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Date: 7/1/2022
BRIMFIELD – Dark Horse Mounted Archers is a new local group out of Brimfield. Launched in May of 2022, the group is striving to promote the sport of horse archery. Founder Eric Hebert sets up three to four practice sessions per month where members will meet on his farm to practice ground archery and then make the transition to horseback.
“Horse archery is one of the fastest growing sports in equine,” Hebert said. “Unfortunately, there’s very limited groups in the United States. It’s a very popular sport internationally because horse archery itself comes from the old Mongolian days in military tactics during the battles they used to do on the steppe in Eurasia.”
He continued, “Now, it’s transitioned from war to sport. There are international and U.S competitions, but there’s nothing around here. I’ve been doing it for over two years, and I wanted to potentially compete, so the only way to do that is to form a group. “
Hebert made a post on the Brimfield, MA Community Facebook Forum on looking to start a horse archery group. He immediately received a lot of interests and slowly people would come to the practice sessions taking a further dive into horse archery. Hebert told Reminder Publishing there are two components to horse archery. First is the martial arts, doing a lot of ground practice using traditional archery equipment. Their horse bows are from the Korean and Mongolian Turkish era. They don’t use compound bows or any additional equipment on their bows. The next step is to riding on horseback and also desensitizing your horse as the horse is an equal partner in this endeavor.
Hebert also mentioned that people have to have excellent horsemanship skills and they have to have their own horse. However, he does encourage people if they’re a good horseback rider and don’t have a horse they can use, they can certainly come do the ground practice sessions.
“What I really try to teach is that horse archery is a martial art,” Hebert stated. “We’re honoring the old ways back in Eurasia when they had to utilize horse archery to secure land, secure their food and protect their families.”
He went on to say, “I try to instill to folks that you are taking what was once war and you’re transitioning it into a sport. You’re keeping that old style of archery alive that is no longer used very often.”
Though the group is not officiated by any type of international or national entity, Hebert’s goal is to have an official group through Horse Archery USA to be eligible to compete against other horse archers around the world.
So far, Hebert has seven members in the group and five people that are showing interest in joining. The annual fee is $35 for a club membership. Hebert recommends people to get a membership through Horse Archery USA which will be their affiliate club. That way they can compete against other members if they like.
Right now, the group is for adults, but Hebert said he’s had some inquiries about a youth program and will likely be incorporating youth archers in the future.
One of the major goals Hebert has in store is for people to have fun and create a nice little community for horse archers to get together two or three times a month. He wants to make sure everyone is being safe because they’re shooting arrows, but ultimately Hebert wants people to form wonderful bonds with their fellow archers and their horses.
“Dark Horse Mounted Archers has allowed me to show other people what’s possible with their horse,” Hebert said. “Something outside of their regular events and competitions people are used to seeing in horse shows. This is something that is really a bond between you and your horse and it’s something that’s very fulfilling.”
Follow Dark Horse Mounted Archers on Facebook where you can see demonstrations Hebert does on his farm. Those that are interested can reach out directly.