HORSEBACK ARCHERY, MOUNTED ARCHERY IN MEXICO. FIRST TRAININGS IN DENMARK

 

Hello! I am Roberto Gonzalez, competitor, traveler, coach and researcher of
the Sport of Archery in all its disciplines (not hunting as it is not a sport).

My sporting career within Archery includes the competitive practice of all types of bows and traditions (the 4 main disciplines), which is not very common since in general archers choose a shooting style and stick to it all. In life, they sometimes get to know and try 1 or 2 precision static styles (for example recurve, 3D or barebow) but even this is not very common, much less to change from a static style to a dynamic one, or from a western tradition to a oriental etc

As the founder of the "Horseback Archery Mexico" archery school, in this blog I will tell my story of how I got to know and started this sport, being at that time a completely unknown tradition and sport in my country.

Year 2019 of my sports career

At the beginning of 2019 I moved to Denmark and there I began to practice it with members of the Danish HBADK team, who kindly introduced me to the equestrian and horse shooting world.

Coming from the world of Olympic archery (practicing it since 1993 with the National Team), equestrian, Asiatic, Mongolian, etc., bows were a rare reference to a bow (more like a fragile wooden branch). . The same thing happened with technique: dynamic shooting as fast as possible, without marked distances, "blind-nocking", shooting on the move and "thumb draw" technique.

My adaptation was quick since I had previously practiced shooting without a sight and in an ambidextrous way for many years, since 2003, with "barebow" type bows and 3D shooting at target faces or foam animals. Dynamic shooting totally hooked me, just like riding a horse and shooting arrows from a moving horse, nothing compares to this feeling. The oldest style of archery. No self-respecting archer can skip mastering this style!

I began to ride more frequently, to learn everything about the equestrian world: "horsemanship", the psychology of horses, technical terms, how to prepare a horse for this sport, etc. I started trying different equestrian bows: draw weights, shooting positions and techniques. I learned all the different eastern and western techniques, shooting with 1, 2 and 3 fingers, with rings, thimbles, gloves, etc. Finally coming to develop my own technique: the ambidextrous "Viper thumb draw", the one that works best for me, and the one that I have used and taught ever since.

To learn more about this exciting sport, I share content in Spanish and English for Latin America on my academy and pro-shop page:

 

https://horsebackarcherymexico.com

https://www.youtube.com/@horsebackarcherymexico

https://www.facebook.com/horsebackarcherymexico

 

Roberto González,

Fundador Horseback Archery Mexico