Activities

The skilful art of horse archery

Writer Tweet Gainsborough-Waring

Daniel Griffin is a man with many strings to his bow. Not only is he a talented horse archer, but also a craftsman, coach and internationally-recognized, horse-archery judge.

According to his mother, Daniel was virtually “born on a horse”. As a keen walker, she found him too heavy to carry and had him on a horse at 18 months old. This enabled her to take him walking on the lead rein, and by the age of three he was riding independently. Ever since, horses have been part of his life.

One of Daniel’s custom-made mounted archery saddles.

Then came the bows and arrows – first shooting at tree trunks. As Daniel grew older his passion for archery and horses merged into a logical conclusion – mounted archery. Living on a farm in Wolvengat, a remote area near Elim, meant there were too few players for team sports, so one had to find a suitable individual sport. While being predominantly self taught (he started shooting from a horse in 2010), Daniel had the privilege of being coached by the Hungarian master of horse archery, Lajos Kassai.

Professional horse archer Daniel Griffin executes a backward shot. The age-old skill of horse archery is promoted and developed by Daniel through his Mounted Archery Training Centre at Wolvengat, where an international event will be hosted on Sunday 9 December.

He has demonstrated his prowess locally at wine festivals and agricultural shows, and has competed at an international level, most recently in the Al Faris International Horseback Archery Championship III in Jordan. The competition attracted 48 riders from 25 countries. Daniel, who was a silver medallist in the Oriental Style of shooting, had the honour of receiving his prize from King Abdullah.

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