Now, Ms Dugan and fellow Walla woman Michelle Herbert are reviving the historical sport on the Border, with the Riverina and North East Horse Archers group.

“About seven years ago, I discovered there was such a thing as horse archery,” she said.

“They’ve basically developed a modern sport out of the ancient martial tradition.

“In the world championships, one team member is dragging a wicker and paper-mache ball around the arena and the other two chase them with paint-tipped blunts they have to shoot for scores.

“In Australia, we have walk, trot and canter grades and lower grades are judged by scores on a target.”

Thanks to the pair, Australian two-time world champion Katrina Kruse will be conducting a horse archery clinic at the Albury showgrounds at the weekend.

Ms Herbert said it was the first step in building the sport in the region.

“When we first put the idea of a group out there, it was crickets for a while and we wondered if we had bitten off more than we could chew, but they gradually came through,” she said.

“We’ve got 75 people in the group, from places like Canberra and Sydney, which is enormous.

“It hasn’t seemed to take off as much in NSW and Victoria.

“We thought, we’ll do this clinic and go from there; I’m hoping if the interest grows, we might be able to do things more regularly.”