[Ansteorra-archery] Archery/Equestrian field setup

[Susan Hill]

My Lord,

As one of the marshals in training on the field that day, I must say that we 
were quite concerned about the equestrians being so close. Sir Alexis 
approved the location of our Line, though I may have placed it a few yards 
further away, myself. As to the safe distance, within a few minutes of you 
and your lady riding in our safe zone, we had a sudden death shoot between 
two archers. Their shots were aimed at a stake in the ground with a flag on 
it some 150 yards away from the archer's line. Both of them overshot that 
mark by more than thirty yards, I know because I was the marshall that 
located both arrows and declared the winner.

Some of our archers use bows that are 50 lbs or more. These and crossbows 
can shoot several hundred yards. My advice when riding at the Canton site 
when archery and equestrian are competing at the same time...go across the 
road and ride. Our saftey zone will extend to the road at a 45 degree angle 
from the firing line, and continue towards the highway for a considerable 
distance. I would hate to see events put into an either/or situation for 
archery and equestrian activities at events, but unless we learn to 
cooperate and communicate better, it is a possibility.

Thank you for your input.

Lady Linet Grey


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Sluggy!" <slugmusk at linuxlegend.com>
Reply-To: Archery within the Kingdom of 
Ansteorra<ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org>
To: ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org, Ansteorra-Equestrian at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Ansteorra-archery] Archery/Equestrian field setup
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 01:03:47 -0500

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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