Riding Level 4: Jumping single-handed One of the skills we ask you to show in the Mounted Combat program that you won't find in most riding curricula is the ability to 12. Jump a small x-rail with single-hand reining This, of course, is a prequel to being able to jump with a weapon in hand.…
Meet Mr. Bumble. Mr. Bumble is scared of everything. Mr. Bumble is a foster rat currently in my care. He was found living outside. Before we took him in he was a day away from becoming snake food (seriously!) and at some point in his adventures he broke a number of toes, so he was likely…
This past weekend, I was teaching in Istanbul, Turkey, a city that was arguably the centre of the western world at one time. It is a city steeped in both European and Asian history. Every site you visit reveals layer upon layer of history that goes back at least 2000 years. This makes Istanbul both…
The High Cost of Horsing Around We are fortunate at Academie Duello. We are one of the few HEMA schools in the world that own horses. Between our three horses and the horses that other owners at Red Colt Co-op make available to us, we are able to run classes, workshops, clinics, and our annual…
A little more than a week ago, I was arriving in Italy to the sala of Roberto Gotti for a special gathering of swordsmen called Giocatore. This was a weekend of martial encounters across disciplines, opportunities to share knowledge, and time to immerse oneself in study and camaraderie. First about Gairethinx Gairethinx in the Lombard…
Summer may be three weeks away officially, but summer riding starts this weekend, with new courses of Riding and Horsemanship. Stay tuned for the return of Friday clinics on Mounted Games, Prix Fiore, Cross Country and more later on this month. June is also the time to renew your Mounted Combat membership if you are…
Now about two decades old, the modern study of HEMA is continuing to gain enthusiasts from non-traditional venues. We’re already familiar with our peers in Japan that have an interest in medieval western martial arts, mirroring the western interest in ‘kendo’ and any of the Chinese swordplay disciplines. The item on Romania’s interest in and…
If you feel that you learn best by reading or writing, you are not alone. For many, these are the learning skills that they've had the most practice with since our school system focuses so much on them. This in itself is an important note. It may not be that you are "wired this way",…
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Riding Level 4: Gymnastics In the equine world, gymnastics have nothing to do with leotards, balance bars, or vaulting horses. Rather, a gymnastic exercise, sometimes called a grid, is a line of jumps or poles set with one, two, or no strides (a bounce) between them. Gymnastic lines are wonderful exercises that help improve jumping style for…
So, this clean eating challenge popped up in my feed a few days ago because several people I know are taking it. We’re about to go down a rabbit hole, so I guess before we begin I should clarify: I don’t blame people for doing this stuff. I don’t blame people for hoping it will help them…
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Luis Preto gave a wonderful analogy in the instructor section of his Jogo do Pau level 1 instructor seminar where he compared how we teach martial arts to how we teach someone to catch a ball. The typical martial arts approach to teaching catch: Demonstrate the catching motion. Have the student practice catching as a…
Horsemanship Level 4: Mounted Games It is possible to progress through our Riding and Horsemanship curricula without ever taking up mounted combat, and some people do this. However, we think you're missing out on a lot of the fun as well as on the riding skills that mounted games build. So even though we test…
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So, I generally don’t do reviews, so it means if I am doing one I either love the product or I really hate it to the point I need to put it in print so that I can stop being angry about it. Luckily (for you) this is the former. Over the weekend, I was…
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