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www.horsebackcombat.co.uk
www.stampedestuntcompany.co.uk

Bored with dressage ?

Fed up with eventing ?

Want to try something different from show-jumping ?

Become a stunt rider.

Learn how to ride bare-back, joust, make your horse rear up on his back legs.

Take up horse archery. Gallop along a series of targets scoring a bulls-eye every time.

Zana Cousins and Karl Greenwood have just opened The Centre of Horseback Combat at Vines Cross in East Sussex to teach amateur and professional riders everything from how to handle a horse while attacking with a lance to how to defend yourself with a shield.

Non riders are also very welcome, and won’t be non-riders for long!

The Centre is affiliated to the British Horse Archery Association specialising in both Korean and Hungarian techniques.

“It’s fantastic,” says Zana. “We’ve only just opened. We’ve had no end of people coming to us for lessons. People have done all the usual. They are looking for something new, something different. Horse archery is certainly something new, something different.”

Adds Karl,“There is nothing like the thud of an arrow hitting the target. Once you do it once, you’re hooked.”

The surprising thing, however, is not so much that a horse stunt company is opening in Vines Cross but that it is being run by Zana and Karl. For Zana is a ballet dancer and a trapeze artist and Karl spent seven years working with Shire horses dragging huge logs out of inaccessible wood and forest land.

Zana, 34, was born in Grimsby. She went to ballet classes when she was three, At nine, she went to The Arts Educational School, Tring Park, a top ballet school. Along the way, however, she also discovered horses.

“I must have been about six or seven,” she says. “My friend had a pony, a Welsh section B. He must have been about ten-years-old. 12.2 hh. She let me ride him. I was hooked. I wanted to become a rider. My mother wanted me to continue with ballet.

“I kept on and on about wanting a pony. Eventually, my mother gave in. She said, Yes. I could have a pony. Then she told me it had run away. But I kept on and on. In the end, she said, Yes. She would buy me a pony. But I would have to pay her the money back. I said, Yes. He was called Roscoe. He was an Arab x Welsh. About eight-years old. I remember I used to go to work after school to pay for him.

“He was wonderful. I did everything with him. We did Pony Club, local cross-country, hacking. I would ride standing up. We would ride down embankments. Everything we were not supposed to do. I used to think I was Indiana Jones.”

So what did Zana end up by doing? Ballet or Horses? Neither.

She ran away with Karl to Spain to become a trapeze artiste.

She was the flyer. Karl was the catcher.

For three-years they travelled all over Spain and Portugal. They learnt to be fire-eaters, stilt-walkers. Zana and Karl also learnt fencing, kick-boxing , trampolining and are scuba dive masters.

Back in this country, they took up jousting. Zana, at the time, was the only woman jousting knight in the country.

For four-years, they took part in the jousting season at Lulworth Castle, Dorset and Warwick Castle. They both also performed at the Berkeley skirmish at Berkeley Castle. They take part in displays at County Shows and fun days all over the U.K and abroad including Dubai where they have just returned from a 6 month contract performing for Hoofbeatz entertainment in which they performed a horse archery act and Cossack trick riding.

Says Zana, “I reckon we must have performed in over 500 different   jousting shows.”

Four-years ago, they launched the Stampede Stunt Company to not only do live shows but to also provide horses and services and facilities to film and television companies as well as for photo shoots.

One of their horses, Todo, a 13-year-old Andalusian, not only starred in Gladiator – He was the Emperor’s horse - he also took part in Carmen at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, appearing on stage once a night and twice at weekends.

Now, however, Zana and Karl are concentrating on building up their new centre at Lanesmead Farm at Vines Cross into a Centre for Horse Archery nationwide.

Says Zana, “People just love the idea of something different. Our first pupil was a woman, 32. She had never done it before. Now she’s hooked. Her husband was an archer. He had never ridden before. We taught him how to ride. Now he’s also hooked.”

When it comes to achieving their ambition, Zana and Karl are bound to hit their target.

To find out more

www.horsebackcombat.co.uk and www.stampedestuntcompany.co.uk