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Wednesday, July 1, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters hosts elite
mounted archers
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
Hooves pound out muffled
thunder in the fine, soft dust
of the sage flats east of Sis-
ters. A galloping horse, flow-
ing smooth as a breeze across
the steppe bears down, its
rider swiveling in the saddle,
nocking an arrow to a short
recurved bow.
Twang! Hiss! Thunk! An
arrow flies and slams into a
round target as the horse and
rider swirl past. Again. Again.
Arrows fly and slice into their
targets, in a martial spectacle
that dates back to the ancients.
This is the scene at Holm
Neumann’s Cascade Interna-
tional Mounted Archery Cen-
ter located on a ranch in Plain-
view, where mounted archery
enthusiasts at a variety of skill
levels have come to learn from
one of the elite.
Cozmei Mihai, a world
champion in the discipline,
was in Oregon for the Rogue
Mounted Archers Competition
in Medford last month. Then
he headed to Cascade Interna-
tional Mounted Archery Cen-
ter for a series of clinics.
“I was born in 1968 in the
Eastern part of Romania (a
region that has always been
in the ancient times in close
contact with the nomad rid-
ers from the great Kipchak
Steppe),” Mihai says. “I have
been practicing martial arts
intensively for more than 30
years… In 1998 I moved to
Hungary and started practic-
ing intensively horseback
archery. After a while I estab-
lished myself in the country-
side in Szentendre, I married
a Hungarian woman, Maria
Rankasz, and we have a
10-year-old daughter, Anna. In
2004, I started to teach horse-
back archery as founder of
The Way of the Archer School.
“After many years of prac-
tice and teaching archery and
horseback archery, I decided
to start sharing my experience
with all those who might feel
the call of their hearts in this
direction.”
He calls his practice Living
Arrow Horseback Archery.
Mihai explained his philos-
ophy during a demonstration
last Friday.
“Traditional archery also
means traditional riding,” he
explained.
That means tapping the
ancient and medieval tradi-
tions of Eastern Europe, Asia
and the Middle East.
“In Asia, the light cav-
alry was the Queen of the
Battlefield.”
For Mihai, mounted
archery is more than mere
sport — it is a martial art, and
he is committed to following
in the hoofprints of ancient
warriors of many cultures who
were capable of astonishing
feats with horse and bow.
The key is the relationship
with the horse.
“In horseback archery, you
have to turn and be stable and
you should be powerful and at
the same time elastic,” he said.
Since the hands are occu-
pied with the bow, the horse
is guided with the seat and the
legs. And the rider is not tak-
ing to the horse — the horse
and rider must become one:
the rider is the mind and the
horse is his body.
Over and over Mihai
emphasized, “This is my body.”
The ancient way of the
horseback warrior requires
training at speed — at battle
tempo.
“It’s stress, adrenaline; it’s
about life and death,” Mihai
said.
Trey Schlichting was
another elite archer on hand for
the clinics, instructing in ways
photo by lynn WoodWard
trey schlicting draws down on a target. a texan and a bowhunter, he turned to horseback archery and now teaches
and competes around the country.
to improve accuracy with the
bow. Founder and instructor of
A Company Mounted Archery
Training in New Braunfels,
Texas, Schlicting is just get-
ting back in the saddle after a
horrific wreck that left his pel-
vis split by a saddle horn and
pulled away from his spine.
Schlicting grew up a bow
hunter and a horseman in
Texas — then discovered
that he could combine two
passions.
“I read an article about a
guy who shot an antelope off
of a horse with a longbow and
a lightbulb went off in my
head and I thought ‘Why am I
not doing this?’”
Since 2012 he has been
traveling and competing as
well as operating his own
mounted archery school.
He specializes in a style of
archery that dates back to the
Huns of Dark Ages Europe,
but he has also taken to stag-
ing competitions that recreate
the archery of the Comanche
people of his native Texas.
A respect and a passion for
history is a key element of the
practice for these inheritors of
the warrior tradition.
Andrew O’Donnghaile
is working at Neumann’s
ranch as he furthers his train-
ing in mounted archery. He’s
also coming off having com-
pleted his master’s degree
in early medieval history at
Cambridge.
The passion for history
combined with early experi-
ence in the saddle to bring him
to mounted archery.
“I’ve been riding since I
was about 11 — mostly in the
hunter-jumper discipline,” he
said.
He is enthusiastic about
mounted archery.
“It’s a martial art, first and
foremost,” he said. “It’s not
just a sport.”
It’s also about “preserva-
tion of traditional culture” and
“it has an international good-
will cooperation component as
well.”
The archers at the Cas-
cade International Mounted
Archery Center have their
eyes firmly fixed on the target
of the world championships in
the sport, which will be held in
South Korea in September and
October. That’s the goal they
are training toward.
Holm Neumann’s ranch
in Sisters is where he and his
wife, Susan, raise Mangalarga
Marchadora horses. The gaited
horses are ideal for mounted
archery, and Mihai rode Neu-
mann’s Quevado, a premier
horse for the discipline.
Neumann is a pioneer in
bringing mounted archery to a
U.S. audience, and he’s helped
several local archers get their
start in the field.
“It’s growing,” he says.
“We have a club now called
the Thundering Horde.”
Neumann and other local
archers have participated in
several Sisters Rodeo parades.
Neumann’s passion, his
quality horses and his archery
course in the sagebrush have
made Sisters Country a focal
point for this modern iteration
of an ancient warrior practice.
Those interesting in learn-
ing more, including audit-
ing a clinic, may visit www.
cascademountedarchery.com.
photo by lynn WoodWard
Cozmei mihai’s archery technique has made him a world champion.
Dr. Lew Sterrett
www.SermonOnTheMount.com
Lessons of Leadership
from the
Language of the Horse
THE
GALLERY
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Have fcn and be personally encocraged
as yoc watch horses make changes in
their own thinking that parallel yocr life.
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