Jousting is not rodeo. The ideals of
chivalry demand that the horse be treated with exaggerated respect. In
the old days there was a rule. If anyone participating in a tournament
struck their opponent's horse with a weapon resulting in injury, they
were immediately shot to death with crossbows.
An introduction to lunging is the first
step. Lunging is used to teach proper footfall for maneuvers and collection.
Also tracking prepares a horse for leads. When conditioning allows, the
horse is put under saddle and introduced to a short shanked curb bit:
extremely subtle cues with a spider crawl/cavalry direct rein being the
goal.
Leg cues are taught and the horse learns
that the reins cue the front legs and the leg cues cue the rear legs.
The horse is taught to pivot on both the front and rear. All slow, low
pressure maneuvers. Slowly the horse is moved in straight lines with the
left shoulder forward, then the right shoulder forward.
Next, the flying lead change is addressed.
When the horses enter a pass they are turned slightly away from each other.
Then, as the lances hit, they switch leads turning slightly to the left
and finishing the pass in that lead. This keeps the horses' faces clear
and eliminates the chance of an accidental full frontal collision. The
horses never hit each other at all. Horses are then taught to sidepass
and spin. The power starts and rollbacks will wait till the horse is more
advanced. The flying lead change trick makes sure that the horses' legs
are placed to accept the impact with the least strain. A hunter jumper
is in a far more stressful situation.
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Once these goals have been met the horse
is introduced to the lance. Training starts by riding with a lance in
hand till it is familiar to the horse, usually a dozen rides or so. The
lance is touched against objects; then struck. When the movement and noise
is accepted then the horse is stopped next to a telephone pole. The blunt
tip of the training lance is put against the pole and the horse walked
forward and feels the resistance. This is repeated till the horse expects
that resistance and understands how to move with it. The process is repeated,
moving at a walk till that is boring, then a trot, a lope, and, finally,
at a run. This gives the horse the opportunity to actually learn to enjoy
the competition rather than fearing it.
Next, the horse is shown the armour by having it left standing in his pen. Blankenshield jousting armour is lighter than most modern armour, weighing 50 to 70 lbs rather than the 80 or 90 required by unhardened plate. The Blankenshield jousting saddle weighs another 30 lbs. Parts of the suit are worn by the rider until the whole suit is boring, then passes with another horse running the opposite direction with its scary costumed rider. Far apart, then closer, till the distance allows the lances to be hit against each other. Finally the riders are able to hit each other without the horse being frightened by the whole process.
To train the horses to not drag a rider
is extremely important. Possibly life saving. By sitting on the ground
by the horse, pulling on the stirrup and reins at the same time, with
patience the horse will recognize that a strong pull on one stirrup with
no weight in the saddle means stop. From there move to jumping off the
moving horse and pulling the stirrup and reins at once.
As a martial artists to be blunt the
object is to hurt each other whether it is boxing, karate, sword fighting
or jousting. As a practitioners of chivalry we are obligated to protect
the innocent. Nothing is more innocent than a horse. The heroic dedication
of all horses has always been revered by chivalry. Horses must be put
on pedestals and used as examples to other people of what respect can
win. .
"Hands of the clock" is an exercise used
to train the horse and rider to leg cues. An object is chosen, either
a post or a person will do. The horse is moved up to the object till his
nose is basically against it. The hind end of the horse is then driven
with leg cues in a circle around the object while the forehand is kept
pointed at the object and moved around a smaller circle. The effect is
that of the hands of a clock in rotation. Of course, smoothness is sought
for. For this particular discipline the front of the horse is steered
with the reins and the back of the horse is steered with the legs. In
its natural state the horse steers like a forklift and leg cues are easier
for it to react to than rein cues. Clover leaves backward are used to
teach horse and rider to steer backward. A horse can be just as comfortable
working in reverse and this is very handy in practice. The horse is started
moving backward, then steered in a figure eight. At the center of the
eight the second circle is carried a little farther than reversed into
the third leaf of the clover. It is a great trick at gymkhanas to lose
gracefully by walking the horse backward around the pattern but that is
asking a lot of patience from the horse. This can also be a tight fast
maneuver done to bring a rowdy horse under control.
