At level 1 we asked that you demonstrate how to safely lead your horse for the simple purpose of moving him about from stall, to cross-ties, to arena.  You can review this here. For level 2 you will also need to demonstrate leading at the trot.

4. Lead in hand, walk & trot.

The most common reason for needing to lead your horse at the trot is to detect lameness and gait faults.  This might be done for the vet during an exam or at an event as a soundness check.  In-hand classes at shows also ask for the horse to be trotted to show off his obedience and the quality of his gaits.

When trotting for a soundness exam the same safety rules apply as when leading at the walk: have the excess lead-rope folded, not looped, in your left hand; use your right hand to lead the horse; and jog beside your horse’s left shoulder so he doesn’t step on you or move into your space.  For the trot you will want a slightly looser lead than at the walk to allow for his larger movement.  This will also keep you at a safer distance.

Most horses will trot if you start to jog beside them.  If your horse doesn’t immediately move into a trot, use a verbal command, or a cluck.  You can carry a long whip in your left hand and tap his quarters behind you if he is particularly reluctant.

The Trot-up

The jog or trot-up is a formal display of soundness done at national and international calibre horseshows.  In three day eventing the horse is jogged before judges and vets on the first and last day of the event.  The horse is immaculately groomed and shown in a snaffle bridle.  It is also a chance to show off the rider’s style, and these days some riders do the jog in Ascot hats and high heels.

For the formal jog, start as you would for a regular trot, with the excess reins folded in your left hand, and your right hand holding both reins 6-12 inches below the bit.  As your horse starts to trot, drop your right hand and and place it behind your back, holding the reins and whip in your left.  This allows your horse to move freely and demonstrates that you aren’t dragging or holding him back.

The larger your horse, the more you’ll have to move to get him to show off.  Take long, springy, rhythmic strides which will encourage him to do the same.

next week: grooming

Thank you!

Huge thanks to Matt, Kristen, Janet, Marius, Monica, Walker, Brittany, Crystal, and Chris who devoted part of their sunny long weekend to tackling the to-do list at Red Colt on Sunday.  We hacked back the encroaching shrubbery in the arena and grass paddocks, demoralized the buttercups, repaired fences, built gates, and made frames to support the bathtub troughs in the back fields.  It was a hot and sweaty, but satisfying day, and I’m sure the horses all thanked you when they were turned out in the large fields for the first time this year!

Note that there are no Cavaliere programs happening this weekend, but we return the following weekend with a triple header of Cavaliere Class on Saturday June 1st and Intro to Mounted Combat and Mounted Combat on Sunday June 2nd.  See you there!

But, We also have two incentives to get out and dig deep into the garden … even if We don’t plant anything!  And for those of you in Europe, you might want to try the same in your neighbour’s garden while you’re at it! 

Good Money Results in Good Things

SFBAY (San Francisco Bay, California) 14 May 13  Swordplay Students Get The Point (Ken Heiman)

Steaphen Fick, founder of the Davenriche European Martial Arts School, or DEMAS, has the quote of the month for explaining why WMA/HEMA is in vogue right now:  “The thing I get asked all the time is whether there’s an interest in sword fighting. The answer is that there’s enough interest from Hollywood that they’ll spend money on making at least five movies a year that involve sword fighting of some type.”

DEMAS teaches rapier work and quarterstaff, and Fick himself is preparing for the Battle of the Nations.

DEMAS also teaches a zombie-survival combat course – but with a real-world twist … or as much of a real-world element as you can have when talking about zombies.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

HOUSTON CHRONICLE (Texas) 30 April 30 Swordplay becomes overkill in HGO’s ‘Il Trovatore’ (Steven Brown)

Within the stage combat milieu; we have an interesting problem; how to determine when fight scenes stop supporting a story and actually become (or dominate) the story!

One journalist believes that Houston Grand Opera’s “Il Trovatore” may be ‘dying by the sword’ to its’ omnipresence and heavy-handled symbolism … in effect, taking over the play.

