Horsemanship Level 4: Vet & First Aid The Vet & First Aid section of Level 4 Horsemanship is very similar to the Level 3 requirements, the difference being you are expected to know the subject more thoroughly. 8. Vet & First Aid. T, P, R; Identify minor wounds; cause, care & treatment. Since these topics…
La Canne de Combat is French for "combat cane" and is distinct from Bartitsu's walking stick self-defense. La Canne Francaise ("French cane") was a branch of savate, and remains a part of some savate schools. Pierre Vigny brought some of the aspects of La Canne to Bartitsu, with his own interpretations and modifications for the…
Even if you’re part of a vibrant school or club and have lots of training partners to practice with, keeping a daily rhythm is an essential part of the path of mastery. That means you’re going to have a lot of solo training occasions to fill. Most partner drills don’t effectively translate into a solitary…
Horsemanship Level 4: Conditioning pt II At the end of April we covered work versus exercise in our Level 4 conditioning topic: 7. Work vs. exercise. Warm-up and cooling out, reasons why. Cooling out was covered in this Level 3 post, so this week we'll look at what constitutes an effective warm up. Just like…
At the top of the year, I was approached to be the fight director for Romeo and Juliet at Bard on the Beach. Kim Collier is directing the play, and liked my work on her Hamlet two years ago. I was very proud of our results in that play, and was eager to put some…
How much is your sword, armour, or related kit worth to you? ...financially? ...emotionally? ...professionally? Was it a gift? A prize you earned? Looted? Swords are by nature "desirable" -- and not just by the HEMA community. As we can and have read in the "Snippets" section of past editions of Sword Press, swords are not…
Read More... from Recoverable Sword Press: News for May 2016
“Where’s the Fire?” asked Christopher Sommer in the last moments of a podcast I was listening to last week. Sommer is the Head Coach of the USA JR National Gymnastics Team and runs an online strength training program called Gymnastic Bodies (which is absolutely worth checking out). When I started listening, I anticipated hearing from him…
Read More... from Where's the Fire? A refreshing message from Coach Sommer
Please join us in welcoming Red Colt's new resident caretakers, Elise Marquis and Graham Dube! Elise and Graham moved in at the end of April, and we are thrilled to have them join our team. Over the past year there has been a fair amount of upheaval at the barn with co-op members pulling in…
A few weeks ago I delivered a talk at TEDx EastVan. The talk focused on something I am passionate about: inspiring others to pursue and master movement. Swordplay and the Lost Art of Knighthood | Devon Boorman | TEDxEastVanWatch this video on YouTube In the talk I delve into why I believe it’s vital to…
Read More... from My TEDx Talk: Movement, Mastery, and Swordplay
With new series of Riding, Horsemanship and Mounted Combat having just started, I thought it may be useful to re-post links to blogs which cover topics in the curriculum. You can use these blog posts as refreshers and checklists to support the material taught in classes. Each group of posts is searchable under tags such…
The use of violence and the threat of violence to force someone to do something they wouldn't ordinarily do is not only universally regarded as wrong, it is also universally regarded as unavoidable. I just read a great article on Kotaku about the short series in Calvin and Hobbes that featured the bully Moe: http://kotaku.com/a-string-of-upsetting-calvin-hobbes-strips-told-a-bol-1777424191 So…
I have gone from being able to do 100 push-ups in a set to not being able to do one and back again. I spent years developing myself as a fencer only to have to tear down what I’d built and start from scratch. Years ago I could touch my toes without bending my legs, sometime in…
With buzz in the air about breeding Flavie, we thought we'd make this week's blog all about babies. Did you know? A newborn horse is called a foal. Female young horses are known as fillies, and male young horses are known as colts. Adult females are mares and adults males are stallions -- or geldings…