Historical Eurasian Cavalry Discipline

The archery skills tested in this discipline focus on refining abilities and techniques within the system of historical archery used in hunting and war. Trick shooting with soft bows, while appearing in historical texts and aspects of which are used today with some competitive styles, is not very relevant to warfare. 

According to the 14th-century Mamluk furūsiya treatise Kitab Ghunyat at-Tullab fi Ma’rifat Rami an-Nushshab (trans. Latham and Paterson, ‘Saracen Archery’, p. 5), the five pillars of archery are: 

1. accuracy 
2. speed 
3. the ability to shoot from a distance 
4. the ability to protect one’s own body 
5. infliction of injury (power of the shot)

Currently, only 1) and 2) are tested, more occasionally 3), and currently 4) and 5) hardly at all. 5) is of course a more specialised path as it usually requires heavier bows, but there are ways to test this with lighter bows as well. There are interesting possibilities for 4) and 5) that are currently in development. 

The main facets of this system of historical archery used in HEC are: 

1. Prioritising fewer well-placed shots over rapid shooting; shooting technique and quality of shots should always have a much higher priority and value than nocking speed and quantity of shots.
2. With minimal exceptions, successive targets should arranged so that they are not too close together, so that shooting technique is prioritised over nocking speed. 
3. Generally, targets should be placed at sufficient distance from the track to adequately test archery ability (this distance will change somewhat depending on the riding difficulty of the track, curves, etc.). 
4. Archery is performed on tracks where one generally needs to have a balanced position to help oneself and one’s horse balance properly so that the rider does not impede the horse’s balance nor compromise one’s own balance, in order to facilitate a safe and harmonious relationship in the event of sudden changes in speed or direction and observe the core concept of being fully prepared for any unexpected situation. 
5. The aforementioned aspects of defending oneself while shooting and testing the power of shots will be incorporated into some tracks.

The HEC Archery Grading System utilises tracks that observe these facets, but that do not require any active riding manoeuvres during the time on the track. Currently, the HEC Basic Hunt Track is available for HEC Archery Grading. Other tracks testing more of the aforementioned aspects will be added as they become available and are scaled for grading. Straight tracks where all kind of artificial riding positions are possible and that prioritise achieving archery points at the expense of rider balance and horse balance and biomechanics are not used here.

Grading Tables

Basic Hunt Track

The scores in the following table for each grade must be achieved by performing two separate attempts (on different days) of the Basic Hunt Track (see here). One attempt consists of 2 scored runs. Each attempt must be nominated in advance. Grades A5-10 must be achieved in competition. Otherwise the IHAA Procedure for Grading (point 8 on this page) is used for archery grading.

Grading Form Here

Grade	A1	A2	A3	A4	A5	A6	A7	A8	A9	A10
Score	32	45	57	70	82	95	107	120	132	144