Winter Woollies Lease and other riding opportunities

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…

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Archery Continues to be Big News in Vancouver | Academie Duello

Archery Continues to be Big News in Vancouver

The Province Newspaper features a half page article today about Archery that mentions a lot of different people with the last name Boorman. Interestingly I do have a distant relation to the Boorman's who run the archery store in New Westminster and certainly some shared passion for traditional martial arts. I'm really glad to see…

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Squaring the Circle

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…

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Dueling Dudettes - Five Stories of Badass Women from History

History has its share of colourful duels between men of all stations but they weren't the only ones hurling down insults, hauling out swords, or trying to make new orifices in their enemies with pistols.  Here are five stories featuring some badass dueling ladies. 1. Hyde Park Pistol Duel Seems that women have been cattily…

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Beginners Courses for Next Year | Academie Duello

November Workshop Highlights: from Medieval Swordplay to the Modern Umbrella

As Autumn begins to transition into Winter don't get stuck indoors with a case of the rainy day blues. Take this opportunity to try something new at Duello and push the limits of your practice and perhaps discover a new passion! Here's a look at of few of our upcoming workshops in November: INTRO TO…

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On the Mark: making accurate transitions

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…

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The More You Holmes

For the Sherlock fans, I direct you to Bonzuko the webpage of fight director Jenn Zuko-Boughn. She has a regular feature called The More You Holmes, which is a reference to the 80's shooting-star factoid segments. Her explanations of obscure facts in the many Holmes TV series, films and stories are concise and always informative.…

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Pounding Out Sword News

Aside from our Ukrainian peers pounding on each other, today’s offering concentrates of some of those unique individuals that enjoy their study of swords and sword history in a way totally different from the blow-by-blow techniques used by HEMA/WMA practitioners.  We are lucky in this modern day to have a few skilled craftsmen that have…

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Rank Exam Results, NerdFest, Archery, and Mounted Combat!

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…

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