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!
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.
Kim Young Sup of the World Horseback Archery Federation has today announced that the 2008, Fourth International Horseback Archery Competition will be held from August 14th – 17th.