Until this weekend we had an unbroken streak of good weather for Mounted Combat. In the two years we've been running the Mounted Combat workshops we've had stunningly good weather, with maybe a sprinkle of rain at the beginning or end of the day. However, when our weather luck failed, it failed spectacularly, and chose the three full days of Carosella in which to do so.

However, our mounted combatants are a hardy lot, and neither cold nor rain nor wind kept us indoors or out of our saddles. After two full days of Mounted Combat and Horseback Archery workshops participants still had enough energy (and dry clothing) to compete in Sunday's tournament.

Tournament Results

Grooms' Competition

Teams of two had 45 minutes to groom and tack up their horses before facing the extraodinarily picky Richmond Pony Club judges. Scores were very tight and it was the little details that made the difference. This year everybody chose to braid as well, and special mention goes to Misty and Nadia who turned Princess out to match her name, with Rapunzel flowers in her mane!

Brittany Linnett & Robert Borsos with Treasure
Crystal Chung & Amy Snook with Kale
Kat Liffiton & Janet Eastwood with Winnie
Cassandra Tattrie & Tracey Leacock with Chicco
Kirsten Call & Greg Reimer with Mystery
Misty Saunby & Nadia Graham with Princess
Richmond Pony Club Judges inspecting the Grooms

Team Competition

We ran teams of two in Open, Intermediate and Beginner Divisions. The games were 3 flag, stick-pegging and quintain.

Open Division

This was very close with only 4 points difference between first and last.

'Team Veggie' - Crystal Chung & Kathleen Beekman on Kale & Yam with 12 points
Kirsten Call & Eleanor Landels on Mystery & Winnie with 11 points
Robert Borsos & Isabel Landels on Flavie & Princess with 10 points
Brittany Linnett & Kate Landels on Treasure & Gracie with 9 points

Intermediate Division

This division contains level 2 and 3 riders, and only 1 point separated 1st and 2nd place

'Team Chrissandra': Cassandra Tattrie & Chris Richardson on Chicco & Winnie with 14 points
Kat Liffiton & Misty Saunby on Kale & Princess

Beginner Division

This division contained a ringer, Roland Cooper, but since Nadia has only been in the program less than a month, and just received her Riding 1 the week before we felt it was fair to team them up. Kudos to Janet for getting on Kale for the first time and riding her in a competition!

Nadia Graham & Roland Cooper on Princess & Winnie: 15 points
Greg Reimer & Janet Eastwood on Chicco & Kale: 12 points

On Foot Competitions

I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were willing to head into the ring on foot despite the weather and run relay games. This year the results of an archery competition was added to the the team scores. To be fair, Robert shot with his head turned away (and still hit the target).

Roland, Chris C, Andre, Robert & Brittany
Nadia, Janet, Hana, Tracey & Adrian
Kat, Cassandra, Crystal/Jeff, Chris R & Greg

Individual Competitions / Division titles

Games for the individual competitions were rings, spear, and balloon. The scores were added to team scores to find the winners of each division who received a $25 gift certificate from either Stampede Tack or Country Feeds.

Open division

Kathleen Beekman on Yam with 22 points
Robert Borsos on Chicco tied with Crystal Chung on Kale with 20 points
Isabel Landels on Princess with 18 points
Eleanor Landels on Winnie with 17 points
Kirsten Call on Mystery with 16 points
Kate Landels on Gracie with 13 points
Brittany Linnett on Treasure with 9 points

Intermediate Division

The points for first place were tied, so the winner was the rider with the highest individual score.

Kat Liffiton on Kale with 26 points (13 Individual points)
Cassandra on Chicco with 26 points (12 Individual points)
Chris Richardson on Winnie with 25 points
Misty Saunby on Princess with 20 points

Beginner Division

Greg Reimer on Chicco with 26 points
Janet Eastwood on Kale with 25 points
Nadia Graham on Princess with 24 points

Green Spur Tournament

This was the highlight for many of us who've been longing to put our mounted combat skills to the test for some time. We did a partial round robin, with each of the eight competitors fighting four matches each. Scoring was based on wins and points. To keep things fair we limited the pool of horses to our four best, Chicco, Winnie, Kale and Princess, and riders swapped off as necessary.

