Continued on PG 30 >
This years competition was hosted by the Desert Warriors of the Southwest Mounted Archery club in Scottsdale, Arizona with the event being held there, an area also known as the Rio Verde. The competition featured 35 riders from 8 countries and lasted three days. The countries represented were the USA, Spain, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mongolia, Korea, and Germany. Most of the riders arrived one to two days early for practice and horse selection. It is customary in International competitions that the host club share their horses for the foreign riders. The Desert Warrior's own Joey Ogburn did a fantastic job matching the horses to the riders.
The three days of competition consisted of two events on each of the first two days and a 9 target cross country course on the last day. Even though this was the first competition hosted by the Desert Warriors the five core members of the club all have International competition experience. In addition to their International experience the Desert Warriors have some of the highest Horse Archer Rankings in the World.
Day one was the Korean two shot followed by the Triple Ambush courses. Both of these courses are run on the 90 m track with a 14 second minimum time. The Korean double shot is a forward shot followed by a back shot spaced just 10 meters apart. On this course the rider may not touch their arrow until passing the starting gate so loading for the first target as well as reloading for the second target happens very quickly. The Desert Warriors own Greg Ogburn won this event with Oh Hyeok from Korea taking second and Maia Denzler from Oregon taking third. The Triple Ambush has three targets with the first target 15 meters from the track, the second target 7 meters from the track, and the third target 9 meters from the track. The rider can go in loaded on the first target but then must draw the next two arrows from the quiver. This event was won by Lukas Novotny from Florida with Kent Wright from Oregon taking second and Oh Hyeok from Korea taking third.