“During the “Soldiers’ Chorus,” the men sing their lusty melody while executing a choreographed sword routine. If you imagine a high school band’s flag corps, you won’t be far off”.  High school flag team?  In a Verdi opera?  Sounds like somebody missed their measure!

A Fine Finnish

РОССИЙСКОЙ ГАЗЕТЫ (Moscow, Russia) 17 May 13  Эксперт: Найденный нижегородскими учеными меч принадлежал вождю племени (Виктор Девицын)

Researchers have uncovered a thousand-year old sword belonging to a ‘Volga Finn chief’ at a gravesite archeological dig.  The sword, still within the scabbard, is estimated to be 94% ‘complete’, with most of the silver highlighting still intact.

Belarus Rarity

ТУРИЗМ И ОТДЫХ (Belarus) 19 April 13  В Лидском музее хранится меч, датируемый серединой XV столетия (Ольга Матеша)

The Lidskaya museum is showing a piece rare within the country … a 14^th C Passau-manufactured’ 14^th C sword.

Snippets

THE INQUIRER (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 09 May 13  Museum of the Confederacy takes on Gettysburg (Steve Szkotak)

The exposition “Gettysburg: They walked through blood” features swords from three of the brigade commander’s involved in the infamous U.S. Civil War Pickett’s’ Charge.

THE HINDU (Chennai, India) May 13  Velu Thampi Dalawa’s sword of rebellion takes centre stage (G. Anand)

A sword carried in a rebellion 200 years ago is proving to be the major draw in an Indian museum.

LAS VEGAS SUN (Nevada) 09 May 13 ‘Tournament of Kings’ Teen Star

Somehow, sometimes, the gravitas and dignity of preparing for an armoured duel escapes us.

HUFFINGTON POST (Canada)  30 April 13  A Total Maniac’s Guide To 18th Century Sword Fighting

Longsword Focus

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/

Continuing our work on precision cutting we are now looking at the rising ‘Sottano’ and how to make it from all different poste and with proper intention, structure, and power.

Green Cord (Level 1)

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/

This week in our level 1 class we are working on striking the opponent as they come to measure while seeking control of your sword, and on techniques for regaining control should the opponent succeed in acquiring it.

Blue Cord (Level 2)

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/

If your opponent gains your sword strongly and attacks with a bold forward attack, the refused postures can be an excellent way to move back strongly and regain control with the sword or with your offhand. This week’s lessons look at both of these options.

Red Cord (Level 3)

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/

 

 

The Royal Armouries recently sought to rebind the I.33 manual, which was not in its original binding and needed new binding to help further preserve it. The armouries and members of the WMA community sought out this opportunity to more thoroughly photograph the pages in their unbound state and with the help of Extraordinary Editions, a company that reproduces rare historical books, a limited run edition of the manual was created in as close a form to the original as possible.

This reprint really is quite an exceptional work of art. Though it is not printed on parchment like the original, the binding is superb and the colour and accuracy of the pages is indeed, extraordinary. The inside pages even feature an attached letter and note, that were added to the original by owners of the book in the last two centuries.

This is an important manual and an earlier, less excellent, version of the book was already featured in our museum. We hope to rework the fight books section of our museum soon to include a proper case and presentation for this reproduction of the I.33 manual. It will then find a home alongside our originals of the works of Ridolfo Capo Ferro and Achille Marozzo.

For those who are at Academie Duello attending classes, instructors will be pulling our new manual out to give people a chance to peruse it after evening and some daytime classes over the next week.

There’s a discussion in the Bartitsu Society about the naming of Bartitsu, a point of contention and a topic I mention at the start of my workshops.

Sherlock Holmes Said Baritsu

Our rediscovery of this martial art started with a reference in a story called The Adventure of the Empty House by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes explains to Watson what happened at Reichenbach Falls:

I walked along the pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached the end I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds, and clawed the air with both his hands.

Once we investigate this story, we discover that there was an actual place called the Bartitsu Club that operated from 1899 to 1902 in London. Baritsu must be a variant on Bartitsu, especially since Bartitsu was based on jujitsu and fits the description in the story.

