Horseback Archery Competition Course
The horseback archery competition course is ninety meters long. It is divided into three equal sections, each separated with drove posts. There are three targets on the course at it's 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 from the last 30m portion 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 meters 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.
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 0 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 you go the more time you save, and the more accurate you shoot as many arrows as possible, the more points you will collect...
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.