Horseback Archery Ireland

08/12/2025

A nice day of distance shooting with our nearby field archery club partner!

29/05/2023

A few photos from a training session last weekend where we visited the 3D archery course at Loch Riach Traditional Archery for some quality versatility training in the woods before heading to the Slieve Aughty Centre for a session on horseback.

27/04/2023

Last weekend we had the pleasure of working with Kendall, a horse archer from Canada who was touring around Ireland and wanted to do some training while visiting. She only had a few days to stop by, but we made the most of it. The first day, starting on foot, we focused on equestrian martial arts fundamentals, including, mobility, stance, balance, and biomechanics, breaking everything down into small pieces before joining them up. We also introduced Kendall to new pieces of gear, the bowcase and kalkan (Eurasian cavalry shield). Then we made the most of the Slieve Aughty Centres surroundings, riding with Bento and Shariff out in the forest to allow time and space to figure out techniques of using kalkan alongside bow. We finished the trek with a few runs with targets to test the skills practiced on foot and while trekking.

The second day, we started off with several dynamic exercises, some under pressure, including with a saddle on a barrel to test and refine precise rider balance during all phases of shooting. We then brought Bento into the roundpen for Kendall to prepare him with some nice liberty work for more technical exercises which require deeper connection. We then headed out to the field where we worked on an exercise that used a combination of straight lines and circles to test and develop horse biomechanics and soft and efficient aids, rider technical ability, shooting at small targets, and the horse's ability to listen constantly to the rider to be prepared for quick changes between shooting manoeuvres and riding manoeuvres. We look forward to seeing you again sometime Kendall!

04/08/2022

A few Sundays ago on 24 July, we held the first horse archery workshop in Northern Ireland, near Ballynahinch, Co. Down with BHAA Certified Coach Andrew Ó Donnghaile. We focused on the first foundational steps: historical archery techniques on foot, Eurasian warhorse education, and some dynamic balance exercises from a methodology developed by Dimitar Trukanov to improve rider coordination, balance and stability for equestrian martial arts. Many thanks to Laura for hosting, Liz for taking photos, and all participants for coming, and looking forward to the next workshop and seeing horses gradually trained up and people progressing in this new discipline!

12/06/2022

Young warriors training hard..

19/05/2022

An article in The Irish Field Archery Monthly about our April training camp:
https://online.fliphtml5.com/qfant/nlih/ =67

18/05/2022

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ANNOUNCEMENT

Over the last few months, we have been monitoring the situation in Ukraine. Given some of the consequences of this, including disruption in certain flight routes and increased ticket prices to Mongolia, we have decided, in collaboration with our partner and host, the Mongolian horseback archery association, to postpone the IHAA World Championships in Horseback Archery Eventing to next year.
However, we are excited to announce that we have confirmed dates for the competition in September 2023 in Mongolia!
Each country's IHAA representative will distribute the guidelines for entry to their country's association early next year.

08/04/2022

A few more from our All-Island Horse Archery Training Camp 2022, here on one of the horse archery tracks, practicing first slow work, then gradually speeding up according to everyone's ability.

07/04/2022

A glimpse from our All-Island Horse Archery Training Camp 2022, a gathering of several horse archers from around Ireland (from as far as Wicklow and Kerry) and some foot archers as well. Here a few shots of some of the foot archery sessions and the dynamic balance session.

05/04/2022

The basic and fundamental Eurasian cavalry skills, horse and rider being able to handle varied terrain and to shoot at a variety of angles while going uphill, downhill, and around or through natural obstacles..

Filmed in Inner Mongolia, reenacting Chinese mounted archery with Ming Hanfu. Uploaded with permission from Li Zhang of Alibowhttps://www.youtube.com/channel...