Dressage with a difference

After all the negative publicity surrounding the European Championships in Aachen recently, it was nice to go somewhere at the weekend and see a nice harmonious dressage competition.

Concordia Equestrians is a new group set up to promote the horse's wellbeing above competitive needs. So at this dressage competition, only snaffle bridles are permitted. No tight nosebands are allowed, and no spurs. And bitless bridles are allowed :-)

It was a lovely afternoon, despite a terrible forecast the weather behaved and the sun came out. There was a real mix of competitors, from little ones on ponies to Lucinda McAlpine on home-bred Spanish/TB crosses......

 

Every competitor had a tack check before starting to ensure that everything fit properly and nothing was overtightened.

 There was a very relaxed atmosphere, no pressure, plenty of time for horses to get used to their surroundings, which included some inquisitive cattle!

We met some nice new people and we really wished we could have brought our horses along......but they are planning on starting up some online classes so hopefully we will be able to take part that way soon

Hoping there will be many more of these :-)

Horse archery course part 2

This week we finally got the chance to do the second half of our horse archery course at the Centre of Horseback Combat in Hemel Hempstead. We did the first half way back in March but this is the first time we've been able to get back there to finish it!

We spent the first part of the morning shooting on foot again whilst the rest of the group got to grips with it, as they were all beginners. Ali and I managed to shoot a fair few of the bits of rubber in the arena behind the targets ;-)

But finally it was time to go and find some horses. Ali rode Carnival, a very clean grey. All the horses were very clean, not at all what we're used to.....She managed to get going in canter pretty quickly and even get some arrows in targets :-)

 

Then it was my turn. I rode Oscar, who is like Gandalf, only cleaner and more grumpy.......I was pleased that I got the hang of nocking and shooting and managed to get 3 arrows off on some of my runs (not the one Ali videoed though) but sadly only one of the arrows ever connected with a target. Ah well, someone's got to come last at the Championship next month ;-)

Archery training for the old, the clumsy and the hopeless.....

Today I watched this video online, made by Frédéric Luneau, one of the best horseback archers in France. The subtitle for those of you who don't speak French is "Training programme for the old, the clumsy and the hopeless" ;-)

Except that Fred is none of these and makes it all look easy. I could probably manage to throw axes at bits of wood, but I can't juggle, and as for the yoga and leaping on to the horse from the ground - no chance!

But riding without a bridle has to be worth a try. So today for the fist time, we did just that. Gandalf was very easy to steer with just a neckstrap, maybe because he's so used to being ridden on a long rein without a "contact". As we were in the little pen, we were restricted to walking, but I intend to try this at a faster pace when I get the chance......even shot an arrow or two :-)

Ali had a go with Sky too, who was predictably a bit unsure to begin with but proved quite receptive after a while.

Some video here......

How to train your medieval warhorse......

I have just rediscovered a book I bought years ago called The Medieval Warhorse by Ann Hyland. Makes interesting reading if you're interested in history generally, but given our latest hobby, some bits were of great interest....

I really liked this picture of a Mamluk horseman, an illustration from a Mamluk manuscript on horsemanship written in the fourteenth century.

Looks like a spotty horse to me :-) The illustrations in the manuscript are beautiful. There's a link to the colour version of this one here.

In The Medieval Warhorse the techniques from various sources are explained. From the above manuscript and other muslim writings, the book's author learns there were "instructions for schooling in the nawerd (a Persian word meaning circle) explaining how to do it in a figure-of-eight pattern which would have entailed a lead change as the rein was changed......this manoeuvrability.....would have been vital for an archer who had to make many changes of direction. A well-trained, balanced horse will switch his leads as he changes direction. If he does not, he ride becomes jerky which would have disrupted the aim. To aim well......a horse needed a low level topline with his head down."  Not just for dressage tests then......

Another item of interest is what they would do with the reins:

"The reins were shortened by means of a knot....to the spare length a folded strap was attached and a very thin thong tied to this, once the rider was mounted, was secured to a ring on the ring finger of the right hand to prevent the reins from leaving his hand while shooting."


I like this picture in the book too, from the 13th century Battle of Bouvines. This was the one where we finally lost hold of Brittany and Normandy, after another disastrous campaign by King John and his allies. You wouldn't associate mounted archers with medieval knights.....

...but then on a recent trip to see the Bayeux Tapestry again, I did notice this bit for the first time:

Then of course there is plenty in the book about the Mongols:

"The Mongol horse was trained so that his rider could shoot a bow in each and every direction while travelling at a flat-out gallop. Training started with the horse at a standstill getting him accustomed to the bow accompanied by much noise; next, movement with the equipment - different angles for shooting, moving the drawn bow around the horse, withdrawing arrows from the quiver etc. "

Might as well get started then.......

Championnat de France 2015 - Day 3

Day 3 and it was even more of an effort to drag ourselves out of the tent at 6 to get going. We decided to pack all the camp stuff away as we needed to head off after Ali's second competition and there was no way I'd be able to do the drive too late in the day without falling asleep......

So it was back to the dustbowl. Was quite amusing that all these people who arrived clean and shiny were now starting to look like, well, people who'd spent 3 days camping and being around sweaty horses......I had rinsed through Ali's riding gear the night before but it wasn't looking too pristine!

We did the usual hanging around and faffing, although Éowyn was quite happy messing around plaiting the horses' manes (apart from Kinna's as she hasn't really got any).

