Jousting Training for Man and Horse

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. The first rule of the school is, "hit a horse with a lance and you are officially dead." That means, out of the school, no appeal. In over a decade of training jousters only one lance contacted a horse and, while no injury resulted, the student was immediately discharged. In over a decade of practicing and teaching this sport Tournament Productions has never injured a horse in a tournament.

An introduction to lunging is the first step. This is usually difficult for Standardbreds. Lunging is used to teach proper footfall for maneuvers and collection, and tracking prepares a horse for leads. When conditioning allows, the horse will be put under saddle and introduced to a short shanked curb bit: extremely subtle cues with a spider crawl/cavalry direct rein being the goal. This will address different parts of the mouth than the snaffle/bar bit usually used on Standardbreds.

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 higher speed starts and rollbacks will wait till the horse is fully healthy. 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.

ARMOR UP!

Next, the horse is shown the armor by having it left standing in his pen. The armor is lighter than most folks know, weighing only 22 lbs. The stripped down McClellan saddle weighs another 20 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 easy with Standardbreds as they are usually already conditioned because of cart training. 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.

As a martial arts school we frankly teach men to hurt each other. I can see how this might cause concern as to how we might treat animals. As a practitioners of chivalry we am obligated to protect the innocent. Nothing is more innocent than a horse. The heroic dedication of all horses has always been revered by chivalry. Our horses will be put on pedestals and used as examples to other people of what respect can win. We hope that the fact that we are going out of our way to rescue horses will help convey that respect to our audiences. We hope that every show will send someone on a quest to get their own off the track horse.

"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. Tournament Productions teaches that 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. Cloverleaves 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. Usually it is a tight fast maneuver done to bring a rowdy horse under control.