Preparing Your Horse For Horseback Archery

Here we are talking about getting your horse comfortable with doing archery around it with the idea of doing archery on horseback. Like all preparation for something that may worry a horse, treat it as a process, not an event.

In this video I bring Bear, one of our standardbred horses here, over to see how he'll do with some archery practice. As he's nearing the end of his learning while with us, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to check this out with him and see how he does.

Trying new things with your horse can be really beneficial to them as they have the opportunity to learn something new. This also gives the opportunity to practice more groundwork and the basics so that they can stick with you instead of moving away.

Horseback archery is a really interesting and rewarding sport or hobby to do with your horse. Whether you just want to play around a bit or get serious and go into competition, it all starts with the basics to make sure you set your horse up for the best success as possible. That's what this video is about.

Here are a couple of other recent videos on groundwork that I talk about in this video:
The first three steps of groundwork:

The next three steps of groundwork:

Horse Trailer Awareness:

Come take a walk in our backyard for a minute:

[emeraldrainbow]

Just started Archery. Finished my 4th class today. My 9 year old mare has just been diagnosed with Ring Bone so I wanted something we could do together that was mild, off of roads and trails with hills. She is Western Pleasure trained for shows, but I think we are going to enjoy this very much. No pressure, no stress, no turns and we can just walk and have fun on her good days. Very greatful for your instructional videos. Thank you!

[amandasawyer]

Great video. Really interesting. I love watching horse back archery, it’s so cool. It’s on my bucket list of things to do with my horses! 👍

[wyvernspit]

Thanks for posting this! I have a rescued Westfalian mare (from the "Haven" hoarding case in North Carolina), and she is so incredibly smart that she keeps getting bored with the ground work we do and the obstacles I have available, so I have to keep coming up with new experiences for her while we're building up her muscles before we start riding for more than 5 minutes. I am excited to see how she does with this, and if it's something she'd find interesting. I really appreciate the tips on what kind of bow to start with. I may have wisened up after getting more into it, but I think I may have wanted to start out with a high-quality bow if I hadn't watched these videos first - there are things a lot of us don't consider without adequate experience teaching us otherwise. I really appreciate the detail you put in to this video. Thank you!

[jloeff]

Great video! Just getting my mare into mounted archery. Got some really good tips from this video!

[ambersemona]

My apologies I will start at the beginning to learn from your past videos on how you started to teach your horse

[ryanf]

I actually never considered Archery on horseback until I came across your video, I don't know why... I enjoy shooting bows, I'm kind of like Robin Hood, if he were cross-eyed...

[gunnerblankenship]

Thanks for these videos! Brush that baby!

[haileymurphy]

how old is bear and he is calm horse i love calm horse and also love archery

[oliviachernutan]

I've been shooting for about a year now and I've found that heavier bows are usually more accurate. I have a 45 pound bow and plan to start mounted archery by this time next year. I'll probably get a cheaper bow to practice with, but once your used to it, do heavier draw weights affect the accuracy while riding?

[trailridinmama]

Hi. What is the best way to contact you with a bitless riding question? Thank you. ❤️ your videos