One can justify this misspelling in many ways, and I’ve heard many explanations:

• Watson is occasionally unreliable as a narrator, and one should remember that the Sherlock Holmes stories are couched as Watson’s chronicles. The mistake is the character’s.
• The Bartitsu Club was already closed when this story was written, and Doyle could not immediately verify the name, and jotted it down from his imperfect memory.
• A lot can happen between the writing and the publishing of a manuscript. It’s possible that the Strand Magazine made the error that was preserved in later editions and reprintings.

Whatever the reason, we probably would not know Bartitsu today without the mention in the Empty House.

The Bartitsu Club

There is ample evidence of what was studied in the Bartitsu Club, and how Barton-Wright invented this fighting form. But he was not alone. The discussion about the name was prompted by Keith Myers who wrote:

I’ve been reading Percy Longhurst’s Ju Jitsu book. He has many instances of combining Ju Jitsu with Boxing but never seems to really refer to it as “Bartitsu.” He does mention Bartitsu as the art taught by Barton-Wright, but doesn’t seem to refer to what he is doing as “Bartitsu.” When Pierre Vigny left London and the Bartitsu School to set up his own academy it seems he still taught the Bartitsu curriculum, but again, doesn’t seem to have referred to it as “Bartitsu.” So the impression I form is that the term “Bartitsu” was used mostly to refer specifically to what Barton-Wright was doing and was not necessarily used more “generically.” Does that seem accurate, or am I reading too much into things?

The spin off question to this is….can we today now use the term “Bartitsu” generically to refer to any combination of bare knuckle boxing, savate, ju jitsu grappling, and self-defense/”street tactics”? Barton-Wright was a pioneer in bringing these elements together, but others later took up the banner and did the same thing and gave it a different name and perhaps put a different emphasis on the various elements. But can we consider something like Defense Das La Rue as a form of “Bartitsu” in a generic sense?

Tony Wolf, author of the Bartitsu Compendiums and the originator of Bartitsu.org answered:

for almost all practical purposes, “Bartitsu” was specific to what was going on at Barton-Wright’s school between 1899-1902; no-one appears to have perpetuated the name beyond that date, other than B-W himself continuing to use it as a business name for his electrotherapy institute.

I don’t see any advantage, and do see the potential for confusion and some hard feelings, if the name “Bartitsu” was to be applied to historically related but distinct systems such as Longhurst’s method, Renaud’s DDLR (Défense Dans La Rue, ed.), etc. Not that these other systems can’t be useful resources for neo-Bartitsu, but they were their own entities.

Similarly, although it’s almost become a cliche, IMO the further you get from material within the Bartitsu canon and the Bartitsu Club lineage, the less sense it makes to refer to what you’re doing as Bartitsu. A combination of, say, Cunningham’s stick fighting with Graeco-Roman wrestling and capoeira kicking would be fascinating to watch and probably great fun to practice, but I can’t imagine any good reason to call it Bartitsu.

Neo-Bartitsu and Variants

There are essentially three levels of Bartitsu practice, by strictness:

1. Canonical Bartitsu: We have pictures and descriptions of Barton-Wright himself and the techniques he espoused. Although he says that it is composed of “over 400″ methods, we actually know of a few dozen that comprise the core that we can be certain of.
2. Bartitsu: We have historical manuals of the arts that compose Bartitsu that existed in 1899, and that were widely known. Boxing is especially well documented in England, so we can extend Bartitsu to these historical forms as well.
3. Neo-Bartitsu: The spirit of Bartitsu is a mixed martial art for the gentleman’s protection. We know from Barton-Wright’s writings what his aims and tactics included. Therefore, we can form out own modern practice by incorporating new combat strikes, novel holds and throws and means that the original practitioners were never exposed to.

In my view, these additions must conform to Bartitsu’s existing shapes and intentions, but we should not limit ourselves to the merely historical if your aim is the best personal protection whether unarmed or using an umbrella or other non-lethal weapon.

