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Written by Paul Raymore
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Tuesday, 12 September 2006 |
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 While the Truckee Renaissance Faire, taking place Sept. 16-17, attempts to bring in games, sights and activities that everyone in the family will enjoy, the one event that is sure to draw a huge crowd is the joust.
The combination of speed, coordination, and likelihood of bone-rattling impacts involved in this long-standing training method of knights and warriors is unmatched in modern sport, and is definitely a sight to be seen.
To get a better understanding of the sport and the brave souls who compete in it, Tahoe World online editor Paul Raymore spoke with Clifton Bassett (aka Sir Haven Wynn when he’s jousting), the Jousting Director of the Knights of the Azure Cross.
TW: How does one train for jousting matches?
Bassett: Well, there are a lot of different skills involved. One of the main ones is, you have to have a good deal of horse experience. So horsemanship is probably your number one skill.
Then from there, there’s all kinds of stuff: Being able to handle an 11-foot lance while riding on a horse.
I guess the experience is like this: You’re in over 100 pounds of armor; you’re looking through a quarter-inch eye slot, which is like looking through a broken windshield; you’re sucking your own air in, so you’re not really getting the full amount of oxygen you need; and not only that, but you’re having to control the horse with your left hand and legs, and you’ve got this 11-foot pole that feels like a telephone pole with all that stuff on; then you’ve got to run at the other guy. The point of impact is on a one-and-a-quarter-inch tip, and you figure you’ve got about a ton between the horse and the rider and armor, going about 25 miles per hour, and that ends up as a 50 mile per hour impact concentrated on an inch-and-a-quarter tip.
At first it’s really confusing when you’re training because you’re trying to control your horse, and then you can’t see really what’s going on, all you can see it the guy in front of you that you want to hit. So it’s pretty intensive to get to that point.
And then training the horse is pretty hard too. You’re training the horse to run at another horse, which they wouldn’t normally do. And then there’s all the desensitizing of getting them used to a suit of armor and the impact... You have to just build a trust; they have to trust that you’ll take care of them.
TW: For those who are unfamiliar with the sport, what is the ultimate object of jousting?
Bassett: There is a point system, and one of the things that people often get confused about is why you get points for breaking your own lance. And the reason behind that is, it indicates that you hit the other guy square enough and hard enough to break your own lance.
The way the point system goes is you get one point for hitting the target, which is the top-left side of the body. You get three points for breaking your lance. And you get five points for unhorsing your opponent.
So you have a match, and each time you run at each other it’s a pass. And there are usually three to five passes run, depending on the challenge...
TW: What kind of tactics are involved in a jousting match? Are you trying to dodge your opponent’s lance while maneuvering your own? Or just concentrating on your own lance?
Bassett: As far as I’m concerned, there are two ways you can go about it: You can try to shift around and dodge the other guy’s hit... But when I’m shooting down the list [i.e. the barriers that designate the course], I don’t want to be loose with anything. For one thing, if you don’t hold onto the lance and it slips out of place, you can easily break your own hand on the vamplate, which is the shield in front of the handle. I’ve done that a couple of times...
It’s like a car wreck when we get hit. Sometimes [a blow] will glance off and not be super solid, but if you get two guys who smash together, it’s like a car wreck, and it’s better to just go straight into the force than to go flying.
TW: So how dangerous is this sport? And is it less dangerous now than back in the day?
Bassett: It’s probably pretty close to what they were doing back then. We find that when we look at the original documents, we read about the same problems that we’re having today — problems with the horses, and little tricks to fix things.
It’s pretty tough. I’ve had a dislocated and torn shoulder, I’ve had torn groin muscles, I’ve broken my hand a couple of times, and I’ve done a couple of other stupid things. And that’s probably pretty light compared to other people.
I was at a tournament in Calgary, Canada once where, after getting knocked off and spitting out some blood, I got back on the horse. That was the one where my shoulder was torn out. And when I broke my hand the second time, I continued to joust for the rest of the day until it was pretty much mush.
Jousters aren’t really known for being that bright to begin with.
The major scary things have to do with direct shots to the head, which can lead to a concussion. And the really dangerous thing — which we’ve seen in history books but fortunately haven’t seen happen yet — is the possibility of a splinter going into an eye slot. In 1552, Henry II of France was killed in a joust because of a splinter going into his eye socket.
TW: What are the lances made of?
Bassett: It’s an 11-foot piece of pine. It’s about one and a quarter inches in diameter, and there’s hardware put on it. There’s a copper tip, and the vamplate, which is the shield for the hand, and there’s a piece that’s called the grapper, which goes into the shoulder.
TW: How difficult is it to get into this sport?
Bassett: It’s a long road to get involved. It’s probably about $10,000 to get one guy in armor on a horse, and that’s in the minimum range. Some of the suits of armor are $5,000 to $10,000 each because you have to have all kinds of specialized plates.
TW: And I’m sure that’s all hand-built armor, right?
Bassett: Yeah, we build it all by hand, and it has to be fitted properly, because if it’s not, and you come off at that speed, it can be just as dangerous as not having armor.
TW: So are there different styles of jousting?
Bassett: There’s about a 500-year history of the height of jousting, from about the eleven hundreds or so to the end of the fifteen hundreds...
There are a few different reasons why you’d have a joust:
There is something called a “judicial joust,” which is a legal dispute settled by a one-on-one fight. And that’s usually to the death, and is more like a joust of war versus a joust of peace.
Mainly what we do at events is a joust of peace, which is done as a sport. Originally, during the early period, they were using the same weapons they used in warfare [i.e. sharpened lances designed to pierce armor and kill]. Then what happened was the kings and the church started having issues with that because they were losing a bunch of guys and horses in these tournaments. And the idea of the tournaments was to stay in readiness — so you were fighting in times of peace so you would be ready in times of war.
Finally, it evolved into Western Europe’s main sport. So it’s mainly a sporting event, but it has its marshal throwbacks.
For more on the Truckee Renaissance Faire, read the following stories:
'Tis time for the Truckee Renaissance Faire
Barbarian-sized hunger at the Ren Faire?
Speaketh liketh a true renaissance lord or lady
There be pirates in Truckee! Soon there will be privateers.
For even more information, please see www.TruckeeRenFaire.org.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 September 2006 )
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