The Squire Life

At the bequest of the lovely Ally King, I have decided to dedicate this blog post into an account of the day to day activities of in the life of a squire. As I have been recovering, I have been spending a lot of time working on the ground and helping with the shows, and let me tell you what, it is not as easy as a job as one would think! So, let me enlighten you on the tales of my time squiring, and give each and every one of you insight to what it’s like to run things from the ground.

First, you have to prep the field. You take everything from the back (lances, helmets, guards, swords and shields), and you bring it to the field. Good!

Next, you stand around in case anyone needs help with their armor. Usually they don’t. Ok, doing well!

Then, it’s time to head out to the field. You wait for the knights to get called out, then you put their helmets and guards on; alright, not so difficult.

Now, here’s where things start getting fast paced. You give a knight a lance, he charges forth, smacks his opponent, and then resets back to his end. “But what should I be doing then?” you wonder. Well, it’s all about running, picking up broken lances, running back, squatting down, waiting, then doing it again and again! Wow! This is fun! I know, I know…

Sometimes you ever get to help fallen knights up, move horses, coil and unwind ropes, and even take off helmets and guards.

This position is known as the “Squire Squat”. As Ally is demonstrating, she is ready to spring into action when needed!

Truly, the life of the squire is one of dedication and devotion, and requires tireless hours of practice and endless skill.

But let’s get serious for a minute; the ground crew is one of the most important aspects of having a show go smoothly. They really are there to make things go as planned, and make sure the things that need to happen, happen. Last week, I saw some of our dedicated squire’s sprint off the field, grab duct tape, and tape Sir Marcus’ helmet to his head as the pin had broken. We’ve had to jump in the lyst to help with unruly horses, quickly make repairs and adjustments, and try our hardest to make sure it all goes smoothly.

I am so grateful that there are always such great ground crew at all the places we visit; they always will do anything to try and help out. And it is amazing and wonderful and having been on both the horse and the ground, I want to take this opportunity to thank all the squires and ground crew for all their hard work! THANK YOU! Keep it up, you all are awesome!