Blue Spur Curriculum: Swordplay from the Ground The Mounted Combat checklist for the Blue Spur has five sections: Swordplay from the ground Swordplay from the falsemount Spear fundamentals Mounted games Knowledge In the next few months on the Tuesday blog we'll be covering the checklists for the first two sections, looking at the swordplay requirements…
Riding Level 2: Riding without the reins At famous Cadre Noir school of equitation in Saumur France, riders are put on horseback on long reins or the longeline for two years before they are allowed to pick up the reins. This insures they have a completely independent seat. Most of our students do not have…
Riding Level 2: Ring Etiquette Just like the theatre, dining room and public road, the riding arena has its own, often unspoken, rules of conduct. Unlike the question of which fork to use for salad, arena rules are there for safety. In your level 2 riding test we want you to: 14. Demonstrate safety and…
Heigh ho, it's a new year! Before we launch back into the Blue Spur curriculum I thought I'd take a moment and give a quick overview of what's coming up in the Cavaliere Program. Cavaliere Focus Group Saturday 11 January, 2:30 - 4pm We're taking advantage of the winter lull in classes to look at…
2013 was a fabulous year in the Cavaliere Program, full of new endeavours such as Mounted Archery, Carosella, and the first ever Green Spur Tournament. We're looking forward to a newyear with even more combat, more archery, and more fabulous events. Enjoy yourselves tonight as we bid farewell to 2013!
In this season of kindness and giving, please remember: don't roast your chestnuts ... ... give them carrots and a good grooming instead. Happy Yule to you and yours!
Riding Level 2: The Vaulting Dismount There are many ways to get off a horse, but only a few that are deliberate and don't involve pain or embarrassment. When you first learn to ride that ground seems awfully far away, and it takes a while to learn to dismount with confidence and grace. That's why…
Riding Level 2 - Identifying the Canter Lead Although we don't ask you to ride the canter on a particular lead at Level 2, we do want you to be visually able to identify the lead on which a horse is cantering . 12. Identify canter leads while watching another horse. What is a canter…
Riding Level 2: The Canter Level 1 Riding is all done at the walk and trot. However, the most useful gait for advanced Mounted Combat is the canter. A horse in a balanced canter is smooth to ride, and can move swiftly in and out of melee, turning with precision to help his rider deliver…
Our last Cavaliere class for 2013 was held on Sunday: congrats to Lizzie who passed her Horsemanship 1 and Trisha who passed her Riding 2! Classes are on hold now, and will start up again with the Intro to Mounted Combat and Mounted Combat Workshop on February 2nd 2014. However, if you are wanting to…
Read More... from Winter Woollies Lease and other riding opportunities
Riding Level 2: Circles and Half - circles If you ride, whether it's dressage, hunter-jumpers, reining, or mounted combat, you will spend a lot of time going in circles. The circle is probably the single most effective training tool a rider has. A horse travelling correctly on a circle develops suppleness, as he curves his…
Riding Level 2: Progressive Transitions Those who have been in Cavaliere Classes and riding lessons in the last week or so will have noticed we've spent quite a bit of time working on transitions, from halt to walk, walk to trot, trot to walk, etc. Transitions that go from one pace to the next one…
Riding Level 2: Mounted Games We don't actually ask you to juggle while riding, but sometimes that's what it feels like when we ask you to 8. Pick up an object from a standard, carry at trot to another standard and deposit. You may wonder what on earth this skill has to do with mounted…
This past weekend members were inducted into new ranks in the Academie, we indulged in Nerdy goodness at Nerdfest at the Rickshaw Theatre, and whole crews of new people tried Archery and Mounted combat for the first time. Rank Exams Congratulations to Rick, Dieter, and Steve on completing their rank examination for the second rank…
Read More... from Rank Exam Results, NerdFest, Archery, and Mounted Combat!
November is the last month of the year in which we hold regular Cavaliere Program workshops and classes, and this month we've packed in one extra to let you get as much saddle time as possible before the weather forces all but the most waterproof souls indoors. November Workshops and Classes Introduction to Mounted Combat…
A quick heads up to let you know the Cavaliere class scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled, and another class added at the end of the cycle on November 24th. The new schedule is: Class 2: November 10th Class 3: November 17th Class 4 & assessments: November 24th If you have already registered for…
So you've signed up for a series of four Cavaliere classes, and really all you know is you'll be out at Red Colt for three and a half hours doing something with horses and swords. But how exactly does a Cavaliere Class unfold? Students in the Cavaliere classes are divided into groups based on their…
The geese are flying overhead, the days are getting shorter and the horses' coats are getting longer. But that won't keep us out of the saddle! In fact, our Mounted Combat weather luck has reasserted itself, and we had an absolutely gorgeous balmy day for riding and swinging swords last Sunday. However, there are a…