Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Champion Jousting Haffie (and his handsome sidekick Taran)

With Brego on vacation due to his foot, Paddy has once again stepped up to take on the role of Jousting Haffie - this time for the SCA's (a medieval reenactment group) 50th year celebration, held in Dansville, Indiana.

Fortunately, our road trip was uneventful if long. Both Paddy and Taran are great haulers, and drank and ate plenty during the 18 hour haul.

Crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois at dawn.

Stopping somewhere along the way.

The fairgrounds at Danville have excellent facilities - we'd managed to snag two double stalls for the boys (with stall mats!) so they had plenty of room to move around, which was good because turnout was limited to about 30 minutes per day.

What I thought would be a relaxing week turned out to be super hectic, but SO MUCH FUN. 

I taught a class on dressage in the 16th century. I know that sounds weird so let me explain. In the early 1500s in Italy, riding began to evolve from being solely a method of transportation or for warfare to being an art form. Noblemen began to show off their riding skills in elaborate performances. There are even chapters in riding manuals from that time entitled "How to Ride Before a Prince" which lays out exactly what you are supposed to show off your horse to a prince or other noble person...
"... you shall put your Horse gently forth into a comely trot. Being come against the Person of state, bow your body down to the crest of your Horse, then raising your self again, pass half a score yards beyond him..." (Markham, 1593)
In modern terms: A enter working trot, X halt, salute. Proceed working trot...

There are tons of woodcuts from 16th century riding manuals too, which show exercises that are suspiciously similar to a lot of the things many of us use in everyday riding:

Spiral in, spiral out. (Corte, 1573)

Turn on the forehand. (Fiaschi, 1556)

I could go on and on about this because I think it's super cool, but the upshot was that a bunch of people put together performances "for a Prince," using exercises and patterns shown in 16th century riding manuals. Basically they got to create a DIY 16th century dressage test and perform it. People got SUPER into it - here's a pic of everyone standing around the table with all the copies of 16th century riding manuals I'd brought, picking out the patterns they were going to ride:


I had so many people - most of who were not dressage riders and were in fact intimidated by "Dressage" - tell me how much fun they had, and how they wanted to go home and do more research and put together more performances and ride them. So I'm super stoked that folks will pick this up and run with it, and I can't wait to see other people's performances!

Here's me and Taran in our 16th century Ride Before a Prince outfit. Taran was a superstar and made me look like I knew what I was doing.

It's hard to see in this pic, but this was one of the highlights of the week. I'm cantering a circle around a guy playing bagpipes... in perfect tempo with our canter. It was like riding a freestyle with your very own band that mimics every movement with the music. SO EPIC, I wanted to keep riding forever.

But, on to jousting. Reader's digest version: Paddy and hubby were ON FIRE and won.

Hubby gets help with his armor.

Hubby and I (photo by Tannis Baldwin)

Paddy in Hover Haffie mode (photo by Tannis Baldwin)

Paddy also rocked the mounted combat, and they ended up second.

We managed to get a little trail riding in too, although every time we went out, Paddy would be mobbed by adoring fans.
 Because let's face it, everyone in the entire world is part of Paddy's adoring fan club.

CobJockey also happened to make it out for the event, not once but twice. I'm afraid we may have gone a little overboard (I mean, how often do you put a taxidermy bison head in someone's bed?) introducing her to the crazy, but the steak and scotch probably made things a little better.

Alas, this is the only picture that exists to prove she was there dressed in weird medieval clothes. 

Oh, and I managed to cross another item off my horsey bucket list: one of the ladies at the event offered to let me try riding in her side saddle. Taran was definitely not certain about this prospect, pointing out to me that we've been working for MONTHS on him moving away from one leg or the other, and that if I was only going to cue with my left leg, he would happily leg yield right all day long. I did eventually get him to trot using voice commands, although he stuck to a small jog because his rider had clearly lost her marbles.

Side saddle is rather less fun than I thought it would be, although I now have even more respect for people who can actually do this well. 

Someone even managed to take a decent "family" picture of us:

Well, decent except for the part where Taran forgot to say "cheese." I swear.

And of course, the ONE TIME I ride without a helmet for FIVE minutes, someone took a picture of that too:
He did get the posing down in this one though!

