Mounted Archery = On The Horse!

*Czech, also known as "Big Czech" or "Toad" (because he was a brat as a baby) is pronounced 'check'. His owner/breeder is a Czechoslovakia native and he was born on Valentine's, hence his Jockey Club name, Czech Valentine. A few mentioned they had no idea how to pronounce his name as they were reading it*

Poor Czech ultrasounded with a hematoma in one of the strangest places he could have some kind of blunt trauma to cause one, his upper inner thigh. 

Leg injuries that have odd presenting signs scare the hell out of me ever since Lake's broken leg, luckily it wasn't major and the vet gave meds and recommended movement to help ease it out. Two days later all the swelling was gone and he was just tender.

Sunday morning I decided to try and shoot off of him for the first time. Being a little sore from his injury could work in our favor to prevent him from being spooky and the light exercise would be good for him. 

Obviuosly I had to put feathers in his mane to make it authentic, the hawks around the farm are so generous leaving them for us, they might as well get some use!

Channeling his inner war pony, I bumped him around his neck and flanks with the bow and scraped the arrows against each other to make noise.

He was completely fine with all of it.

Moment of truth, drop the reins (in a round pen just in case) and try to shoot off his back at a stand still.

He was amazing! He didn't turn when I turned my head, the way I've always trained him to respond, and he held his ground without budging even when the arrow smacked into the target with a pop.

A few of those down, we started shooting from the walk.

One of my favorite things I've tried to cultivate in Czech over the last year is how responsive he is to leg and seat, it's paying off now in ways I didn't even plan for. Sitting trot, with next arrow in bow hand... I managed to hit the target the first few passes at the trot then got a little consistently high as my arm got tired trying to absorb his trot and not move the bow. Czech really did well, I hadn't planned on much more than shooting off his back a few times but he made it easy to move along. 

A few have mentioned how much they would like to try this and all I can say is DO IT! Something about trusting the horse under you to move while you focus on the target is very zen. This is heavy coming from a person who is naturally high strung. It was, I don't know, meditative. There was nothing adrenaline about it, not at all like other horse sports. I can't remember the last time I'd been that cooly focused. I suppose some people buy those little sand and rake gardens for their desk to calm and find peace and some of us need a horse and a target.

Please check out BW Bows and Arrows if you are looking to start out!