Sport
5 March, 2026
Ancient Skill, Modern Sport
Next weekend, the 7th and 8th of March, Kimberley Robertson is hosting the ‘March Fly’ Horse Archery competition at her family property in Hirstglen.
Horse Archery is what you might usually associate with medieval mongol hordes, sacking great cities.
But for Kimberley Robertson, it just started as a bit of fun.
When she started horse archery back in 2017 it was a social thing.
She would only compete in the walk and trot events.
For Kimberley it was something fun to do.
A relatively small sport in Australia with only about 10 clubs across the country, for many horse archers the sport is social.
Kimberley first started taking the sport seriously when, in 2024, she was asked to compete at Nationals in the canter division.
Last year Kimberley competed again at Nationals in Cairns where she placed 5th.
Later she went on to represent Australia at the Asian Nations Cup.
In 2025, Kimberley also hosted and organised the Queensland State Champs.
With a background in landscaping and property design, Kimberley relished the chance to design a track that would raise the bar for state level competitions.
“Despite the competitions being fun and relaxed I was keen to see a more structured event.” Kimberley said about her motivations to running the State Championships.
So at Laidley show-grounds she set up, designed and hosted the 2025 Australian Horse Archery Association Queensland Championships, where Kimberley was the Queensland Reserve Champion.
Beyond the speed divisions of walk, trot and canter, the events are split into tower, raid and hunt events.
The type of track will dictate the length of track, and the type, size, number, and positioning of targets.
Each track has its own set of rules, the most common styles being the Raid tracks (based on a Korean style) and the Tower tracks (based on a Hungarian style) ranging in length from 50 to 150 metres.
Finally, the Hunt Track is run along a long, winding cross country course, crossing variations in terrain and sometimes jumps with a variety of targets (often called the Polish style).
“Hitting tigers (targets) in a row, its awesome...it feels empowering.” Kimberley said of what she enjoys about the sport.
This weekend, Kimberley will be hosting the ‘March Fly’ at her family’s property at Hirstglen.
‘March Fly’ is a minor competition
There’ll be walk, trot and canter divisions, with tower, and raid events.
Beginners are encouraged to go along and check out the sport.
Events will be on 3pm on Saturday the 7th and 7am on Sunday the 8th.
Spectators can enter the grounds for free.
For more information about the event and competing contact Kimberley at kimberley6363@gmail.com