We had a great time hanging out with old friends and meeting new, and the whole thing rekindled my interest in research on 16th century dressage. So you might be seeing some posts about that from time to time... along with more stories of The Jousting Haffieeeee!

46 comments:

  1. This whole event sounds like so much fun. I love the old horse riding manuals; those are so cool. I've tried side-saddle and find it unnerving, though I'd love to be better at it. As it stands, I'm just in awe of anyone who can really do it. Huzzah to your husband for winning jousting with Paddy.

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    1. It really was a great event! Side-saddle is really... awkward. I thought I'd find the balance better, but I just worried about the saddle sliding off this left side or throwing out his back the entire time.

      The old riding manuals (i.e. 1500s) are very interesting! Most of the "old" ones are Cavendish (1660s) or de la Gueriniere (1720s)... this goes way before that!

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  2. 1. ALL THE POSTS ON 16TH CENTURY DRESSAGE!! This is seriously super interesting!

    2. The world needs more Jousting Haffie.

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    1. 1. I'll see what I can do.
      2. No more jousting haffie until November, sorry!

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  3. Glad the Haffie is back in action and that hubby is back from the middle of the ocean!

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    1. Haffie loves jousting, so he's haffie to be Brego's stand-in. :)

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  4. What an amazing & succesful family outing. The bagpipe dressage display sounds epic, is there video?! I'll turn down the sound ;-)

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    1. Unfortunately, nobody got any video of it... just the one picture. Obviously I'll have to make it happen again somehow!

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    2. Oooh please do, that would be so awesome!!!

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  5. That outing sounds super fun!

    That last photo of you and Taran is epic! I know I'm not supposed to be a fan of no-helmets, but that is one gorgeous pic!

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    1. Yeah I'm not a fan of no helmets either, but the way my hair was braided I would have had to take it all down to get a helmet on (poor excuse, I know). I do love that pic tho!

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  6. This is so fascinating to me. So cool, and Paddy is adorbs as usual.

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  7. I agree with Shauna, that last photo is lovely. I really love sidesaddle, it just takes practice (and some instruction, since it is a bit like learning to ride all over again)

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    1. I think I'd have more fun if a) the sidesaddle had fit me better, and b) I'd been riding a horse that had been trained for it. As it was, Taran was not interested in playing and I didn't want to mess him up!

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  8. Side saddle is so weird. I applaud you for even trying to trot.16th century dressage is so cool, and I definitely need to learn more about that!

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    1. I had it in my head that side saddle would be awesome, but I think between the saddle fit (way too big) and Taran's reluctance, it wasn't the best experience. Oh well! And I'll see what I can do about 16th century dressage.

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  9. I think my paddybear has found his calling.

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    1. His calling is eating cookies and being cute. Obviously.

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  10. Everyone else should just stop blogging because who wants to read anything other than posts about jousting haffies and dressaging around bag pipes? NO ONE.

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    1. But I wanna read about other people! And besides, I barely blog any more so I'm super boring.

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  11. That last picture, albeit helmetless, is epic. Also, yes, can we read more about 16th century dressage please?!!

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    1. I'll see what I can do about 16th c dressage posts!

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  12. This is so amazing. My inner fantasy quest nerd is geeking out super hard, too. It's like watching my favorite books come to life.

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    1. I may know a few folks who do this who might be near you... can you PM me on FB and I'll put you in touch?

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  13. Oh wow, how cool! I love the 16th century dressage demo idea -- you'll have to get someone to video tape it for you the next time you do it!!

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    1. Yeah I didn't plan to well to get media... next time for sure!

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  14. Super cool! So sorry I missed it! (Had to adult, ugh)

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    1. Adulting ... ruining the fun plans for millennia ;)

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  15. I am so glad I was able to be there for your class! I had planned on doing a blog post on it and forgot, but I'm glad I didn't because it's so cool hearing you explain it again. Your enthusiasm for it really shows through.

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    1. Aww, I'm glad you liked it! I had a great time teaching it and was so glad you could be there!

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  16. Soooooooo cool - and you all look fantastic!! What a trip :D

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  17. I'm pretty sure you own the mythical unicorn haffie because he is just SO COOL

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  18. The picture of you and Taran needs a frame and a wall to be hung on. Gorgeous.

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    1. I think I might end up doing that... it's a pretty cool pic!

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  19. So cool I am jealous Jen got to come hang out!

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