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A question about horses

Started by Bryan1108, July 09, 2009, 12:13:55 PM

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Bryan1108

I have always wondered, do most knights own their own horses or are they provided by the event planner?

BLAKDUKE

Quote from: Bryan1108 on July 09, 2009, 12:13:55 PM
I have always wondered, do most knights own their own horses or are they provided by the event planner?

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I would be surprised if an event planner would provide horses for jousters.  All of the jousters that I know own their own horses.   
Ancient swordsman/royalty
Have Crown/Sword Will Travel

squiregaby

Most of the jousting horses are owned by the director of the company the knights joust for.
For example, Bryan owns all of the Noble Cause Productions horses.
Squire Gaby
Squire to the Knights of the most Noble Cause

ladyharrogate

depends, with Noble Cause Brian owns most of the horses.  I think that that Kelly with New Riders owns most of theirs too.  H-Lats is a mix.  The company owns some and some of the guys bring their own horses.  There are also guys that train horses and loan/rent out to the companies they work with.  One company, think it might be Knights of Avalon but not sure has a rescue program.  They rescue abused, neglected and abandoned horses and rehabilitate them.

Sir William Marcus

Knights of Avalon is correct, as for rescued horses
VENI, VIDI, VELCRO! Spelling and grammatical errors are beyond my control, it's the way I'm wired.

ladyharrogate

Thank you for clarifying Sir William.  I had remembered reading about their program and was really impressed by it.  Good to see companies doing good for the horse community.

analise

Just as a sidenote on jousting horses and rescues.

I volunteer for a rescue (Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue) that has in the past adopted out horses to jousters. Just, you know, in case anyone's looking. :)

Historic Arms and Armour

#7
With our tournaments (http://www.worldjoust.com), all the competitors are from outside the area if not outside the country, and of course it's not practical for them to bring their own horses, so we maintain 4 of our own and hire in 2 more for our events.

With all the international tournaments I've competed in, the organizers have always provided horses for visiting competitors. The locals have their own horses, but again it's impractical for me to bring my own horse to the UK or Europe.

It's a bit of a bummer really. I spend a ton of time training here, training my own horses and keeping them fit, then I only get to use them in one tournament a year. Using provided horses has taught me a lot about working with unfamiliar horses though, and made me a better rider overall.

We do hope that eventually we'll host more local competitors who might be able to bring their own mounts, like we have a team from Canada interested in competing in the future. It would also be great if high level competitive historical jousting grows in North America so there would be more opportunities to joust closer to home.
Cheers,

Jeffrey Hedgecock
WorldJoust Tournaments
Produced by Historic Enterprises, Inc.

ladyharrogate

Jeffrey, that's interesting to note on the international competitions.  I'd wondered about that.  I have sat in on training sessions and even from the time the guys are breaking the horses there is training towards jousting.  Friends have told me it takes several years to turn a horse into a good jousting horse and I know from my work with my own horses that their is a bond and trust that develops.  I could not imagine competing in a high level tournament without knowing the horse. 

On an aside, I've read the website information on your tournament and such.  I was wondering if you have a program or advertising at your tournaments.  I'll send you a private note on it too so as not to bore the rest of the board members.

Historic Arms and Armour

Quote from: ladyharrogate on August 17, 2009, 06:38:00 AM
Jeffrey, that's interesting to note on the international competitions.  I'd wondered about that.  I have sat in on training sessions and even from the time the guys are breaking the horses there is training towards jousting.  Friends have told me it takes several years to turn a horse into a good jousting horse and I know from my work with my own horses that their is a bond and trust that develops.  I could not imagine competing in a high level tournament without knowing the horse. 

On an aside, I've read the website information on your tournament and such.  I was wondering if you have a program or advertising at your tournaments.  I'll send you a private note on it too so as not to bore the rest of the board members.

We do have advertising and marketing partnerships available. Email me at info@worldjoust.com for details. I don't visit here very often, so it's best to email direct.

on training jousting horses...

I would say the time it takes to train a jousting horse depends entirely on the horse and how accomplished a trainer you are. There are many factors to consider. My experience is that some horses, if already trained for general riding and neck reining, can be trained in as little as one hour, others may take two to several weeks. I personally feel that if a horse requires several years to train for jousting, it is probably not the best candidate to be a jousting horse. Some horses will never joust-- they just don't have the makeup for it, either in body or mind.

http://www.knightschool.us/horses.html

Two of my 4 horses jumped straight into jousting. One of those 2 was a cow-horse and plays polo; we got on him in armour and jousted him immediately. Other polo horses we've tried haven't taken to it. Like with all horses, some will, some won't.

The other of the 2 had one day of relaxed jousting training (but I rode him in armour and jousted him the same day) then nearly 2 years later I took him into a tournament and he performed flawlessly for a skill at arms session and two hard sessions of jousting.

The third of the 4 we bought at 3 years old, a bit green, and he jousted in a tournament less than 2 months after we bought him. He was quite mature physically, and mentally he was game for anything-- very brave and trusting. I wouldn't recommend hard training or jousting on any horse that's only 3 years old-- it takes a special horse to do it that young and many things can go wrong if you're not careful. Luckily we had the right candidate in Tristan, and took proper care with him. He's a great horse.

Overall, our training regimen is intensely considerate of the horses. We don't push them harder than they can handle, and we always finish a session on a good note. We have a blast with jousting and want our mounts to have the same enjoyment we do. So far, all of our horses love it and get really put out if we don't include them in a training session. Horses need a job to do and all like working. Jousting is one of many potential "jobs" for a horse, but probably more exciting and fun than many others, especially if approached in the right way.
Cheers,

Jeffrey Hedgecock
WorldJoust Tournaments
Produced by Historic Enterprises, Inc.

ladyharrogate

I agree, some horses do train quicker.  I look at it like training a horse for any specialty.  You can train a horse for Hunter Jumpers, Dressage or rodeo games quickly but that is the basics, the longer you train the better they get.  It takes years to get an national champion or Olympic level horse.  So, the more training a horse has the more finely tuned it becomes.  While it may not take years for a horse to learn to joust and a horse that has strong fundamental training will do better, it was the fine tuning that I was referring to in the several years of training.  There is also a difference in the types of jousting, is the horse just used in the joust, is there an emphasis on games of skill, is the horse being used for a heavily staged stunt show.  That can all effect training and horses  Just like the riders jousting on them, different horses will excel at different styles and types of jousting.