tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79561182011-06-07T23:28:29.794-07:00The life of an historical cavalrymanGordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.comBlogger361100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-36673060828054302008-03-26T11:34:00.000-07:002008-03-26T11:36:49.836-07:00

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-65495857507554244682007-06-07T17:19:00.001-07:002007-06-07T17:26:21.457-07:00

Did a school demo on Tuesday, the first ever for the Warhorse Guild! Gordon gave a talk on knights & armor, as the kids are doing their Medieval section right now, I guess. We armored Gordon up, then he kept talking while I rode back and forth behind him tapping the quintain on Gryphon. It being western Washington, the rain came on schedule and we cut things short, but the kids were about at the

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-56029398781867858262007-05-29T12:12:00.000-07:002007-05-29T12:18:49.245-07:00

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1160163016975576002006-10-06T12:27:00.000-07:002006-10-06T12:37:22.376-07:00

Do we know how to do it right or what? Another slam-bang weekend at Tilbury camp! We had over 25 folks from the Academia della Spada alone! We played, we ate, we sang, we danced (well, some of us danced).There was jousting, English Backsword, archery, and pike drill. Probably other things as well. Needless to say, we'll continue doing this...Rapheal models his new helmet ornament (oops!).

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1144291069921248622006-04-05T19:37:00.000-07:002006-04-08T14:24:49.053-07:00

The School of the Renaissance Soldier: Actions of the Lowe Countries II, held near Sacramento California this past weekend was a resounding success despite the rain and weather. We had 86 participants this year, along with 20 horses! Above is a picture of the Troop of Horse on the March. More pictures as they come in!Gordon

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1143060511271718282006-03-22T12:48:00.000-08:002006-03-22T12:54:28.826-08:00

Jousting at Tilbury Camp

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1134503159966275682005-12-13T11:45:00.000-08:002005-12-13T11:49:51.606-08:00

I've had a couple of articles posted on myArmoury.com this week that might be of some interest to readers. The first, "From Lance to Pistol" is on the transition during the 16th Century between fully armoured heavy cavalrymen on armoured horses, armed with a heavy lance, to the much lighter sort of cavalryman who was the standard of the 17th Century armed with Pistol and Carbine.The second

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1129504791620944932005-10-16T16:19:00.000-07:002005-10-16T16:23:57.190-07:00

Although this picture is six months old, I think that it's still apropriate. My little grandson Jem is today a year old! But I have the pleasure of saying that I was the first to put him on a horse, on my old steady War Horse, Taxi, who is 30. Here we are at the School of the Renaissance Soldier in April, checking out the view from the saddle. I hope that he finds it as addictive as I do!

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1129504011105561802005-10-16T16:06:00.000-07:002005-10-16T16:12:12.583-07:00

Although no pictures are yet in from our joust show of yesterday, I thought I'd publish another picture from Tilbury Camp last week instead. Here is Bev on her new horse Jaran, who is taking to this jousting stuff like a duck to water. He and Woody are now best buddies, and make a good pair, to boot! The show went well despite our best efforts to the contrary, and lucky for us we had a very

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1129502022330025132005-10-16T15:33:00.000-07:002005-10-16T16:43:07.346-07:00

This past weeked we hosted Tilbury Camp II. This time we were much more successful in that we had six horses in attendence, which was great. Bev (above, discussing with me on some jousting training we were doing) did the joust training while I ran the cavalry evolutions. We were getting ready for the jousting show we did Saturday in Olympia, working with Joey and Mindy to get all of us ready (as

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1126542582016767952005-09-12T09:10:00.000-07:002005-09-12T09:44:34.546-07:00

Yestereday we trailered the horses with Bev & Brian down to Spanaway to do more joust training. No pics of course, but we learned alot and had plenty of fun. Bev got herself a new pony, Jaran (after the Kate Elliot books by that name), a beautiful black draft mix gelding. He is a perfect match for Woody, and we've been working with both of them in my tilt-yard to get them worked slowly up to

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1124341207439387042005-08-17T21:49:00.000-07:002005-08-17T22:01:36.333-07:00

Last evening friend Bev brought her "pony" (at 17hh) Reyna over to play with Woody and Taxi, and to help train all of us to be good Jousters too. We did passes at each other down the lyst, and Bev bonked a lance against my shield as Woody and I walked past her. Woody is so calm with all of this stuff that it's just amazing. (Hmmm... is he setting me up for something later down the road??? Hmmm...

