Think either horse riding or archery is hard? Imagine combining the two. For the first time outside of Japan, Yabusame horseback archery came to Port Douglas Carnivale.

Five Samurai from Japan, three Malaysian horseback archers and seven Australians competed in the Port Douglas Carnivale competition attracting thousands to the beach for a sight never seen in Australia. (ABC Local: Isaac Egan)

Local horseback archer Katrina Kruse came third in a competition in Japan and decided to bring the sport to Port Douglas for Carnivale. She says Yabusame is a form of horseback archery that has great spiritual and historical importance to the Japanese. (ABC Local: Isaac Egan)

"It goes back a few hundred years, the warriors of the day, because of peace time, weren't practicing their skills, so they decided to start running competitions to keep their warriors' skills honed. It became quite a serious competition and should a warrior miss the target he used to take it so personally that he would actually commit harakiri at the end of the run. So it went from being this incredible warrior culture to the sport that it has become today," said Ms Kruse. (ABC Local: Isaac Egan)

Ms Kruse says it is the combination of a number of skills making for a challenging sport. "The horses are heading down a narrow track nearly two hundred metres long, the riders don't have their hands on the reins, because they need both hands to shoot the bow, in fact the riders won't even be looking where the horses are going," she said. (ABC Local: Isaac Egan)

Din Mahidin is the current Malaysian champion and came first at the Four Mile Beach event. "I am astonished myself, I am amazed, I am shocked, I didn't expect to win at all, because I am up against all the top Samurais from Japan. I have been to several horseback archery competitions around the world and I think by far this is the best, not because of my result, but the atmosphere and everything else," he said. (ABC Local: Isaac Egan)

"For me this sport is a combination of two difficult things to do, riding horses and shooting arrows. It happens to be one of the things taught by my prophet, so it is a spiritual thing to me, because I am taught to accept wherever the arrow lands because it is where Allah wants it to land," said Mr Mahidin. (ABC Local: Isaac Egan)

Team Malaysia's Anita Woo came second at Port Douglas and says she has the utmost respect for the sport, which she says holds great cultural importance to the Japanese. "This sport is one that is highly revered by the Japanese, and it is a samurai tradition and it is something that is almost divine, it is a religious thing for them," she said. (ABC Local: Isaac Egan)