Défense Dans La Rue is the name of a book by Jean Joseph-Renaud and the name for the branch of savate that dealt with defending oneself in the street (that’s the literal translation). It includes cane, kicks, punches and jujitsu, and is therefore very close in spirit to Bartitsu.

Many practitioners refer to the larger combination of historical and modern unarmed combat as “antagonistics” and one school in Seattle is called the Barton-Wright/Alfred Hutton Alliance for Hoplology and Antagonistics (BWAHAHA).

There are also American Heritage Fighting Arts, that may include the Bowie knife, Tomahawk, and variants of combatives that were particular to the North American frontier days.

A Rose By Any Other Name

In the end, it’s important to remember that martial arts are nearly continuously branching, renaming and categorizing themselves when a self-appointed master wants to brand a new school. This is equally true of Bartitsu, Aikido and Arnis. Every village in China has (or had) their own Kung-Fu.

This Saturday, our guest instructor Lew Cottell will teach our Bartitsuka the practice of Modern Arnis as an alternative way to use the stick. Our Neo-Bartitsu continues to take shape as each member develops their own style while understanding our core concepts and goals.

There are many different equine lifestyles for the domestic horse, from grazing loose on the range 24/7, to kept in a barn with a variety of supplemental feeds, and everything in between.  At level 2 we don’t expect you to be able to descibe all the various horsekeeping options:  you simply need to know the routine of your own horse (or the horse you typically ride).

3. Know the routine of own horse:  feeding, grooming, exercise.

Your horse’s feeding and exercise regime is dependant on her stabling situation.  A horse that is kept on pasture requires very little, if any, supplemental feed, will get sufficient exercise to regulate energy and maintain base condition, but will still require grooming to check for injuries and keep the coat and hooves healthy.  A horse that spends most of his time in the stall or paddock will require hay and possibly grain, will need to be exercised daily, but may be easier to groom.  Whatever your horse’s routine is, be prepared to explain how it relates to the stabling situation.

Here are the questions you’ll need to be able to answer:

Feeding

• How does your horse get fresh clean water?  Bucket, automatic waterer, trough, stream?
• What is the source of your horse’s forage?  Grass, hay, or a combination?
• How many times a day is your horse fed hay?  How much?
• What type of hay is fed?  Local meadow hay, alfalfa, timothy, hay cubes?
• What types of concentrates, if any, does your horse get?  Oats, pelleted feeds, beet pulp, cob, etc?  How much?
• How does your horse get salt? Block in stall or paddock, granulated, or as part of complete feed?
• Are there any other supplements such as oil, joint or hoof supplements, daily medications etc? How are they fed?
• Does the feed situation change seasonally?

Feed charts in the stable often given rations by volume, such as ’1 scoop of pellets’ or ’2 flakes of hay’.  However, it’s better to be able to answer these questions in terms of weight, such as ’1200g complete pellets’ or ’3 lbs hay’.  If you don’t have access to a scale, your barn manager can probably tell you the actual feed weights.

Grooming

• How often is your horse groomed and when?
• When is your horse given a complete grooming, and when is he just quartered or set fair?
• How does the grooming routine differ in winter, spring and summer?

A complete grooming is often done after a ride, when the pores are open and scurf in the coat rises to the surface.  Quartering is a quick grooming, usually done before a ride, to check for injuries, clean out the hooves, and make sure the saddle, girth and bridle areas are clean.  Setting fair is often done when a horse comes in from the field, or first thing in the morning, and is a quick check for injuries, the adjustment of any clothing, like rainsheets or flymasks, and the removal of any burrs or other pieces of the countryside stuck in manes and tails.

Exercise

• Does your horse get daily turnout?  For how long, and in what size of field or paddock?
• If your horse does not get turnout, how does he get daily exercise?  Longeing, free longeing, riding, hand-walking?
• How often is your horse ridden?
• How many rides a week are schooling in the arena, and how many hacking out on the trails?
• How often does is your horse entered in shows or competitions?
• How does your horse’s exercise vary between seasons?

