BearWay archery: Say hallo! to the reins extender

I would like to show you a little gadget, which most of modern horse archers never used, or even never saw. This is because most of modern horse archery competitions are held on straight, fenced track, so basically in a controlled environment, in which it is not necessary to touch the reins in between subsequent shots. Rider will lead his horse into the track, usually holding his bow in left hand and reins in right hand, start canter/gallop and then, just before starting line he will drop those reins loose onto horse’s neck, start shooting and only after the last target he will reach for reins, assuming that the slowing-down part of the track is long enough to find them, even if entangled in horse’s mane.
The reins are shortened by means of a knot or a mobile slider to prevent them from hanging too low and often, especially if the horse is galloping with its head low, their free end is tied to saddle front, or hooked over the pommel, if it is high enough. In this way we have our hands completely free to use bow and arrows and it seems to be the best way indeed to ride during this type of competitions.

There are many good things to be said about fenced track: all participants have equal chances, it allows less experienced riders and less experienced horses to take part safely, and – above all – it allows archers to achieve good results even when riding borrowed, unfamiliar horse, and this is very important for those taking part in international events. Also, this type of track is not modern invention, we can find descriptions and even sketches of very similar tracks in the historical sources.
On the other hand, riding like this all the time can be, you know, a bit unexciting.

It’s good to remember, that this “sport” method of leading your horse is not the only way. As soon as we go into more “battlefield” environment, riding on the open space, we can discover it’s drawbacks – loose reins are difficult to pick up quickly, and while holding them in the right hand you cannot easily draw your next arrow from the quiver. Of course you should be able to lead a good archery horse also without use of reins (or at least the horse should be taught to keep constant speed and direction as long as the reins are loose), but seldom you can depend 100% on this, especially in the excitement of historical battle, or contemporary reenactment event, with all the confusion and a lot of horses galloping around. Also, normally in those conditions you don’t have so many opportunities for shooting as on the sport track; of course sometimes you’ll also shoot several arrows in quick succession, but more often in between shoots you have to slow down a bit, turn, keep your position in a formation etc.

In a “battlefield” technique you will hold your reins primarily in the LEFT hand, together with you bow. Right hand is free and you can reach for the next arrow, nock it on the string and form a hold with your thumbring – all this while controlling the horse with reins. You drop them at the last possible moment, only fraction of a second before drawing your bow. After the shoot you will normally try to quickly retrieve the reins, and only in special cases, when confronted with several targets, you can decide to left the reins loose and nock the next arrow immediately.
So, in this technique we lose contact only for a moment.

And now we can introduce our small gadget, called musta’an in Arabic, which can be translated as “The Helper”. As can be seen from descriptions and numerous pictures in historical sources, it was very often (although not always) used in “battle” or “hunting” horse archery technique. Basically it is a reins extender, simple thong connected on one side to the end of reins and with a stop (knot, bead or ring) on the other.

It can be made of any piece of rope, although leather thong, adequately stiff and heavy is most comfortable, because it is hanging still even in full gallop and is less likely to tangle up. It should be about half as width as your reins, to hold it comfortably between your fingers, but not too narrow, to keep the sufficient weight and strength. My favorite size is 12mm (0.5”), and I have quite large hands. Length you should adjust to suit your needs, but it is more or less equal to the distance between horse’s withers and rider’s ear, when he is sitting in a normal position in the saddle. You can then turn around unhampered with your bow at full draw, but at the same time your must’an will not be too sloppy.

You hold the end of this extender under small and ring fingers of your right hand (those fingers are not directly involved in shooting with a thumbring), and it is secured from slipping off by means of a stopper (knot or bead)held between ring and middle finger, or by a ring worn on middle finger. If you are going to use the ring, called mahbas, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to connect it with musta’an via short piece of thin thong or thread, which will act as a safety device in case you fall from the saddle! But I encourage to use the former version, with knot or bead: you have much higher chances to end your ride with the same number of fingers as before, and also it is more convenient in case you change your bow to another type of weapon, as a saber or spear.

After the shot, during follow-through archer’s right hand is moving naturally backwards, somewhere behind his ear. You should simple extend this natural movement a bit, backwards and upwards, and the extender will lift your reins from horse’s neck enough to easily grab them with your left hand, holding the bow. In total, during shoot we lose the reins only for no longer then, let say, about 1,5 second and we don’t have any problems to retrieve them, even on a extremely hairy horse which is used to hold his head very low. Easy? Easy!
Of course it is very important to learn to collect the reins very flawlessly and gently, even when doing this in a hurry. Our mount will quickly lose his heart for this game, if you keep jerking his mouth.

Also, you have to train drawing arrows from the quiver or holding them in your hands and nocking without getting entangled in the musta’an (by the way, this is why you use single, narrow extender and not simply longer reins – double loop of thick leather will hinder your movements much more), and control your reins in such a way, that the head of nocked arrow will not touch horse’s head or ears – please always remember, that you are holding your bow together with reins – but this is only a matter of practice and knowing some “what if…” tricks. At first it could be difficult – as every new skill – and sometimes a bit risky if you do get entangled, so I recommend training with AMM Archery instructors. I have never met or heard about anybody practicing this technique in modern horse archery, except our team and our good friends from Huculka / Krom stable. If somebody else in the wide world is using musta’an, please contact me, it’ll be good to share and compare experiences.

With some training, it is possible to nock quickly, hold spare arrows in hand or even change bowhand and shoot to the opposite side (left-handed) without any problems with reins extender. Properly used, it is a very handy device, not only during actual shooting, but also when training horses and riding cross-country. When dealing with a young horse which tend to speed up on a loose reins, I can often get a benefit from the extender without actually picking up the reins. You can lift the end of the reins a little from horses neck to remind him “c’mon, don’t be stupid, I CAN take the reins any moment I like”, and you can do it while maintaining your after-the-shoot position with arms high, without frightening the horse with quick downward movement.
Of course it will not work every time or with every horse, but can be very helpful.

Also, when walking the horse after work on a loose reins, or simply during long cross-country trek you can hold the end of the extender as an extra precaution, or tie it in front of the saddle during short stop (especially handy with modern saddles, which often has nothing more than a small ring instead of proper, high pommel), hold it when getting pictures with your camera, or rummaging in your saddlebags. The only case I will NOT use musta’an is during run on a fenced track, as I don’t want anything to slow down reloading. Even then it is not necessary to remove it, you can tie it to the saddle. In fact, after several years of riding with musta’an, every time I mount the unfamiliar horse and have to use “normal” reins, I feel a strong desire to find a piece of rope about... this long...