Posts Tagged With: jousting

How to Train Your Warhorse

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Elizabeth

Happy Friday to you all! I hope the week has found you well and you are all prepared for a nice relaxing weekend. As for me, I will be headed into the arena aboard Miss Maggie, hoping all goes well and excited to put into action the principles Art taught me. Unfortunately, today we took Art to the airport to send him back to California, however, I am so grateful for the time he spent working with us out here!

The past few days have gone very well, and I feel like I have so much more in my toolbox of horses thanks to Art. I’m starting to get to that point where I can take something I learned from one horse, and apply it to another horse to help fine tune them. It’s truly a great feeling when you can take something you learned to fix one problem and use it to help another problem. I’ve really started to scratch the surface of how much my seat and hands affect my horse, and I know there’s so much further to develop in my riding. When you are able to simply tilt up your wrists and sit with you core to make your horse sit down and stop under you, it’s just an amazing feeling.

The first day Art worked with me, he told me that I need to ride more with my body and less with my hands. Which made me laugh, because it is the exact same thing Dave has been telling me for the past few weeks… I guess sometimes you just need to hear something 21 times before it finally starts to stick! But it’s definitely a concept that I’m working to refine more. The whole notion of pulling back to stop and kick to go forward is thrown out the window here and I’m really working to redefine my riding style. Sometimes when I’m really struggling with something, it takes a hit to my confidence, and I imagine that I can’t be very good at riding horses at all. And then I look at the big picture and see that Kelly is putting Maggie in my hands and Dave is confident that my horse skills will allow me an advantage in learning to be a jouster, and I have to stop beating myself up and realize I must not be as bad as I think I am. But having to essentially re-learn how to ride in the style that Dave and Kelly train their horses in has definitely been a process for me. Ah horse training, such a physically and emotionally trying job…

Speaking of Maggie, she has been progressing well, and I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, but at the same time it’s so draining to have to work with a slew of different difficulties every day. But I understand that is what horse training is, and every horse is going to have something that needs to be fine tuned. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the difficulty I have with her, but on the other hand, I know that if I was riding a push button horse I would go crazy with boredom. I have to constantly remind myself that Maggie is still learning, and I need to be a positive reassurance for her and not a controlling discipline Nazi. Today Art told me that his goal when working a horse is to make them happy without having them develop any bad habits. I’ve been sitting on that a lot, and really like it, because that’s what riding is about, a happy partnership. It’s also a struggle when I know my anxiety and frustrations are being relayed to Maggie, so in order for her to be happy and confident in her job, I do to. I’ve really learned a lot through working with her, and not just about horses, but about myself as well. I’m very grateful for the opportunity I have with her, and am excited to see what the future holds for us.

There’s really not much to report in jousting news at this time. I know that I probably should of gotten up in armor at least once more this week, but I really wanted to spend as much time focusing on refining my riding with Art that it sort of got pushed to the side. I did practice with a lance the other day, and just doing passes with that left me realizing I need to step up my game. We’ve also had a shortage of horses, due to numerous injuries, so there has been limited mounts for me to get on and practice after I finish my time with Maggie. Next week I’m going to hit the ground running and I promise I’ll bribe Shelby into taking some pictures of me working in armor. I also promise that next week I will spend some time going over the rest of the group here so you all know who is who and can meet my joust family. They really are a fantastic group of people.

With that promise, I bid you all goodnight! Tonight is a school night, and I see a busy weekend ahead of me! Please all do an anti-rain dance so it stays dry this weekend and we don’t have to perform in puddles, and wish us all luck! Oh, and here’s picture of Art with Maggie and I after our ride, he’s actually taller than me! Huge thank you to Art and all that he taught me, I can’t wait to spend more time with him in the future!

 

Maggie and I with the horse-wizard, Art!

Maggie and I with the horse-wizard, Art!

 

Much love to you all!

Categories: Horses | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Learning Process Continues

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Elizabeth

Heads up. There’s a lot to be said this post, and while I plan to do my best to condense, it may end up taking a lot of space to get what I want to say out. There’s been lots of exciting things happening with the horses though, and I’m realizing more and more how frustrating, yet how rewarding, horse training can be!

