Horseback archery
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Horseback archery is an equestrian martial art that has been in existence since the early Scythian cultures. it is thought that the Ancient Greeks invented the mythical Centaurs in reaction to the seemingly impossible union of an archer and a fast moving horseman.
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[edit] Overview
The history of the steppe tribes is very complex and it is little known in the western world despite the fact that they have had a major impact on all the sedentary peoples that settled on the periphery of their grassland empires.
These horse-nomads owned only what they could carry and were always moving their graze-lands over the vast steppes. They travelled, and often fought, on horseback during their long migrations. There were a number of waves of these Central Asian migrations, beginning with the Scythians around the 8th century BC, followed by the Huns, the Avars, the Magyars and later the Mongolians; however all these peoples shared the same lifestyle and martial art - that of horseback archery.
Horseback archery also required a different method of riding the horse - with both hands occupied with bow and arrow, horses were trained to respond to commands from the legs of the rider as well as the reins. For hundreds of years this fascinating martial art was buried deep in the history of the lands they settled and largely seemed to be forgotten (including the Mongolians who live a similar life to that of the original horse nomad even to this day). In recent history this all but forgotten art has been resurrected and perfected by one foremost proponent - Lajos Kassai. A Hungarian by birth, and an accomplished Olympic-standard archer[citation needed], he re-discovered this equestrian martial art and has brought it into the 21st Century.
[edit] History of Horseback Archery
The Scythians used short bows with arrows that had very small cast bronze heads with three edges. These bows were developed further by the Huns, who attached rigid ears to the ends of their asymmetic bows and replaced the tiny bronze arrowheads with huge, triple-edged steel heads. The Mongols and Turks further perfected the designs of both bows and arrows - the Turks used smaller, lighter bows with 'barrelled arrows' while the Mongols added a 'string bridge' to the bows which enabled a faster 'cast' of the arrows which increased their penetrative power. As the bows developed so the cavalry units became more effective.
The typical employment of horse archers in battle was in the manner of skirmishers; lightly-armed missile troops capable of moving swiftly to avoid close combat or to deliver a rapid blow to the flanks or rear of the foe. Using the bows from horseback, the tactics were characterized by swift attacks and rapid withdrawals. Without slowing the horse these skirmishers fired their bows on the advance and in retreat and thus the left flank continually exchanged places with the right, performing a continuous rotating motion. Using their superior speed to keep out of the range of their foes' weapons, they slowly but surely ground down the enemy. Warriors under fire from horse archers were unable to respond to the threat without ranged weapons of their own, resulting in casualties, morale drop and disruption of their defensive formations.
Horse archers were generally proven to be effective against heavily equipped infantry, especially in hot, flat, treeless regions where heavily armoured troops were at a severe disadvantage when confronted with mobile forces of mounted archers. In fact, the only threats to horse archers were arrows and other light cavalry forces. A legendary horse archer tactic was that of the Parthian shot where the horse archer would continue to shoot as they retreated.
Hannibal used horse archers to devastating effect against the Roman legions during his campaign in Italy. Horse archers played a pivotal role in the Battle of Carrhae and again in the medieval Battle of Legnica. In both cases, horse archers won the day because their opponents depended on direct contact. Due to the heavy armour worn by Western European troops, they often had difficulty facing the more mobile, missile-armed cavalry of the Eastern nations, as shown by numerous examples during the Crusades - indeed, as the Romans had often drawn their cavalry from the lands of the Sarmatians, the Turkish mounted Janissaries were often also drawn from the Horse nomad tribes.
One of the few western commanders who had success against the horse archers was Alexander the Great who inflicted a defeat against the Scythians in 329BC at the Battle of Jaxartes (Syr Darya) - a historic victory as no western commander had ever crushed a nomad army. Even so the Jaxartes marked the north-easternmost border of Alexander's realm in Asia and he never ventured beyond into the heartlands of the horse nomads.
The medieval Battle of Hattin is a classic example of horse archers contributing to the defeat of armoured troops, via demoralization and continued harassment. Equally the Mongol Khans used similar tactics to create the enormous Mongol Empires which stretched from China to Europe at their peak - thus it has been said of the horsebow that it has had more of an effect on history than any other weapon.[citation needed]
[edit] List of Significant Battles
Battle of Carrhae
Battle of Hattin
Battle of Legnica
Battle of Jaxartes
[edit] Modern Horseback Archery
Kassai has been instumental in developing this equestrian sport and bringing some of its history, skills and learning into the current century. Modern horseback archery as a sport and equestrian skill is principally based on the Kassai system. There are several competitions and meetings around the world in any given year - mostly in Hungary and Central Europe but also in the United States (notably Fort Dodge in Iowa).
