Sara Lin has been riding with me since she was four years old. She is growing up to be a very strong, athletic young lady. She is also our best archer.
When it comes to just plain old fun with a horse, I have not found much that I like better than mounted archery. I am not great with it at all, but it is one of those wonderful activities that one can enjoy without being any good at it.
Holland had to learn a bit to be able to be ridden by an archer. I did not anticipate the problem that he would have having a bow shot at a target from his back.
Holland is not usually ridden by the kids. He is one of a few horses that I pretty much keep for myself. I use him to demonstrate proper cues, how to sit, etc. He is partially guided by my focus. I try to be very consistent in staring at where I want to go before giving a pre-cue and then a cue as to direction. The result is that he begins to move in the direction I am looking.
That meant that when I would seek to trot by a target and shoot, he would pick up my focus and trot to the target. It took him several passes before he realized that that was not what we were to do this time.
(Holland was born wild on Shackleford Island.)
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