Let’s begin with the weekend. Things went pretty horrendously the first show, because unfortunately Maggie has become an anxiously wound spring during shows and become belligerent and extremely tense. She took off on me a few times and was flat out ignoring and sassing me, which is not ok. We completely went to war over a few things and I walked away from the first show the most frustrated I’ve been while working with her. After a talk, Kelly and I decided we just needed to drop the choreography of the show and focus only on making Maggie relax and realize there is nothing to be worried about.

Needless to say, the next 3 shows over the weekend went much better. She did quite well at the quintian and our dry passes in the lyst, and I simply spent the remainder of the show getting her to relax and settle down. We practiced lots of backing up, rollbacks, flexing her neck, circles; anything to keep her feet moving and her mind distracted. By the final show on Sunday, I was able to calmly trot her back and forth while the men made their lance passes, and she didn’t panic so badly when they started the ground fight.

During the weekend, I had a few people come up to me after the show and comment on what a good job I was doing with her. They realized the struggles I was having with her, but one man came up and said, “You’re a really good rider and work well with that horse. I can tell you’re having problems, but you’re handling them extremely well”. It really makes my day when I’m able to have people come up and recognize that I have a new horse and appreciate the work I’m doing to get her settled in.

I know we still have quite a ways to go, now that we’ve had to step back to square one and go back to making shows less scary, but that’s the process of training a new horse. I feel like there’s so much fine tuning with Maggie, she’s going to keep me busy for a while! However, I can see our progress, and while I am completely infuriated with her at times, I still love her and appreciate all she’s doing. I know that she isn’t doing anything to purposely make me upset, so I have to step back and reanalyze the situation some times.

Speaking of reanalyzing things… Kelly’s trainer, Art, arrived from California. Art is a wonderful trainer who works reining and cutting horses in California, and has know Barb and Kelly for years. He’s a fantastic teacher, and really does a good job at helping things make sense. I worked with him today, and he really helped me and Maggie find more collection and balance today. One of the terms he used which really stuck was, “You want to fluff her up”, in the sense that I wanted her to lift herself up and ride more framed and more collected. I worked on teaching Maggie not to hang on me for support, but to pick herself up and carry herself. We had a very productive first day, and since Art is here till Friday, I still have lots of time to have him refine Miss Maggie and I.

Despite it being over 80 and humid today, after riding Maggie, Dave pushed me to pull out a second horse and ride with my armor on. I knew that I had to do it, and really do need to be wearing it every day, but it really takes a lot of motivation to get on another horse while wearing over 100lbs of steel and ride around some more… But I did it. I rode Christine, who is an amazing Clydesdale. She’s Dave’s go-to powerhouse and is really quite a beast in the lyst. However, she is also sassy as hell and pushy beyond belief. I’ll be honest here, I saw other people struggle with her and I thought I would be able to handle her. I was wrong.

Christine has figured out how to set people up to get her way, and will push and pull you around to get it. She can be extremely belligerent and bossy, and it can be very hard to get her to cooperate. She practically dragged me around the field while Kelly shouted instruction to us until we started figuring each other out. I almost lost my composure and had to work very hard to leave my emotions behind and continue moving on. It was hot, I was sweating, my horse wouldn’t listen, my knee hurt; it was quite the lot to deal with. However, Kelly patiently worked with us, and by the end of my time with Christine, I was able to ride her together, have her stop, back, pivot, and continue forward while collected.

I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but you would not believe the work it took me to get to that point. I really had to focus on what all parts of my body were telling her, and I also had to throw away the old habits I’m still hanging onto. A lot of the things Christine does are things that Maggie does, but Maggie does them on a much smaller scale. So now I really know that I have to fix those before they get as bad as Christine’s problems. But let me tell you, getting her to finally listen to me and relax was pure joy, and it was the most satisfied I’ve been after a ride in a while.