Exercise has a huge effect on horses’ mental states.  A horse that is kept in a stall or small paddock will often have too much energy, which makes him ‘hot’ or difficult to handle.  If your horse has variable turnout, you will probably notice she is much calmer when she is getting regular turnout than she is when she is kept in the stall or paddock.

If you use a school horse and aren’t aware of all his other activities check with the horse’s owner or the barn manager to find out what his daily schedule is.

next: leading at walk and trot

Work Party & Open Barn, Sunday May 19th

Yes, we’re having another work party.  If you’d like to come out to help fix fences, beat back the blackberries that didn’t make it into the bonfires, and get our fields and x-country jumps ready for summer, we’d love to have your help any time between noon and 6pm this Sunday.  Refreshments provided!

Open Barn runs from 1-4pm, so if you’d also like to to get some riding, sword practise or just general horse-time in, you are more than welcome!  Open Barn is free; use of a school horse, for those approved to ride, is $10.

See you at Red Colt!

Upcoming Cavaliere Dates

Cavaliere Classes
There is one more class in May:  this Saturday, 18th May, from 4 – 7:30pm.  We then take a week off and resume classes on Saturday June 1st.

Intro to Mounted Combat
Sunday June 2nd, from 10am – 12:30pm is the next Introduction to Mounted Combat.  This is the place to begin if you want to get started learning to swing a sword from horseback.  The cost for the session is $99.  Sign up for the afternoon session of Mounted Combat as well for only $149 for both.

Mounted Combat Workshop
The next Mounted Combat workshop is Sunday June 2nd from 1pm – 4pm.

More Mounted Archery

Here’s a video from the Mounted Archery clinic, put together by Monica:

There are more photos of the event as well, which can be viewed on the Red Colt facebook page.

Adventure sport cams are making a dramatic appearance within our art – giving an exciting (and hopefully instructional) view and record of our activities that has not been possible before.  Our fights, properly edited, maybe with a bit of background Wagner playing, are proving to be exciting mini epics in their own right, and are a potential draw to interest and engage the next generation of Capo Ferro wanna-be’s!     

There’s pain in the offing – watch it in slo-mo!

NEW YORK TIMES (New York) 08 May 13  The Holy Grail of Battle Re-enactments (Mike Tierney)

A detailed and respectful article describing how Team USA members prepare themselves for participation in the Battle of the Nations.

Our protagonist, Craig Ivey describes his fighting kit (and the not insignificant costs associated with getting the best full-contact protection possible), motivation, training and supporting staff (including a masseuse) necessary before one goes up against the omni-powerful Russian team.

“This is the perfect sport for someone who wishes to participate in one of the roughest sports on earth, has a love of armor and weapons and Western martial arts, and a desire to be as close to being a knight of old as is possible in this modern age,” …

This same article was paraphrased by Foreign Policy journal with a title of “Is this the most insane sport in the world?”.

And if you move to the Team USA site, you’ll see some effective use of the fore-mentioned ‘adventure camera’.

There’s pain in the offing – coming to the side of a helmet near you!

THE TIMES (Munster, Indiana) 05 May 13  I was a medieval warrior (Kathleen Dorsey)

As a fencing master, one has to love it when a member of the Fifth Estate comes to your salle, consents to being fully armoured up … and writes affectionately of having their own head rendered into a bell clapper!

Aside from describing the training routine and equipment preparation common within our peers SCA activities, Ms Dorsey also gives us another demonstration of the possible utility of the ‘adventure cam’ …. albeit intermittently blocked by shield work.

Fully Armoured Fighter Quote of the Week:  “Oh crap. This is harder than it looks.”

Oh, Bite Me!

CALGARY JOURNAL (Alberta) 08 May 13  ‘Fight the Bite’ teaches Calgarians how to fight off zombies (Baj Visser)

To make your art interesting and accessible to those without prior exposure to it, you have to make it relevant to interests that your target group already has.

