A chilly wind blew in my face when I peeked around the rear end of my horse. Slowly I moved away from the horse until I had my sight on the blesbuck ram. I squeezed the trigger, and the arrow traced a high curve. Oh no, it's way too high!

 My colleague, Tom Cairncross, and I were hunting blesbuck in the Maluti Mountains on a game farm named Bokpoort, just a few kilometres from Clarens. We had been on horseback for seven hours trying to get close enough to take a shot.

"On a hot day one can get close fairly easily", said Christo Roos, the game farm owner and expedition leader. "As close as 30 yards or less." According to Christo, all you had to do was slide off the horse, walk slowly up to the herd while hiding behind the horse, move slightly away from the horse, take aim, and bingo - the buck would be yours.

"But today is too cold and cloudy", said Christo. "Things are not going to be easy." And he was right. Each time we got close to a herd, I would dismount and try to get closer while hiding behind the horse. And every time, before I could confidently take a shot, the blesbuck would take fright and be off. All through the day we would slowly ride up to one group of blesbuck until they took off. Then we would stalk another group - with the same results. After seven hours of this we were rather saddle sore and my left hand, in which I was holding my PSE Firestorm, was starting to ache.

I was enjoying the horse ride tremendously. As the horse walked up and down hills, I felt like an American Indian on his mustang. We were in a very scenic area with sloping mountainsides, and there were black wildebeest, springbuck and blesbuck all around us. I imagined that my name was Black Mustang, and I could just about feel the feathers in my hair and the moccasins on my feet. Of course, my dream world would have been shattered instantly had the horse taken to a trot. Unlike Christo, a modern-day cowboy, my horse riding skills are virtually non-existent. Black Hawk would have plummeted to earth instantly - like the city slicker I really am. 

Fortunately, the horse was trained very well and reacted to the reins in my right hand like a computer to a joystick. Christo said I just had to show the horse who was boss. I was doing my best - but it wasn't really necessary.

By now, all the blesbuck in the area were rather jittery. We were thinking of giving up, but we decided to give it one last try. We were lucky.  One group of blesbuck stood still while we approached. I got off my horse and we walked slowly closer until the herd got restless. I was still too far for a comfortable shot, but I knew this would be my only chance today. If we were to go closer, the buck would take off.  I would just have to try from where I was.

Everything would depend on how well I judged the distance. We had tested our distance judgement earlier that day and had found that, in these mountain areas, all three of us tended to judge distance much shorter than it really was.   So I would have to allow an extra couple of yards. I promised myself that I would buy a range finder as soon as I had a few bucks to spare - which rarely happens, though.
 I slowly moved out from behind the horse with my bow already drawn. The sweet spot was about two millimetres below my lowest pin when I released the arrow. The arch seemed too high. I was going miss by a mile!

But I was wrong. The arrow struck the deer and the shot seemed fine. The arrow did not penetrate well, yet, to my amazement, the animal collapsed instantly, like an ox that had received a slug through the brain.

When the animal's chest was opened I found the arrow lodged in the lower part of the spine, right next to the shoulder bone. The shaft had broken free from the head when the animal collapsed and had penetrated one lung completely and punctured the other. The shot was a little high, but fortunately for me it struck the spine. I should not have compensated those extra few yards. Again I promised myself to buy a range finder. I will use next year's milk money.

My PSE Firestorm was set at 70 pounds and I used a Vapor 4000 arrow with a 100 grain Rocket Aerohead. I don't have to tell the reader that bowhunting is a really exciting sport. But when one combines it with horse riding, it turns into a remarkable adventure.

Reprinted from AFRICA'S BOWHUNTER Magazine