirements of the particular hunt.
Hunting on horseback is a recent experience for me and is something I have had in my life for two years, but horse riding is something we a do a lot of here in Argentina and many of us do it from when we are very young. Especially if we are in normal economic circumstances, it is very easy for us to use them from a very early age.
We hunt in two places with bows of a minimum of 55lbs, one of these,  buffalo hunting, is done about 250km to the north of bs (possibly means Buenos Aires ?) and the other 200km to the south. Both of these places are close to the airport and you arrive there by car.

The buffalo hunt is a lodge of 3500 hectares with a 3000 annex and it is great fun.  It is necessary to use very heavy arrows of more than 680 grains to assure penetration. The buffaloes roam free in these hectares, there being a good deal of density mixed with low forest.
In this reserve there are also axis deer  and wild boar but it is not possible to hunt them on horseback, or at least, I’ve never managed to do yet it.
The other lodge is only for the hunting for wild boar.  It is a swampy area and it allows you to ride with obstacles through wetlands and areas which are subject to flooding and one often falls.
If you would like to see something of Argentina check out youtube for videos of DEBERNARDISHUNTING, they are videos that I have made for a friend who runs a lodge

Sincerely Guillermo

ITV West recently ran a story on Neil Payne of the BHAA after his return from the European Championships in Germany. As the reporter was a rider she was coaxed into having a go. Hopefully the exposure will see a well needed upsurge in the interest in horseback archery not only in the West Country but in the UK as a whole!

Chairman of the International Horseback Archery Competition, Moon-Hun Chung’s shot opens the ceremony

Both Neil Payne and Mike Ashington recently took part in the Fourth International Horseback Archery Competition held in Korea. Neil has provided a brief write up of the event along with some links to pictures and videos.

Read the full article >  Fourth International Horseback Archery Competition 2008, Korea

Some of our colleagues in Turkey have recently designed and developed a website dedicated to Turkish archery.

Not only does the site look good but there is also a wealth of information up there.  Hopefully they can extend some of the information and pictures there to include some more information about the equestrian side of their martial history.

Check out the site here > Turkish Archery

We recently held our first competition for horseback archery in the UK on the 26th September in Lynsted, Kent. A more detailed write up will follow along with results and photos. For now here is how the local news covered the event!