Tim Holter and his peers over at The Forge Western Martial Arts appear to have broken that code in a big way.  Much like their archery peers, Holter and others are using common ‘pop culture; interests to get people into the salle, sword in hand.  In this case, their program ‘Fight the Bite’ is a self-defence event designed to allow you to protect yourself or ever-so-appreciative loved on from the impending zombie apocalypse.

“Western martial arts isn’t as well-known as taekwondo or karate,” said fellow instructor Mark Winkelman. “But zombies are interesting to everyone, so even those who would never think of coming out to pick up a sword are calling us and asking about it.”

Does this Tasset make my Hips look Big?

OTTAWA SUN (Ontario) 11 May 13  Armoured delights, vibrant costumes grace Comiccon (Tony Spears)

If potential recruits can’t get to you … go to them.

HEMA/WMA groups are well received at a variety of social gatherings and celebrations … Irish and Scottish cultural festivals; Shakespeare events; sword-and-sandal movie openings … and even events more eclectic: Sci-fi and anime conventions … and Comic Cons!

Bill Fedun and the South Tower Armouring Guild have been making custom battle armour for 22 years, teaching sword fighting and gaining news acolytes while participating in events throughout Our back yard!

Snippet

And now for something completely different …

JAPAN TIMES (Tokyo) 05 May 13  Yagyu: Nara’s hidden village of the shoguns’ sword masters (Alon Adika)

• No 2013 Nationals
• Montreal Regionals
• Casey’s Youth Class
• Rapier Wit Motion Capture
• Vancouver Certification Intensive

No 2013 Nationals

Nationals is cancelled. Paul Gelineau, the Director of the Academy of FDC, announced that he is pulling the plug on the Fight Directors Canada annual summer intensive that we call “the Nationals”. He made this decision in association with President Daniel Levinson due to poor registration numbers.

Paul reports being “baffled” by the low numbers and suspects that it is the general state of the economy to blame.

Montreal Regionals

Montreal FDC Regional will remain from July 13 to 28. So what’s the difference, since the Nationals was slated for the same city at the same time?

• It will not be at Concordia University (venue is yet to be announced)
• Student housing will not be part of the package (though they will try to help visitors find accommodations)
• Only one Fight Master will be there for testing
• Only Basic Actor-Combatant and Intermediate Actor-Combatant are offered

Contact Fight Master Jean-François Gagnon for more information or to register.

Casey’s Youth Class

Temper is now offering youth classes in stage combat, though they will not qualify for FDC certification. Temper’s School of Hard Knocks – Fight Workshop for Ages 13-17 July 1-5

In a similar vein, Academie Duello will be partnering with Arts Umbrella to offer stage combat to their youth theatre programs in much the same way starting in September. More news will follow, since the structure is still being arranged.

Rapier Wit Motion Capture

Also in Toronto, Daniel Levinson recently announced that Rapier Wit will be holding a three-weekend workshop in motion capture with Daniel Maendel, Simon Fon, and Daniel Levinson. June 15, 22, 29 yep all Saturdays from 10-5

The Mocapture suit that everyone gets to wear was used in the movies Paul and Ted!

And here’s myself in a motion-capture suit when I worked under Carrie Thiel at Capilano University. They will likely be expanding their motion-capture offering next semester as well. It’s exciting to get on-board this new era in performance.

Vancouver Certification Intensive

Professional actors need to get their FDC certification this year, and Academie Duello would like to offer an intensive for the West Coast as well.

A daytime intensive would have to wait until Knight Camp‘s summer session is finished, though.
That means that we’ll be starting in September. If you just finished Actng School for theatre or film and loved your short introduction to stage combat, join us to become a fully qualified performance fighter. If you already have your Basic, we’ll also be certifying at the Intermediate level if we have enough interest.

I’m planning on having class 5 days per week, preferably for 3 hours per day. That means you’ll finish your 60 hours in 4 weeks. If we run Intermediate, then we can finish your 80 hours by adding one hour per day and end on the same date.

Feedback!