What topped off the day was the overwhelming amount of support I got from my team. They helped me untack and put up Christine, and showed support of me getting up in armor after I’d already ridden Maggie. It really meant a lot, and I’m so thankful I have such a wonderful crew that wants to see me grow and succeed. Dave especially has been a huge support, and without him, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today. I know I can get tired of his constant coaching and advice, and him always pushing me to put my armor on and go ride another horse, but I am very grateful for it. I’m just excited for what the future holds!

And at that I sign off for the night, tomorrow is another busy day with horses to ride and armor to wear, so I bid you adieu and good night. Much love to you all!

 

P.S. I am so sorry for the lack of pictures, I promise tomorrow I will  bribe someone to takes pictures of us riding, but it’s been near impossible to find pictures from the weekend! I’m still trying though!

Categories: Horses, Jousting | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Breakthroughs and Beatings

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Elizabeth

After being here for just over 3 weeks, I finally feel like things are starting to get underway and I’m so excited for what the future holds. Maggie and I are finally starting to click and I’m getting to spend more and more time training in my armor. Plus the time I’m getting to spend with my new friends and jousting family is really making my experience here memorable. Life is so good right now, and I am so happy with my decisions leading up to this point.

Let’s start with Miss Maggie! Yesterday during our ride, I finally had a light bulb moment and felt like we’d made a serious breakthrough. I’ve been having a really hard time trusting her and allowing myself to add slack to my reins and ride one handed. I finally just told myself that I needed to trust her and let it happen, and like Dave told me, she’s still learning, so if she makes a mistake I can always reach back in with two hands to fix it. Plus we’re practicing on a huge open field, so there’s really nothing terrible that would happen if she took off.

We were working with some exercises to move her shoulders and move more freely when Kelly came over and started working with us on a circle. I had her in one hand and was trying to get her to frame up and round herself out while slowing down. Kelly made the comment to slow her down with my seat, and to slow my rhythm to slow her down. Something clicked and I was able to relax my seat and instantly felt her slow down without my hands having to even move at all. He then said to take a huge exhale out and relax and when I did, she came to a lovely stop. All with my hands staying in one place and a nice drape in her reins!

It really left me excited to have that breakthrough with her and be able to trust her more. We were able to run the quintain both directions one handed with a lance and she ran strait and smooth for me. Today we spent more time getting her used to yelling and the sound of armor rattling, and we were able to work her through it. I’m really hoping to have a good show weekend coming up and have very high expectations for her. Wish us luck!

In other news, I rode Indigo in armor on Wednesday and we did very well! He rides completely different then Maggie, and having to work on lifting him up and really using my leg to motivate him was quite the workout for the day. We’ve had to make some adjustments to my armor to get it where it needs to be, but everything has been a pretty easy fix and it’s all been working great so far. Plus I’m the only one with stainless armor and it has a mirror finish on it so my goal is going to be to blind all who oppose me!

Today I also learned the company’s ground fight, and had it been for real, I would have been beat terribly. I know that I need to get more comfortable in my armor and have it feel like a second skin, so I plan to spend all next week with it on. It’s very hard to act animated and sell a fight when you feel so restricted in your armor. Thankfully strength and cardio are two things that are obtainable with hard work. I plan to push myself to the point where I am able to do the fight without feeling winded and having to struggle to lift up my shield. I was having a bad day today and it was very therapeutic to beat each other with swords though!

Learning the ground fight, I'm the shiny one!

Learning the ground fight, I’m the shiny one!

My big goal is to be ready to joust in the show by Minnesota, which begins mid August, so I have about a month to be prepared. I’m really excited, and am prepared to work my hardest to make it happen. The group here is extremely supportive and really willing to help get me there, and I am ever so thankful for them. Shout out to my joust family, you all mean more to me than you know!

In other news, Harry and I helped work with the camels next door and I ended up riding out a buck on a camel, which is no small feat. I’m slowly getting better at Super Smash Bro’s and am so thankful we made the decision to get a Nintendo 64 for the team, it’s a nice time killer for our down time.

I don’t think there’s much else to say, I’m living life to the fullest and am really enjoying myself. Thank you to everyone who has believed in me and pushed me to pursue this path of mine. Your support is invaluable. Much love!

Categories: Horses, Jousting | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Miss Maggie and Me!

