Carosella 2014

by Jennifer Landels

What a weekend!  The weather gods, by means of abject apology for last year, granted us three days of perfect sunshine for Carosella 2014!

Friday began to the strains of classical music as Erin Ensor of Danceability let us through Rider Conditioning (aka Ballet in the Barn) under the watchful eyes and peaceful breath of SL Equine's visiting horses (one of whom was appropriately named Dancer).  Meanwhile Robert Borsos of Borsos Torsz Horse Archery introduced Hungarian archery to the Beginner Horseback Archery Group.

After lunch the Intermediate Horseback Archery Group saddled up for some practice shooting at the canter while Richmond Pony Club's Eleanor & Isabel Landels taught Equine First Aid and a Horsemanship 1 crash course for beginners.  There was more archery from the ground and riding lessons in the late afternoon, and we ended the day with a Prix Fiore workshop in which we completed and performed a short eight-horse pattern of jumps and sword forms.

Saturday was Mounted Combat day.  Matheus Olmedo and I ran the Intro to Mounted Combat workshop while Greg Reimer led Longsword as well as Grappling & Pommel plays in shady front pasture.  After lunch there was a Falsemount workshop with Devon Boorman and more riding lessons, followed by Horsemanship 2 and Bandaging, while Devon and I led Mounted Grappling in which we learned to fall deliberately and practised pulling each other off of our horses.

In the late afternoon we worked on mounted swordplay, focussing on moving our horse in and out of measure and circling in exchanges, while Devon led a lance and spear workshop from the ground.  The end of the day was a Mounted Games workshop led by Kate Landels of Richmond Pony Club to prep everyone for the tournament to come.

Sunday was our annual Knightly Games Tournament.  As always we started off the day with the Grooms' Competition, participants out bright and early polishing, braiding and beautifying their horses.  We then moved to Team Games, and for the first time included Mounted Archery in the Games.  During lunch competitors had a chance to win points by shooting from the falsemount, and then they were back on their horses for Individual Games.

We finished the day with a four-horse version of the Prix Fiore test we created on Friday, ridden by Brittany Linnett, Chris Richardson, Greg Reimer and me, was followed by our 2nd annual Green Spur Mounted Combat Tournament.

The results of the Tournament are:

Grooms' Competition

Six teams of 2 grooms per horse were marked by Richmond Pony Club judges on speed, grooms' turnout, horse's turnout, tack adjustment and overall impression.  Braids were not mandatory, but would grant a bonus point if tidy.  In this case, braids were the tie-breaker for 1st place

  1. Brittany Linnett & Janet Eastwood grooming Treasure - 44 points + 1 for braids
  2. Stephanie Laversin & Kailea deLeon grooming Dancer - 44 points
  3. Kirsten Call & Karissa King grooming Mystery - 40 points
  4. Natalie & Alistair Leong grooming Princess - 33 points (no bonus for the tiara for Princess but it was a nice touch!)

Team Competitions

Two-rider teams competed in three timed relay races: 2-flag, stick-pegging & quintain.  Open & Intermediate riders also competed in a timesd single shot mounted archery pass.  We had four teams in the Open Division, three in Intermediate, and two Beginner teams. Christian sustained a pulled muscle in the second race and was replaced by Greg for the remainder of the team competitions.

Open Division

  1. Christian Deron / Greg Reimer on Jack & Kate Landels on Gracie
  2. Kirsten Call  on Mystery & Isabel Landels on Princess
  3. Nancy Hedge on Winnie & Eleanor Landels on Flavie
  4. Brittany Linnett on Treasure & Stephanie Laversin on Dancer

Intermediate Division

  1. Natalie Leong on Gracie & Chris Richardson on Winnie
  2. Greg Reimer on Jack & Devon Boorman on Flavie
  3. Karissa King on Princess & Kailea deLeon on Kaden

Beginner Division

  1. Tracey Leacock on Jack & Janet Eastwood on Winnie
  2. Alistair Leong on Princess & Noah Melhado on Flavie

Individual Competitions

Riders competed individually in three timed races.  Open and Intermediate Division races were sword & rings, balloon & spear & haybale.  Beginner games were bending, sword & rings, & sword & haybale.  Open Division had eight participants, Intermediate had four, and Beginner three.

