Tilly taking on UK's best as horseback archery comes to Goadby Marwood

Competitors from across the UK will be in action at Goadby Marwood this week for the British Horseback Archery Championships.

The event - running from Friday to Sunday - will be hosted at New Leaf Triangle CIC, an alternate education provider with local competitor Tilly Shaw looking to make the most of home advantage.

Tilly - who is currently studying for her GCSEs at John Ferneley College - made her Great Britain debut last September competing at the World Horseback Archery Grand Prix.

Now she will be taking on rivals from across the nation this weekend at the venue which is run by her dad Troy, an advanced horseback archery coach.

“She is an extremely keen rider and would normally be using her own horse, Polo, but he is far too fast down the archery range, averaging seven seconds,” Troy explained.

“I have worked with horses for the majority of my career and was in the Household Cavalry where I was an instructor.

“I have been doing horseback archer since 2017 and Tilly started in 2019.”

The British Nationals is normally held in the south of the UK and this is the first year the BHAA (British Horseback Archery Association) have agreed to move to a central location.

Over the three days competitors will compete over three tracks.

The first is called Raid, which is a simple track where the rider has to shoot one arrow at each of two to three targets whilst riding at a minimum of pace of canter.

Points are awarded for target hits and speed over the 90m track.

The second track is called Tower and the riders shoot as many arrows as they can over the 90m track.

Once again points are gained and lost for speed.

The final track, Skermish, is the most challenging.

Riders have a very tight time limit of 14 seconds for the run and have to try and hit five targets, some of which are extreme angles and on the off side of the horse.

There is also a traditional ground shot called a Jamaki.

Each track is completed four to six times by the horse and rider.

Riders do not have any rein contact whilst shooting and will travel at speeds of 25 to 30mph.