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Elizabeth

One of the best features of this experience is the time spent with the horses and being able to learn and grow with the help of great mentors. There is no time wasted which is spent in the saddle, and I’ve taken as much time as I can to spend riding. So far I’ve ridden 6 of the 11 horses here and have faced challenges and rewarding experiences from each and every one of them. Kelly, who owns the troupe, is an accomplished horseman and has a wealth of experience to share. Dave, the senior jouster of the troupe and an accomplished horse trainer himself, has also been selflessly helping me perfect and refine my technique as well. Both of them have helped me tremendously, and I can’t believe how much my riding has improved in the last week! Huge thanks to both of them!

 

All of the horses used by the company are trained in Western Reining, and we try to have calm and relaxed horses for both the work we do on and off the joust field. The main principles are to get the horse to drape and hang, and be able to work off minimal rein. During the shows, we employ the stops, pivots, and collection that we spend refining during the week. We ride Tuesday through Friday, and perform on both Saturday’s and Sunday’s. So the horses here are in extremely good shape and extremely well trained. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden such beautifully trained horses before, and it’s such a blessing to spend 6 days of the week working with such wonderful creatures!
Just the other day, Kelly informed me that I would begin working with one of the newer horses in preparation to take her through her first show and joust. Her name is Maggie, and she’s an 8 year old Belgian/Quarter Horse cross. Of all the giant horses here, she is the smallest of the lot, and looks tiny next to the massive Clydesdales and Percheron’s typically used. She’s a light chestnut, with a flaxen mane and looks more like a Quarter Horse mutt than a draft mix. But she’s lovely to ride, albeit a tad fast and forward and has a tendency to get heavy on your hands. She’s definitely a lot of horse to ride, despite her small stature, and has been an exciting challenge thus far. With only three days to prepare her for opening weekend tomorrow, I was feeling quite overwhelmed, to say the least! I’ve slowly been progressing with her, starting with dry passes in the lyst and through the quintain, and have gradually moved her up to wearing her armor and doing trotting passes with another horse. Maggie wears a demi-chamfron on her head and a peytrol around her chest, as well as her barding costume. She’s been a bit uncertain about working with the armor, and is still getting used to having other horses in armor riding around her. Thankfully the entire team has been behind us, and I am so grateful for them putting up with my silly requests to get Maggie ready for her debut! Today she amazed me with how well she did during dress rehearsal; so much was thrown at her and although it took us time, we were able to work through a lot of her fears. When you look at the big picture, it really is a work of art to be able to train these horses to ride out in armor amidst a crowd of people and noises in a small space, with an armored knight on their back, and then stand quietly before running directly towards another horse!

 

Tomorrow we will have to contend with a muddy arena full of horse eating puddles, a large cheering crowd, drums, speakers, faire rides, lots of armor, and a cacophony of other distractions. However, I am confident that Miss Maggie and I will be able to work our way through it all. It may not be pretty and it may not go according to plan, but as long as I am there to support her and build her confidence, I am certain we will emerge successful!

 

I plan on writing another post Monday to let you all know how Maggie’s debut went, but want to know what you’d like to see more of. I was debating between going over the warm-up techniques we use with the horses here and going over the training method, or delving more into the people I’ve met and the adventures I’ve had thus far. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to write about both, but would love some input on what to focus on more right now.

 

That’s all for now! It’s a “school night” for me so I’ll be headed off to bed early in preparation for opening weekend tomorrow! Please send Maggie and I good thoughts! Much Love!

 

She is fierce in her warhorse costume!

She is fierce in her warhorse costume!

 

 

Getting used to her costume pieces!

Getting used to her costume pieces!

