Posts Tagged With: Minnesota

Once again, I find myself terribly behind in my blog entries. Therefore I will begin with an apology. However the last week was incredibly difficult, as I unfortunately I started the week with a visit to the emergency room and ended it with a crippling loss. It was a tough week to get through, and I was very distracted physically and mentally to put much effort into the blog, but thankfully things are starting to settle down and I have some spare time to sit down and write some things down. I know I have 2 weekends to catch you up on, so this post might be lengthy, or it might be broken into two separate posts. I haven’t quite decided yet, but I will promise you that I will get you caught up!

I believe that I last left off with my entry about my first official passes with the company, so I will try and pick up starting the week after that. Nothing much else to say there, except Indigo has been working through some foot issues, so I’ve been playing musical horses with Abe and Tara. Had some good rides with Tara, but boy oh boy does that little engine have some go in her! I wasn’t planning to joust the next weekend, because Indy was out, but last minute decided to do the gaming show with Abraham. It was a quick decision we made the morning of, but we managed to get everything together and have a nice show. Dave’s moved up from the nice passes, and has been delivering spot on, crushing blows that have kept me on my toes. Abe and I were riding together smoothly and managing to keep steady until out last pass when my saddle rigging on the left side completely busted apart and sent me crashing to the ground. Upon falling, both straps on the left side of my breastplate completely busted as well, leaving me and Abe a tattered, falling apart mess. Overall, it was a good show and I was just happy to be in the lyst again!

Since I have been working with getting into the lyst and jousting, Maggie has been spending most of the weekends up top since there isn’t a need for her on the field at this time. However, last weekend we decided to bring her down and have her start getting used to the atmosphere, including the elephants and camels and bouncy trampoline. Shelby and I were working Millie and her and she was doing pretty alright for me considering all the new things she was encountering. However, something set her off and she decided it was imperative to run home as fast as she could. My luck with saddles had apparently run out for the day, because my left stirrup completely broke mid run, and I was sent rolling though the ground, eventually being stopped by a solid concrete wall. After laying there for a while, I was able to get up, where I was then checked up and made sure nothing was terribly broken. I had a rather large knot on my head, a tremendous scrape on my arm, some nice road rash and bruising on my hip, a painful big toe, and I managed to re-injure my bad knee. My whole left side hurt, and it was painful to breath in deep breaths, but nothing was seriously hurt, and I hadn’t lost conscious. Mostly I was upset that I came off and had hurt myself in a non-jousting related incident, and irritated that this might sideline my jousting.

I refused a trip to the urgent care that night, opting instead to cover myself in ice-packs and rest up for the night. However, the next morning, I was incredibly dizzy and unfocused, so one of the first aid people who had seen me the day before strongly suggested that I take a visit to the urgent care to make sure there wasn’t anything seriously wrong with my head. Thankfully Christine was free to take me in, so I got to spend the day in the emergency room making sure nothing was seriously wrong. After some poking and prodding, along with a CT scan, it was diagnosed that I had nothing more than a concussion and come minor chest contusions. Thankfully, I just had to deal with some lingering headaches and a abundance of bruising the following week; nothing that was going to keep me out too long!

Tuesday I was back up on Abe training, and although we took it nice and easy, it was still great to be out on Abe again. He is such a gifted horse, and I really enjoy working with him. Dave has done an incredible job training him to this point, and I always walk away from our rides impressed with his abilities. Riding Abe also helps me to really quiet down my hands and my body; Abraham is so fine tuned, I get to work with how little it takes to get him to do something. Most of the time it’s just the barest touch or encouragement and he is right there ad responsive. It makes me work on putting more trust into him, as I have to relax and work off much lighter commands. Dave was telling me how I want everything I do to have meaning, and not just to hang on him or give him mixed signals. I want to ask for something, and then let him go. It can be frustrating at first, because most people’s reaction is to tense up and grab at the reins when you don’t get what you want right away, but once you find each other, it’s quite rewarding.

Charge on!!!

The next weekend saw Abe and I armoring up in the lyst together again, once again taking passes with Dave and Tara. I was having a stressful morning already, having to completely fix my broken saddle and was in a panic trying to find stirrups that were long enough for me to use. It was just one of those off mornings, and I couldn’t shake my jitters and anxiety. Abe obviously picked up on it, and was an energized rocket on the field. My lance control was terrible, I couldn’t make any hits, and was fighting hard to keep my horse under control. However, I did manage to stay on through all of Dave’s hits, but definitely walked away with a long lists of improvements I wanted to work on for the next day.

A series of surprise events led us into having to do some last minute show rearranging Sunday morning, and after brainstorming how to fix our problem, it was decided that Dave would sit out the joust in the morning in order to marshal and I would get to meet Mark in the lyst for passes. I was ecstatic, as I had been nagging on the other guys to joust with me for the last week or so. We hustled to get ourselves and the horses ready, and I was thankful Mark was able to make jokes and help lighten the mood, as I was worried I’d panic again like I had the day before. Abe and I entered the lyst and I could already feel that his demeanor was calmer and more in tune with me. We come forward, and I was able to completely brake my lance the first pass out. I was thrilled, shouting and whooping at the end of the lyst. Second pass saw us both deliver good hits, and at this point I was ahead in points. We came about for our last pass and we met with a tremendous impact. I felt myself being rocked backwards, and tried to bring myself forwards… accidentally over compensating and taking myself right off the side of Abe. Drat! I quickly bounced to my feet and walked to the middle to meet Mark, where we embraced and laughed and high fived each other. It was heartening to know that I rocked him back pretty good with that last hit, and I probably would have had the lead had I not come tumbling off. Oh well. It was still a great show and I was very happy with my passes and Abraham.

This week I plan to work incredibly hard to start building up my stamina and getting used to the rigors of doing a full show, which includes not only lance passes, but the baston course and a ground fight as well. I also get to learn how to stunt fall in armor, which is something I’m less than thrilled about, but it’ll give me a good reason to practice getting up in my armor too, because right now I look like a floundering turtle trying to stand up. Lots of work ahead of me, but I’m ready to buckle down and get it done!!

Oh, and here’s an amazing shot of me spearing an apple right in half! The part I like best about this picture is that you can see the reflection of everything in front of me in my breatplate! Pretty nice to have stainless steel armor with a mirror finish!

Death to the apple!!

Much love to you all! Wish me luck as my training continues!