Tilting

Tilt

No, I'm not tilting at windmills. Yet. However, since I'm talking the talk, I might as well get to practicing walking the walk here, insofar as jousting goes. So here I am on Woody smacking the Quintain (Thanks for the loan, Devon!) with the heavy practice lance. Woody is really dialing in now on what I want, so I aim him at the quintain, give him a nudge and off we go! He's still working on which SIDE of the quintain we need to always go on, but we're getting there... As you can see, he has no fear of it at all, and is happy to run directly under the shield for me. We hit that thing HARD sometimes! I think I'm going to have to put weights on it... What's funny is that Taxi want's to play too, so he gallops along with us, running on the other side of the quintain as we hit it. He just ducks to make sure that shield doesn't hit his head. Such a neat old horse!

Although I'm talking jousting here, I look upon it as great training for Cavalry, just like the old-timers did, rather than being an end unto itself. It's fun, it's great training for the horses and riders, but hardly the be-all and end-all. Everyone knows that the be-all and end all is Cavalry!