Then it was away back to the monster ménage. We saw some more costumes on the way, and even a few attelages.

 Kinna got bored waiting whilst the kids did some archery warm up on foot and decided she's like to eat Carole's hair .....

The Poney competition on the second day was a bit different. Someone (presumably one of the Important Guys In Charge) had decided that they should do a Hungarian type thing, where instead of targets spaced out along the run on the ground which is what Ali is used to, there were 3 targets higher up, two of which are angled. (More on that here, if anyone's interested). Needless to say, this did not help improve her score, and quite a few of the kids ended up with zero runs. Never mind, all good experience.

Kinna was still pretty lively, all four feet are not meant to be off the ground at a mere canter ;-)

So Ali has the honour of being last at the Championnat. Or 13th out of 13, unlucky for some.......but she had fun, and it was a great experience. Unlike the drive back down to our place in the Dordogne, which was just long, even without any striking agriculteurs this time. Need a rest now!

Championnat de France 2015 - Day 2

So after the usual crap night's sleep in a tent (better than last time because we had an air mattress, but still not ideal as I was sharing with both the kids who are fidgety buggers) I was up at 6 to get sorted for day 1 of the competition. We had breakfast (remembered to bring proper tea bags this time so no thé pas bon for me), rounded up the horses, loaded them and set off back to Lamotte.

Obviously the car park was miles away from the event, and the trailer/lorry park was miles away from that, so it was back to the dust and dangerous cyclists again. It was pretty busy even at 8am and Kinna's teddy bear ears were flicking all over the place taking it all in....

It was also pretty warm already, Éowyn and the dog were running through the sprinklers to cool off!

We arrived back at the monstrous indoor school to find the usual chaos of yelling people, yelling horses, barking dogs and flying arrows just to add to the excitement. One of the Important Guys In Charge (wearing his official gilet to make sure we all knew how important he was) came over and opined that Ali's arrows were "too pointy" so we had to hurriedly scrape the points off on some concrete.

 

Then it was time for a quick warm up as they were in the first "pool" (the way they pronounced the English word made me think they were talking about chickens at first) and they were off. Predictably, Kinns wasn't too keen on going away from her friends into the dark recesses of the manege and did some suitable prancing about and snorting, but eventually deigned to actually go down the run. When it came to the cantering runs, she decided she'd rather gallop, and Ali found the wall at the end coming towards her rather rapidly.......!

But she managed to pull her up without running over any Important Guys In Charge or small children and at least the speed got her some time points. She even managed to get some arrows in the targets, including a 4

Still finished last though by the end of the first day's competition. But then she's had nowhere to practise in the UK (I'm working on that). Johan did better in the second "pool", Kinns had slowed down (a bit) by then.

 

And Carla on Quetsch did pretty well too.

We emerged blinking into the heat of midday and set off to yomp back to the trailer with the horses then go in search of food. Lots of fancy-dress dressage going on, like a quadrille but with various numbers of competitors. Some good costumes on show!

Also, sadly, a lot of gadgets on show, they even allow de Gogues for archery....

After lunch it was back to the nice cool manege for the Club 1 competition. Kinna had to come along and watch her mate Idaa strut his stuff.

Then we decided it was time for ice-creams. By this time Éowyn was flagging so I took her back to the campsite for a shower and a rest. Naturally she crashed in the car on the way back and was then bouncing around all over the place.........luckily they had some games to keep her amused.

 

No meschui this time so once the others were back we went out for a pizza and came home for an early night. Which would have been easier had some of our fellow campers not stayed up late drinking and yelling....even the bloody sheep on the farm were loud. I hate camping!

Championnat de France 2015 - Day 1

We've just got back from a manic few days at the French National Championships.  This happens every year at a purpose built Parc Féderal near Orléans in central France. As with everywhere in such a big country, it looks a lot easier to get to on the map than it actually is. Especially when the French agriculteurs are on strike, blockading roads with tractors and setting fire to roundabouts......

So it took us rather longer than planned to get there, most of the day in fact to get from Caen to Lamotte-Beuvron, just south of Orléans. A journey my satnav promised me would only require 3 and a half hours.......

But we arrived eventually, to find the place hot, dusty and packed. The Championnat is for pretty much any equestrian discipline there is, even horseback archery ;-) My fellow blogger Martine was there a couple of days earlier for the Equifeel competition. There was also western, TREC, endurance and hunter as well as the usual showjumping, dressage and eventing. Obviously there were horses everywhere, so you needed to get out of the way sharpish when one of them decided to object to leaving its friends/going into an arena/standing still to be mounted etc. You also needed to move out of the way of the hundreds of people who, unlike us, knew just how big the place was so opted to travel (when not on horseback) on various bicycles, golf buggies and even a few segways. And they didn't seem too concerned about doing things like looking where they were going.......

We met up with John and Carole from the stables and then went along to the briefing about the competition the next day. Well, OK, we stood around in the enormous covered arena where the targets had been set up and waited for the briefing to start.....luckily there was a lot of sand around to keep Éowyn amused ;-)

The briefing eventually happened, it basically boiled down to "turn up tomorrow ready to start at 9", and then we set off to find our digs for the next couple of nights. Turns out
we were camping on a sheep farm about half an hour north of Lamotte. Along with the gang from the Domaine de Gauchoux where we went to the archery competition last month. So the company was good, and so, as it turned out, was the food, since we'd arrived on the day they were having a mechoui (like a hog roast but with lamb). Lovely :-)