Even More Training...

Yestereday we trailered the horses with Bev & Brian down to Spanaway to do more joust training. No pics of course, but we learned alot and had plenty of fun. Bev got herself a new pony, Jaran (after the Kate Elliot books by that name), a beautiful black draft mix gelding. He is a perfect match for Woody, and we've been working with both of them in my tilt-yard to get them worked slowly up to speed.

Warm up with the horses consited of some good, old fashioned Cavalry Drill. Taxi was in his element, leading the pack in "how it's done". (He always insists on being the lead horse on trail rides, since he got used to being "The Captain's Horse" on films, and isn't about to give that honour up to some young pup!) We did some nice work with horses that, other than Taxi, were totally new to this. They learn fast, though!

Our first order of business after drill was attacking Brian from horseback. He was on foot with a shield, and we rode past him, smacking his shield with waisters or blunted swords. Woody excelled at this, and it got even more fun for him when Brian started handing out carrots for good passes. The other horses were rather suspicious of the whole deal, but Woody thinks that if carrots are involved, it's all good! Bring it on!

The main event was getting some hits in on shields as we made passes with the horses. We've done this in the past week or so with Woody and Jaran, but only one shield, one lance at a time. Yesterday was both riders with shield and lance, helm and some armour, so the hits became more "interesting". Still hard to see out of those breaths in the helmet visor though. I need a proper liner!

The horses that the folks in Spanaway were using are new to this whole thing too (even greener than Woody and Jaran), so it took some taking time. But heck, all of the horses and riders got in some good training! In a few more months we ought to have some serious War Horses under saddle! Now to train them to gunfire...

Gordon