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1124132359240683832005-08-15T11:46:00.000-07:002005-08-16T22:42:57.900-07:00

We had a great weekend of riding and eating too much wonderful food at our Tilbury Encampment. Anne Marie, Guillaume and Anissa joined us with enough food for an expeditionary army to Flanders, we set up camp in the grass overlooking our "tiltyard" and had at it. Taxi and Woody had a grand time playing with quintains, cabbage "heads" we sliced with swords and cabbage "pigs" that we pierced with

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1123461912541838322005-08-07T17:45:00.000-07:002005-08-07T18:03:18.353-07:00

TiltNo, 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

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1123386643941044332005-08-06T20:50:00.000-07:002005-08-06T21:41:48.120-07:00

Here is a nice shot that Neb took of our friend Devon as she was cantering down the tilt towards an opponent today at the Gig Harbour Renaissance Fantasy Faire. Emphasis on Fantasy of course. But Devon was great! She's jousting for the AJA at the moment (this is not an endorsment by me of the AJA, simply a mention of them, and their site) , because she's a masochist, and she loves to joust!

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1122331720526342352005-07-25T15:33:00.000-07:002005-08-06T21:42:48.686-07:00

We just got back from a great weekend near Orting, WA at an SCA event called "Lionhearts". I have to say that it was far beyond my wildest expectations of an SCA event (I guess I'm remembering too much from my youth...). People in linen and wool, split hose and braes, and best of all, Lots of Horses! After a fun time on Saturday doing "dancing" and a Challenge Course, on Sunday we did a little

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1120271890021081922005-07-01T19:30:00.000-07:002005-07-03T13:27:59.440-07:00

Wow, I hadn't realized just how long I've ingored this blog! Yikes! Well, LOTS has happened! I moved from North-Central California to North-Western Washington among other things, (and not before I did some school programs before we left), and saw my eldest Daughter Elizabeth married off to a fine young man this past Saturday in Orinda, CA. It was wonderful to see the whole family gathered

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1112677907515450742005-04-04T22:11:00.001-07:002005-04-04T22:38:07.126-07:00

Our "Actions in the Low Countries: School of the Renaissance Soldier was a grand success! Even the weather cooperated with us, as it didn't start to rain until we were all packed up and gone from the site. Although we only had a total of 6 horses for our Mounted Training, we got to do a LOT of new things with the horses, introducing them to all sorts of new things, like gunfire and drums.

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1111182413618731412005-03-18T13:41:00.000-08:002005-03-18T14:01:32.073-08:00

On Sunday Last I journeyed to Angel's Camp to take part in the Calaveras Celtic Festival, mostly to support Dale Shinn and David Luckhardt's English Civil War groups, but also to say hi to the Jousters from Azure Knights, too. My friend Clarance "Clancy" Sutton took this picture of me playing at being a Musketeer...

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1109353380385138022005-02-25T09:33:00.000-08:002005-02-25T09:43:00.386-08:00

I thought that I should give myself a little free advertising here (since that's kind of what this is for) concerning my upcoming extension class that I am teaching at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA on March 12. By a strange series of coincidences, it's been entitled "History, Theory and Application of Cavalry, 1550-1600" (Well, that's what my previous class was called, to, so

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1108930193923962632005-02-20T12:03:00.000-08:002005-02-20T12:28:15.260-08:00

Sadly, the Cavalry "School of the Horse Soldier" that Doug Kidd was planning on teaching this weekend in Salinas at Camp Warhorse was cancelled due to an ungodly amount of rain this past week... and this weekend as well. We would have churned those pastures into a good representation of the Trenches in France in WWI! So instead I went with NEB to a Geekfest in SF, Wondercon, and met up with my

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1107725786373409322005-02-06T13:11:00.000-08:002005-02-06T19:33:34.726-08:00

I've been obsessing of late on getting things organized for the upcoming School of the Renaissance Soldier that the RMS is sponsoring on the first weekend of April, and of course my part of it is primarily the Cavalry Organization and Training. Yesterday I got together with three of the fellows who are planning on being there, and last Saturday did the same with three other folks who are planning

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1106625552072021292005-01-24T19:42:00.000-08:002005-02-06T19:30:58.756-08:00

I had the pleasure of teaching a class at a recent Renaissance Symposium entitled "Renaissance Military Science and Elizabethan Military History" this weekend in Palo Alto, in partnership with my compadre Nick Worthington. It was rather fun, and we had the opportunity to "Spread the Gospel" about our own interest of the Military History of the era and how to reenact it. Nick focused for the most

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1101759115005036112004-11-29T11:59:00.000-08:002004-12-01T16:24:53.780-08:00