Open Division

  1. Kate Landels on Gracie
  2. Eleanor Landels on Flavie
  3. (tie) Kirsten Call on Mystery  / Isabel Landels on Princess

Intermediate Division

  1. Kailea deLeon on Kaden
  2. Greg Reimer on Jack
  3. Chris Richardson on Winnie
  4. Karissa King on Princess

Beginner Division

  1. Noah Melhado on Princess
  2. Janet Eastwood on Winnie
  3. Tracey Leacock on Flavie

Archery

Contestants were given 3 arrows to shoot from the back of the falsemount with targets worth 1 and 2 points.  An additional point was earned if all three arrows were released in under 15 seconds.  A tiebreaker round between Greg and Chris was necessary to determine first place.

  1. Greg Reimer - 4 points plus tiebreaker
  2. Chris Richardson - 4 points
  3. Multiway tie with 5 people

Green Spur Tournament

The mounted combat tournament consists of round robin pairings.  Each match has three 30-second bouts with the winner of each round determined by the difference in total hits scored.  There were five competitors with the top two fighting a final championship round. Kudos to Karrissa King, who particpated for the first time against the rest of us 'veterans'!

  1. Greg Reimer on Jack (undefeated)
  2. Chris Richardson on Flavie
  3. Jennifer Landels on Winnie
  4. Brittany Linnett on Treasure

Grand Champion

The championship is awarded to the participant with highest aggregate points throughout the day for all competitions.

  1. Greg Reimer - 30 points
  2. Kate Landels - 29 points
  3. Chris Richardson - 25 points
  4. Kirsten Call - 24 points

Congratulations to Greg, who is now the undefeated Carosella Champion two years in a row!   And kudos to Kate, who nearly caught him despite not being able to take part in the Grooms' or Green Spur contest.

Congratulations are also due to Karissa King who was (very belatedly) awarded her Green Spur on Sunday.  Well done, Karissa!

Thank you to everyone who made Carosella a success: instructors Robert Borsos & Borsos Torz Horse Archery, Erin Ensor & Danceability Studio, Devon Boorman, Greg Reimer, Matheus Olmedo, Eleanor Landels, Isabel Landels & Kate Landels; handlers Brittany Linnett, Chris Richardson, Michael Molnar, Pat  Burns, Karissa King, Kirsten Call & Monica Miller; very special thanks to Janet Eastwood who was the go-to girl all day Friday and most of Sunday, to Brooke Taylor for manning the booth, and to the awesome volunteer team from The Grene Wode, Nancy Jeanne Hedge, Mari0n Felgenhauer and Freya Cirulis. We salute you!

We love feedback.  Even if you only attended as a spectator or volunteer, we'd love it if you could fill out this survey and let us know what you think and how we can improve Carosella next year!

The rest of the month ...

A week is enough rest for us!  Cavaliere Classes continue this month on Saturdays from 4-7:30pm.  These are the last two weeks of Saturday classes -- in October they go back to Sundays -- so take advantage of the good weather and long evenings while you can!

Cavaliere Classes

Saturdays 20 & 27 September, 4- 7:30pm
Sundays 19 & 26 October, 1- 4:30pm
cost: $60 or 1 flex pack credit

Work towards your Riding & Horsemanship levels and finish the class with sword drills.

Intro to Mounted Combat

Sunday 5 October, 10am - 1pm
cost: $149

Missed Carosella but still want to get going in the Mounted Combat program?  This will likely be the last Intro to Mounted Combat in 2014.  October is a lovely time to be on the back of a horse.  Sign up and get started now!

Mounted Combat Workshop

Sunday 5 October, 1 - 4pm
cost $60 or 1 flex pack credit

This is our regular Mounted Combat workshop for members of the program.  Here we work on swordplay, grappling and spear from the ground, the falsemount and from horseback.  To work from horseback you must have your Riding level 1.  Everyone else is welcome to participate from the ground and falsemount.

 

 

Jennifer Landels heads up Academie Duello's Cavaliere Program. She has been swordfighting since 2008, and riding since before she could walk. She started the program as an excuse to combine those passions.
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