Rain of Arrows Equestrian Archery

Meet our Horses: Mishmish

Aka: Mr Handsome

Gender: Gelding
Breed: Morgan
Age: 23
Height: 15.1 hh

Rider Level: Intermediate on the lunge, advanced off the lunge

Favourite treats: all the sweet things, he will put his begging treat face on and convince you to give him more
Favourite gait: Standing eating grass
Best friend: All the girls

Mish is the kindest soul, our wisest best boy of the herd.

He is still building his trust in riders and is very sensitive to leg and balance changes. Before coming to us, he was trained as a driving horse, but found it very stressful.

He loves being groomed by the youth who come for our outreach program, and tootling up and down the lane on a lead line as they shoot for the first time from his back.

Do you do a warm up before working out or playing sports?
How about when you ride?

At the beginning of our lessons, whether for archery, for riding, or for equestrian archery, we do a dynamic warm up with the humans, as well as with the horses (if they are involved).

There are many benefits to adding warm ups for the students, even to our riding lessons:
- Increasing heart rate, blood flow and body temperature
- Increasing mobility and joint range of motion
- Moving synovial fluid through the joints to lubricate them
- Waking up the nervous system and increasing reaction time
- Improving neuromuscular coordination
- Improved mental focus

Next time you ride, try adding your own warm up on the ground or in the saddle, and see how it improves your riding.

Massive Level Up for our student Abdul:
Shooting his first arrow at the trot.

There is a major difference between shooting at the walk versus at the trot: besides the increase in speed, you must learn to be stable above the horse’s more extreme movement, in order to shoot safely and well.

Abdul has worked hard on his foundational skills, following our training methodology that progresses systematically.

His hard work pays off: he hits the target with his first arrow at the trot.

Building skills for horse archery, step by step.

Abdul, one of our most dedicated students, shows one of the progressions of skills that you need to shoot well from horseback:
-stabilisation of your stance at different angles
-shooting to the side
-shooting backwards
-shooting forwards
-shooting in motion

Next challenge is increasing speed for trotting and cantering.

Our students benefit from clear and systematic training progressions, which build foundational skills from the ground up.

This is how we keep them safe and ensure that they are able to grow confidently as equestrian archers.
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Practicing front shots at different distances with Reid, while enjoying the sunshine.

Passing an Archery Assessment is just the first step for our ongoing students.
The assessment shows that they are safe to shoot from horseback, but there are many more complex archery skills to continue working on afterwards.

Being good at equestrian archery requires you to be good at archery and riding separately, as well as combining these skills together.

We can spend a lifetime never getting bored with it!

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