Yesterday I got together with friends Nick, Thorn, Pat, my daughter Elizabeth and her beau Jeremiah, to shoot matchlocks and wheellocks at the Chabot shooting range above Oakland. It was amusing to see the looks on the other shooters' faces when they would watch us shoot the seriously "old timey" guns. Questions like "What's that rope for?" etc. And the Flintlock shooters thought they had a

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1100627357341006042004-11-16T09:49:00.000-08:002004-11-16T10:57:32.890-08:00

This past Saturday "Squire Bob" and I journeyed to Fresno to check out and visit with Clif Bassett and his Azure Knights group again. They are trying out some new lances made with balsa wood tips, which shatter far more spectacularly (and more easily, too!) than the old pine or fir dowels that have been "pre-stressed" to shatter on impact. The new balsa lances worked beautifully, at least to my

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1099883344168209962004-11-07T19:09:00.000-08:002004-11-07T19:29:20.260-08:00

Today we continued our training of Woody in "Running at the Quintain". He's still not quite sure of the whole thing, but he does have the hang of it. Of course he's having to learn to neck-rein at the same time (hard to use both hands on the reins English-style when you have one hand full of lance!) Taxi came out too, with "Squire Bob", and while I was training Woody, Taxi was training "Squire

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1099883306862423672004-11-07T19:08:00.000-08:002004-11-07T19:10:29.236-08:00

Neb & Taxi work on the "Squire Bob" thing...

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1099509797225851932004-11-03T11:13:00.000-08:002004-11-03T11:23:17.226-08:00

I'm now in the process of training a new Warhorse, "Wilderness Woodsman", AKA Woody. He's a Half-Quarterhorse,/Quarter Percheron/Quarter Belgian Bay Gelding, nine years old and LARGE. Lucky for me, so is Twister so all of Twister's old tack fits Woody with only a few notches having to be let out! We traveled south to LA on the weekend of the 16th-17th and picked him up from Natalie Wooldridge,

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1097094779948561452004-10-06T13:28:00.000-07:002004-10-06T13:32:59.946-07:00

Here I though nobody read this blog since nobody has ever left a comment YET (you know who you are), but I was proved wrong today when Gordon received a nice email from the artist who cast the cool silver ornament pictured below. Diane Merrill has fessed up to being the genius behind the "Viking harness mount". She says it's her first hand-carved soapstone mold project. It being so fine, I think

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1096829034778503612004-10-03T11:43:00.001-07:002004-10-03T17:09:45.853-07:00

Yesterday, Saturday Oct. 2, we did a nice little class for the SCA's Kingdom of the West equestrian group, in Livermore. We had over a dozen mounted participants, which was very nice, and somewhat more folks for the lecture part of the class. Lecture was pretty basic, just going over the different types of Cavalry in use in the Renaissance, and it's change over into the later styles of Cavalry

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1096828988379204922004-10-03T11:43:00.000-07:002004-10-03T11:46:03.526-07:00

Rittmaster Frye gives the "lecture" portion of the class.

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1096351908483569522004-09-27T23:01:00.000-07:002004-09-29T20:35:30.450-07:00

If you did not receive this email but would like to be on the list, please email Rittmaster Frye and ask to be added: Fellow Cavalry Students; Due to various scheduling problems and just an overwhelming number of other events happening at around the same time, I'm canceling the Cavalry Class previously scheduled for Oct. 30. If folks really want to get together that day to do some drill at my

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1096058694907979672004-09-24T13:40:00.000-07:002004-09-24T13:44:54.906-07:00

Ah, it's every military historian's dream. Well, almost every historian, anyway. If you're like Gordon, the best of the best is to do horse cav AND get paid for it. Unfortunately, a lot of the big horse pics are going overseas for reasons I will not rant about at this juncture. Needless to say, it's been a few years since we had a juicy cavalry project (the recent episode of "Command Decisions"

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1096048001417340192004-09-24T10:44:00.000-07:002004-09-24T10:46:41.416-07:00

Due to some rather large scheduling conflicts, the Fall Cavalry Class is now canceled. Sorry for the late notice! There are plans being formulated for a Spring Seminar, possibly a multiple-day event, that will cover a great deal of material and be organized by skill level. Stay tuned...

Nebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159239707310374715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1092541130078556212004-08-14T20:38:00.000-07:002004-09-24T10:47:28.016-07:00

Spring class, 2004 The Fall class is tentatively scheduled for October 30. The location will most likely be Mar Val Stables in Lodi. Stay tuned...

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7956118.post-1092495402046297752004-08-14T07:56:00.000-07:002004-08-14T07:56:42.046-07:00

Still looking for a date...will post soon.

Gordonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08560637527750784783noreply@blogger.com0