[Ansteorra-archery] Archery/Equestrian field setup

Sluggy! slugmusk at linuxlegend.com
Mon Sep 29 23:03:47 PDT 2003


Hello, all!

I have what is mostly an archery field setup question, but it affects 
equestrian participants as well.

In the rules as posted in 
http://www.sca.org/officers/marshal/combat/armored/marshal_handbook.pdf, 
specifically about the safety zone, it says, "There shall be a safety 
zone behind and to the sides of the shooting line and targets. It shall 
be of reasonable size to prevent injury to bystanders." It goes on to 
suggest occasions when the distance can be shortened, but it avoids 
(purposely, I suspect) any mention of a specific distance.

Understandably, different bows, arrows and of course, archers, all have 
different combinations of effective and maximum ranges, but what would 
be considered a reasonable distance, particularly for the way the 
archery field is usually set up at the Canton First Monday Trade Days 
site? I ask because I was one of the horseback riders that were 
occasionally behind the targets. When we were riding down there, we were 
well beyond what *I* would consider to be a reasonably safe distance. 
I'm not very keen on endangering myself; I'm certainly not going to 
endanger my lady or our horses. I think we were not the only offenders, 
but I understand that the list was held until the riders crossed the road.

As an archer and a horseman, I want us all to get along. Equestrian and 
archery both require a lot of space and have special safety 
considerations, but are sometimes viewed as a fringe activities by those 
who do neither. I want to protect them both. Furthermore, there is 
interest in the equestrian community in mounted archery, so our paths 
must surely cross sometime. :)

I have cross posted this to both the Ansteorra Archery and the Ansteorra 
Equestrian lists...

Sluggy!




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