Mounted on her stunning Clydesdale, Jewel, Hazel Carter — and her bow and arrows — are poetry in the saddle. The Beaver Hill Lake country horse trainer and her black beauty are together one of three horseback archery pairs chosen to represent Canada at the International Horseback Archery Alliance competition in Tennessee this Sept. 17-21.
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Mounted on her stunning Clydesdale, Jewel, Hazel Carter — and her bow and arrows — are poetry in the saddle.
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The Beaver Hill Lake country horse trainer and her black beauty are together one of three horseback archery pairs chosen to represent Canada at the International Horseback Archery Alliance competition in Tennessee this Sept. 17-21.
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‘Having this opportunity with Jewel as my Clydesdale is just an absolute dream come true,” Carter said.
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The game’s afoot
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It’s not a big sport. There are 200 horse-and-ride pairs on the Canadian rankings list.
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Selected by the Canadian Federation of Mounted Archery, the pair will compete in Lewisburg, Tennessee, for the IHA World championships against horse archery teams from around the world on the tower, raid and hunt courses.
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The “tower” offers a single tower 45 metres down the 90-metre track, with a three-phase target at the archer’s face level, and Carter will have the entire track to send arrows into it over 18 seconds with her choice of bare bow — Tatar-style as used in the Ottoman Empire — and arrows made with carbon fibre and turkey feathers.
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The “raid” course (originally called Korean, because of its roots), is a tad faster, with 14 seconds to complete the 90-metre course studded with targets.
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Career born during pandemic
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At the height of the pandemic downtime, Carter chose horseback archery as a training project.
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“I lived on the farm, so I still had my space. I still had my ability to go out and do some things out here, but it was just a curiosity that I kind of tapped into,” she said.
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She’s always had a fascination for medieval arts and re-enactment, and horseback archery felt like a natural extension for her, so for her 18th birthday, she gave herself a present.
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One arrow shot off the back of a horse, and she was off.
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In addition to horse training — skills she learned from her family, who raise paints and quarter-horses — Hazel Carter’s also a cosplayer and content creator. She performs at Renaissance fairs and makes all her own cosplay materials, even leather armour for Jewel, and she has done some acting.
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She was in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
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“Just the interaction with the guests and just make it like a literal, immersive event for everyone,” she said.