Roland Cooper with 4 wins, 16 points
Chris Richardson with 3 wins, 11 points
Greg Reimer with 3 wins, 9 points
Jennifer Landels with 2 wins, 7 points
Crystal Chung with 2 wins, 5 points

Special credit goes to Janet Eastwood, who has only been riding for a few months, and Kat Liffiton, who took a knuckle-immobilizing blow in the first round and kept fighting anway!

Carosella Grand Champion

The grand prize of an embroidered wool show sheet went to the rider with the most cumulative points in all competitions: grooms', on foot, mounted, and Green Spur. This year we had a three way tie for second place, and only 1 point separated first from second. Well done everyone!

Grand Champion: Greg Reimer with 31 points
Reserve Champions: Robert Borsos, Kat Liffiton, and Janet Eastwood with 30 points
2nd Reserve Champions: Cassandra Tattrie and Chris Richarson with 29 points

An instructor with Academie Duello Greg, has only been part of the Cavaliere Program since January, and has been faithfully coming out to the barn for weekly lessons all spring and summer to work on his riding and horsemanship. To go from beginner to grand champion in nine months is a testament to his dedication and enthusiasm.

Many, Many Thanks

As well as our wonderful prize sponsors, Stampede Tack, Country Feeds, and Academie Duello, there is an amazing number of people we have to thank for making Carosella a success.

Instructors: Robert Borsos of Borsos Torz Horse Archery and his assistants Peter and Zoltan; Jennifer Kita of Danceability Studios; and our in-house instructors Devon Boorman, Roland Cooper and Greg Reimer.

Handlers / Grooms: Cassandra Tattrie, Crystal Chung, Aurelia Sedlmair, Brittany Linnett, Chris Richardson, Kat Liffiton, Kirsten Call, Misty Saunby, Janet Eastwood.

Demo Teams: Academie Duello's Performance team members Matheus Olmedo, Jennifer Goodwin and Adrian Jones; and the MGA/PPG demo team: Kathleen Beekman, Kate Landels, Isabel Landels and Eleanor Landels

Timekeepers, Equipment team & Tournament officials: Chris Chow, Laura Kostur, Jorg Beekman, Gabrielle Bevis-O'Keefe, Jeff Turner, Chris Richardson, Nadia Graham, Amy Snook, Adrian Jones & Devon Boorman.

Concession & Judging: Richmond Pony Club (Carey, Camryn, Sandra, Robin, Kate, Eleanor & Isabel), plus new honorary member, Shannon Enns.

Front Desk and Tours: Janet Eastwood, Kristen Dobbs, Nicky Dexter, Tracey Leacock, Cassandra Tattrie & Amy Snook.

T-shirts: Kirsten Call & Roland Cooper

Programmes: Greg Reimer & Monica Miller

Facilities & Equipment: Cassandra Tattrie, Kat Liffiton, Crystal Chung, Jeff Turner, Brittany Linnett & Chris Richardson. This group of people in particular put in a huge amount of effort both before and during the event, sourcing, building and refurbishing equipment, cleaning up the grounds, organizing and supervising. They were present from before the beginning till after the end of each day. Carosella could not have happened without them, and they deserve a standing ovation. Thanks guys!

Photos

There are photos of the event on the Academie Duello Facebook and Flickr pages, courtesy of Chris Richarson and Brad Duffy. Not all the photos Chris and the girls took on Sunday are up, so if you want more of yourself, or higher resolution versions, message or email me and I will send them to you.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32163933@N06/sets/72157636107600544/

Life Goes On

We're not slowing down yet. There are still two months of Cavaliere Progam classes before we take our winter break. The Intro to Mounted Combat has been moved to November 3rd, but we will still be having our regular Mounted Combat Workshop this Sunday at 1pm.

Cavaliere Classes resume October 18th & 25th, and the last ones before winter will be November 10th & 17th.

Note that we will be discontinuing the Integrated Package in 2014. It will be replaced by two more flexible packages that will allow you to take private and semi-private riding lessons along with your Cavaliere Classes and Mounted Combat workshops. These will be priced at $200 for a 4-pack, and $480 for a 12-pack.

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.
Read more from Jennifer Landels.