Kassai Lajos – master bowyer and the founder of modern horseback archery

He was born on 16th September 1960 in Kaposvár.

In the middle of the eighties he was acting as a bow maker and was a successful competitor in field archery. Later on, he reconstructed the bow form the time of the Hungarian conquest and started its standardized production (first in the world). At the end of the eighties he developed the system of competition rules of horseback archery, and from the beginning of the nineties he started to spread the new sport first in Hungary, then in Europe, in the USA and Canada. 
He got acquainted with Zen archery in Japan (Kamakura), and then he travelled to China, to Shaolin.

He wrote his book Horseback Archery which also came out in English and German.

For bringing horseback archery into being and spreading it in the world he was awarded on 20th August 2003 by Ferenc Mádl the president of the republic with the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, Officer's Cross.

He won all the competitions until now and managed to set up five Guinness world records. He is the only man in the world, who was able to do horseback archery on changed horses, without a stop for 24 hours.

His 4. record was set up with his students on 5th December 2009 in the Budapest Sportarena. He shot 12 flying targets with a diameter of 30 cm, under 17,80 seconds from the back of a galloping horse.

Breaking this record, on 4th December 2011, at the same place, he shot 14 flying targets in 19,85 seconds before the eyes of more than 8.000 spectators.

He is the member of the Club of Obsessed.

His book “Horseback Archery” lives its fourth edition in Hungary. He writes down his ars poetica here:

"In essence, there are two kinds of people. People of the question and people of the answer. The man of the question is ever searching, wishing to experience and know things. The man of the answer says that his religion furnishes all the answers and he retires into the rituals of his faith. My life seems to be a composite of the two. I have always wanted to try everything and always held that it is the stupid who wish to learn by the mistakes of others, as nothing is more important than personal experience. Knowledge is our only treasure that cannot be taken from us, while it is also the most aristocratic thing in the world. Now that I have reached the zenith of my life, I have reached a sunny clearing and left behind the tormenting jungle of questions and desires. Acceptance dominates the desire to change. Horseback archery, which had once allowed me to fly on a magic steed through space and time, has become a ritual for me that furnishes the framework for my everyday life. For me, it represents science, art and religion all in one. I have tried to learn as much as possible about that activity using reason, then tried to present it in an artistic manner to the best of my abilities, and by the time I got that far, I noticed it had become my faith."