Please send me your ideas about the certification class! I need to know if you think you’d like to attend, if you’d like to finish more quickly by adding more hours per day, or any other suggestions regarding the format. David@academieduello.com

Reminders:

• Whether you’re currently enrolled in stage combat or not, come by every Thursday for our drop-in. It’s extra practice and question-and-answer period, not a formal class
• Daytime stage combat is on hiaitus, there are no morning classes 10-noon for now

Prior to the start of the workshop we tacked up nine horses and brought them into the ring to watch the groundwork and get used to the sights and sounds of  bows in use.  Our instructor, Robert Borsos, gave us some history of Hungarian archery and horseback archery in general before getting us moving with warm up exercises.  We then practised the arm movements for the three basic shots: sideways, forwards, and backwards.  Combining this with steps down the length of the ring let us begin to work the motion of the shot into our muscle memories.

The draw for horse archery is different from that used by ground archers.  To stabilize the arms against the movement of the horse the draw goes to the centre of the chest, rather than to the cheekbone.

Another difference is the motion of the hand after the bowstring is released.  Rather than leaving the hand where it is, the drawing hand snaps back, much like the offhand in a rapier thrust.  This provides a counter-balance to the bow hand, keeping the rider’s arms level and on target.

One of the keys to effective horse archery is rapid shooting.  To enable this the archer will hold as many arrows as possible fanned in his bow hand.  Robert demonstrated holding a dozen arrows at time and several different ways of smooth and fast nocking.

Robert and his assistants, Dave, Peter and Zoltan, demonstrated their impressive drills progression before putting bows into our hands.

After we had all had a chance to shoot from the ground a few times, half of us got on horses and practised shooting from the walk, while our partners guided the horses and passed us arrows from the ground.  This exercise truly impressed on me the need for rapid firing.  Even at a walk, I was usually only able to get two out of three good shots in before Winnie carried me too far past the target.

I was very pleased with the horses who took it all in stride, with the participants, who were attentive, responsible and willing to help each other at all turns, and with the excellent instruction from Robert and his crew.  I hope we can hold another workshop like this in the near future.

In the meantime, if you’d like to do more archery, Robert is holding training up at the club in Mount Currie, every day from now until their tournament on the weekend of May 24-25th.  Contact him through the website, www.horsebackarchery.ca, to make arrangements.

Thanks once more to Borsos Torzs for coming out to share their art with us, to Aurelia and Blake for the photo, and to Isabel, Eleanor, Kate and Aurelia, who came out to hold horses for us in the hot sun!

This Month in the Cavaliere Program

Wishing you had your Riding Level 2 so you could shoot from horseback next time Mounted Archery comes around?  Sign up for Cavaliere Classes starting Saturday May 11th to get on track with your Riding and Horsemanship skills.  Whether you’re a complete beginner, a regular rider, or somewhere in between there’s a place for you.

Cavaliere Classes
Saturdays May 11 & 18, Jun 1 & 22
4pm – 7:30pm
cost: $60 per class; $200 for a series of 4 classes
Integrated package: 2 Cavaliere Classes and 1 Mounted Combat workshop in the same month for $120.

Longsword Focus

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/

This month we will be exploring how to wield our longsword with correct biomechanics to ensure that the weapon moves fluidly and with power. In this class we look at how to strike with a fendente in a way that protects the body while delivery a firm and effective attack.

Green Cord (Level 1)

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/

At the beginning of our months on approaching and receiving we like to get back to the basics of distance and movement. In this week’s classes we first look at the various distances or “measures” we want to consider when getting closer to an opponent and what our thinking should be at each one. In our second class we revisit the fundamental mechanics of movement and attacking.

Blue Cord (Level 2)

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/

Fencing with the offside leading or lead-side “refused” can be an excellent way to remove the weapon from your opponent’s control, maximize your striking measure, and bring your offside defence or weapon to bear. In this first week on the subject we wil explore the mechanics of attacking from offside leading postures.

Red Cord (Level 3)

http://duello.tv/featured-videos/this-week-in-class/