A horseback archery competition course, as defined by Kassai, is ninety meters long. It is divided into three equal sections, each separated with drove posts. There are three targets on the course at its centre point - the diameter of each is ninety centimeters. The first target may only be shot from a forward shooting position in the first 30m section, the middle target may only be shot sideways from the second 30m section, and the third target may only be shot backwards (in tribute to the Parthian shot) from the last 30m section of the track. An electronic timing system begins to count down from 18 seconds the moment the competitor enters the first gate and stops when the archer finishes the 90 metres canter. This is the maximum period of time in which the riders must cover the course - the amount of time saved is added to the score reached on the targets. Only a traditional recurve bow can be used in the contest and with the exception of the nocking point use of any other devices is strictly forbidden.
[edit] Scoring
The available scores differ on each target reflecting the difficulty of the shots. At the contest, competitors are permitted three warm-up runs followed by nine scored runs, the total score of which yields the final result. If no points are scored from hitting a target ,the total score of that run will be zero, regardless of the spare time. Equally if the run takes over 18 seconds the score is also void no matter how many successful shots land on target. As this goes to show, the faster the archer goes the more time they save, and the more accurately they shoot (with as many arrows as possible) thus the more points the archer will collect.
[edit] Techniques
Originally the Scythians, Mongols and some of the Turkish archers, all used variants of a thumb-ring and a release of arrow from 'inside' the bow. (e.g. for a right handed archer holding the bow in their left hand the arrow sits across the left hand's thumb and on the right side of the bow). This is completely different from the Western tradition of 'three-fingered' or 'Mediterranean' release which occurs 'round the bow' (e.g. for a right handed archer this means the arrow rests over the back of the left hand holding the bow, over the fore-finger's knuckle, and is released round the left side of the bow).
Kassai however has adopted the Western method of shooting 'round the bow' and a three-fingered release. The bows are generally fairly light (from about 30 - 40lbs) and Kassai uses alloy arrows rather than the more traditional wooden shafts. Ostensibly this is due to the large amount of arrows fired and the fact that they need to be durable. The 'release' has been largely modified from a traditional Western release and involves a rather emphatic extension of the release hand (the right hand in the case of a right-handed archer) after releasing the arrow. This performs a number of functions - firstly as a focus, and secondly as a counter-balance whilst on horseback to the power leaving the front of the bow.
To ensure rapidity of firing Kassai has developed a technique of holding up to a dozen arrows in the bow-hand from which the archer can re-draw quickly. Kassai's research has shown that the previously envisaged pulling arrows from a back quiver or saddle quiver to be too cumbersome and slow - it is not known how the Mongols or their pre-decessors managed the task as no records remain of this facet of horseback archery. Kassai himself places great emphasis on this technique and can fire up to 10 arrows in 12 seconds.[citation needed]
Regarding horsemanship skills, upon which Kassai places equal emphasis, the aspiring horseback archer must practice first 'bare-back' (without any saddle) to promote good balance. Once past a certain level the archer may graduate to use a specially modified Eastern Saddle. Previously it was thought that the optimum time to release the arrow was rising in the stirrups at the height of the horse's rise in the canter, but as is regularly demonstrated the archer can fire without stirrups (although generally the top of the rise when all four horse's hooves are not in contact with the ground is still the optimum point for release.)
It has also to be noted that in 2006, using these these techniques, Kassai broke his own Guinness Book of Records achievement of firing non-stop for twenty four hours and maintaining an average of over 200 points on the competition course. He used 10 horses and scored a total of 15,594 points from 5,413 shots over 661 gallops.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
Horse Archer
Hun bow
Hungarian bow
Mongol bow
Turkish bow
Yabusame
Horse people
Janissary
[edit] Links
1. Horseback Archery Global Site: http://www.horsebackarchery.com (mostly in Hungarian)
2. Horseback Archery Deustchland-Österreich: http://www.horsebackarchery.net (in German)
3. Horseback Archery New Zealand: http://www.horsebackarchery.co.nz (in English)
Kassai, Lajos (2000). Horseback Archery. Püski Publishing, pp. ALL. ISBN 0-xxxx-xxxx-x.
Schreiner, Robert. Horseback Archery New Zealand. Retrieved on April 30, 2005.
Kassai, Lajos. Horseback Archery Global Site. Retrieved on April 30, 2005.
