Martial Arts on Horseback

A handsome man with a beard appears on a horse, turns a moon sword supposedly worn by Gwanwoo from Samgukji and instantly chops up a rice sheaf. As the moon sword that he was turning as he was approaching in a frightful manner shines with the sun light’s reflection, the other automatically shrinks back.

Interest Stems Back to Primary School-

Goh Sung-gyu (46) has trained himself in martial arts handling swords, spears, flails and bows on horseback for nine years. Goh, whom we met in a horse barn in Yangju on Sunday, was small, but his eyes and beard that resembled those in dramas made him seem very strong.

Thinking of Kim Hyung-chil who fell off a horse and passed away in the Doha Asian Games, we asked Goh if martial arts on horseback is dangerous.

“You should put your life up to it. Just think that you are falling off with a sword. If you are not trained enough, you should not even try it.”

Born in the mountainous area of Yeongwol, Gangwon, Goh first rode when he was in primary school while performing a religious service to his grandfather in Jecheon. What he rode was a brick delivering mule born between a male ass and a female horse. Mesmerized by a mysterious animal that he saw for the first time, he followed it all day and was consequently scolded severely by the animal keeper for doing so. Following that, Goh decided to ride a horse; a dream that came true in 1993. After reading riding articles in newspapers, he wandered aimlessly to metropolitan horse riding clubs including Guri, Paju, Yongin, Goyang and Ilsan and learned how to handle horses.

While watching “Dragon Tears” on TV in 1998, Goh had doubts. There were many scenes with horses, but none of them were native. The fact that they were using only western horses disturbed Goh.

Therefore, Goh collected information in various ways and searched for horseback martial artists. Looking at pictures in horseback martial arts magazines published during Goguryeo until 1790, he practiced riding on a horse. He then concluded that our ancestors who were horsemen rode a native kind of horses. Our native pony, which can go under a fruit tree with a person on it, has hard hoofs. Furthermore, as it is very strong, it can walk for seven or eight hours and easily climb mountains.

Goh even opened a horse-riding club in 2003 by leasing a cow farm in Jangheung, Gyeonggi. He now owns 20 horses including kinds that are Australian, German, Russian and Korean.

“Martial Arts on Horseback is the Best Culture”-

Goh decided to form a riding club when he rode from Jeju Island to Panmunjeom with college students in 2002. He created a student horse-riding group and taught such college students who wanted to do a tour of Korea. He then quit his other job and became the party’s leader and traveled a total of 700 kilometers in two weeks. After the tour, he bought two horses for 10 million won and now owns 20 of them.

Hoping to instruct proper martial arts not only to Koreans but also to foreigners, Goh performed more that 20 horseback demonstrations. He said regretfully, “Horseback martial arts is a great culture to show that our ancestors are horsemen. It would be great if there were a proper performance stage.”

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