Shooting for a big win
♦ Rome Montessori teacher takes an early break for an international horseback archery competition.
School just started but Kaitlin Akvan of Cave Spring, an upper elementary assistant teacher and Spanish teacher for fourth- through sixth-grade students at the Montessori School of Rome, is already getting ready for her first break from the classroom. Akvan will be traveling to South Korea later this month to compete in the World Championships of horseback archery.
Actually the competition is two events rolled into one. There is the World Championships and then there is the horseback archery segment of the World Martial Arts Masterships. Both are taking place in Sokcho, South Korea.
Akvan, who grew up in Jones County, Georgia, has been riding most of her life, but took up mounted archery about 2½ years ago. She heard about a clinic that was going to be put on in Cartersville and signed up because it sounded like fun.
“I just got totally hooked,” Akvan said.
The sport is extremely popular in Asia and South America and is one of the fastest growing equestrian sports in the Southeast.
Elizabeth Tinnan, owner of Chattahoochee Horse Archers, who grew up in the Armuchee area but now lives in Lewisburg, Tennessee, said that Akvan has picked up the sport in a hurry. Her first real lesson occurred early in 2017.
“She’s done a great job bringing her horse along. When she first took my clinic, she was apprehensive because her horse was young and had not been under saddle very long,” Tinnan said.
Akvan’s horse Koda is just 6 years old but, she said, “He is so in tune with my body language that I can actually shoot off of him without a bridle or a halter. I don’t compete totally bridleless because that’s not allowed.”
In less than three years, Akvan has managed to win competitions in Georgia and Tennessee.
“I practice a whole lot,” Kaitlin said.
Perhaps the biggest challenge Akvan will face in South Korea will be riding on a different horse because Koda won’t make the trip.
“We arrive a few days early to try and ride as many different horses as we can. Then we sign up for a horse we want,” Akvan said. “Since I have been on the team I have been practicing shooting off of other horses to prepare.”
Tinnan said one of the great challenges to the sport is that the shooting has to be instinctive.
“You want to be able to shoot in a way where you can just point at the target quickly and hit it,” Tinnan said.
Akvan was approached by a member of the national team around Christmas last year about trying out for the national team and the upcoming event in Korea.
“I said, oh yes, definitely,” Akvan said. She went to Tennessee where the national team coach watched her and got qualifying scores.
Akvan and Tinnan, who will also compete as part of the team, will leave for Korea on Thursday and stay through Sept. 2.
“It’s very similar to the Olympics, with an opening ceremony, a closing ceremony and several days of competition, so I’m pretty excited,” Akvan said.
The competition in Korea includes three events. The first two are a single shot run and a double shot run, where the first shot is fired forward and the second shot fired backward. The final event is called a serial pass, where competitors have to hit three of five targets.
The event is expected to draw close to 80 competitors from around the globe.