Rural athletes are saddling up for a world championship you've probably never heard of. Four Australians are heading to Mongolia to show off their 'horse archery' skills - against the best in the world.
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00:00 Don Woods is setting his sights on a new target.
00:06 The Cooktown rider is preparing to compete in his first Horse Archery World Championships.
00:11 Pretty epic really, like, it's a big sense of excitement.
00:16 Sort of on it as well.
00:18 He's one of four Australians travelling to Alambertoran, Mongolia for the main event.
00:23 I had no idea I'd ride in Australia, but it's a completely different ball game.
00:28 Mongolians basically invented the sport.
00:32 It's the first international comp in five years,
00:35 after coronavirus pandemic restrictions pulled horse archery events to a halt.
00:40 We did wind up having to cease pretty much all competition and training across the country,
00:45 which was a bit unfortunate.
00:47 Now the sport is charging at full speed once again.
00:50 The fact that we're able to start to share this sport with people around the place
00:54 is really special and really important to me.
00:56 In Australia, horse archery is growing in popularity,
00:59 with five state clubs and around 100 members all up.
01:02 But it's starting to hit the mark in the broader equine community as well.
01:06 Probably the last few years it's really gained momentum and popularity.
01:10 It really gives you an alternative discipline to your staples of show jumping and dressage and cross country.
01:16 A sure shot for keen riders and their horses.
01:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]