 

Categories: Horses | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Beginnings

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Elizabeth

Good morning excited and eager new readers! Thank you for taking the time to read my first (of hopefully many!) blog posts. For those of you not familiar with me and my journey thus far, let me introduce myself! I am the Dame Elizabeth and have been infatuated and completely overtaken for my love of horses and jousting. About a year and a half ago, I unknowingly stumbled upon the sport of jousting, and since then have been enthusiastically pursuing it. Focusing on the full contact style, I have on and off been pursuing this style for the last year or so, and have most recently been invited to join up with Warhorse Productions and their team, the New Riders of the Golden Age. They are the oldest full contact troupe in the United States and focus as much on horsemanship as they do on jousting. I was picked up by them after jousting at Sherwood Forest Faire in Texas the past few years and so far, I couldn’t be happier with my decision to ride with them! I’ve quit my job working at a small animal clinic and am ready to dedicate myself to my passion.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, let me begin to tell you the tales of my adventures thus far in the distant land of… Sterling, New York.

state signs

State Signs!

Rather than spending pages recounting my travels and tales thus far, let me summarize; I traveled from Colorado to New York over the course of 3 days, spanning a total of 9 states, 1,822 miles, and over 26 hours in the car. It. Was. Not. Fun. Especially when you’re driving alone. But thankfully I had amazing friends whom I was able to stay with on my travels, and had good snacks to eat, and jammin’ music to listen to, so it was manageable, to say the least. Even though I’ve only been here a week now, I’ve already made some wonderful friends, and enjoy the crew that I’ll be working with (more on them later). I’m staying in a tent, complete with futon, lighting, fan, etc. so the situation isn’t as bad as you might think. There has been some talk of raccoons forming raiding parties and attacking at night, so I’ve been sleeping with one eye open thus far (UPDATE: the stories were right, there are definitely nosy coons in the night that cause you to lose sleep and go to drastic measures to deter them). The bugs are of course atrocious, and I’m trying exceptionally hard not to scratch my numerous mosquito bites as I try to write this. But it’s all worth it because the horses and people here are just fueling my passion even further, and every night I go to bed with a smile on my face because I’m so content.

When I first decided to actually pursue this opportunity to come out here and work with the troupe, I had a lot of people question my choices because they couldn’t understand the logic behind it. Truth be told, there is no logic, but instead there is passion. I’ve come to realize just how much of an impact horses have on my life, and while this transition does not make any sense logically, it makes sense in my heart. Today I woke up sore and bug bitten after an unfulfilling night of sleep, but as soon as I got out to the horses and started morning chores, everything seemed to fade away. For me, being around horses is therapy, and there really is nothing better for my soul. The past few days I’ve faced challenges with the horses I’ve rode, but there is nothing quite as fulfilling as that moment when it clicks between you and the horse and you both flow together harmoniously. Time doesn’t matter. Personal problems go away. Stress and doubt dissolve. It’s just you and a two thousand pound animal working together. I’ll definitely spend some more time in my future posts going over the riding techniques we focus on here and everything I’ve been learning, but I cone wholeheartedly say that this is some of the most rewarding riding I’ve done. I’ve left every ride happy with the accomplishments I’ve made, and am proud of how my riding skills are slowly improving. My mentors here are both wonderful riders and teachers, and I’m so grateful to have the resources I do through them.

Besides the jousting crew being stellar, I’m very fortunate to be able to be a part of the faire as a whole. The cast here is wonderful, and Sterling Renaissance Faire is the only faire to hire professional actors as their cast. Aside from being skilled and top notch at their job, they are all friendly and welcoming, and I’ve already started to get to know them all. Friday evening, they practiced their “pub sing”, which is basically an event at the end of the day where the entire cast gathers and sings song together. The sun was setting behind them, and as we sat there and watched them practice, it made me realize how fortunate I am to have this opportunity with these amazing people. The entire cast is all about love and happiness, and I’ve heard countless tales of people who have done as I have, and left their 9-5 jobs to live this lifestyle. Everyone is always all smiles, and it makes me more confident that I made the right decision.

Fair opens this weekend, so soon we will begin blocking out the show and figuring out our positions. I think I will do a mid-week blog post that focuses more on the riding aspect, and then spend next Monday after opening weekend focusing on how first weekend went. If there’s ever anything that you as a reader would like for me to focus on, please don’t hesitate to let me know and I will gladly focus an entry on that! And any questions you may have, please forward them on to me.

Thanks again for reading and I look forward to your feedback on my first post!

 

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