Jousting
Jousting is the most spectacular and the most dangerous activity that we engage in. It is also one of the few contact sports in the world where women compete in equal competition with men. Some of the best competitive jousters in the world are women.
Jousting is a specialist activity where two armoured riders engage each other at speed with lances. This tests a rider's horsemanship, lance skills and courage under the real pressure of a modern, full contact, competition.
Unlike other martial sports there is no defensive aspect - you are going to get hit. Points are awarded on how well you strike your opponent with maximum points being awarded for shattering your lance. This style of joust, known as the joust of peace became common from the 14th century onwards. We also use real armour because a solid hit to an unprotected person even in this style of joust will deliver more than enough force to kill.
While historically the head was considered to be a legitimate target with a strike to the head being regarded as being the most difficult, the objective of our style of jousting is to shatter a lance on the torso of the opponent while he or she is trying to do the same to you.
We also do not try to dismount the opposing rider because this will lead to real injuries - either to the horse or to the rider. However our hits are hard enough to cause unplanned dismounts and these do happen especially during competitions. But we award no additional points for this.
A modern day competition jousting match consists of a number of contacting passes where the riders attempt to hit each other’s shields at either the canter or the gallop. Points are awarded for each pass depending upon the quality of the hits scored. The winner being the person who scored the most points during the match.
We also focus on the 14th Century for our armour and equipment. While most overseas jousting groups tend to focus on the 15th century, we prefer the 14th century for a number of reasons.
These include the wide range of equipment that was used in the 14th century which allows greater personal choice, and it is also generally cheaper and easier to obtain. Especially as we do not have the specialist armourers in New Zealand to make the full plate armour of the later centuries.
Contact callum@jousting.co.nz for further information on our Jousting Displays.
International Jousting Association
The International Jousting Association (IJA) was originally formed in England by Alan Beattie and a number of other jousters.
The IJA never really had any traction in England so we took it over in the early 2000's along with Australian jousters Rod Walker and Justin Holland.
Along with Callum Forbes they put together the IJA Member's Book which included a structured and progessive training system for all riders and foot crew, minimum horse welfare standards, armour and equipment standards, event organisation and display guidelines as well as rules for skill-at-arms and jousting competitions.
The IJA Members Book was a real game changer at the time and was adopted by groups in several other countries including Canada, USA, England and Norway.
This and the Harcourt Park tournaments in Upper Hutt paid a large part in the revival around the world of jousting in the early 21st century.
Over the last 10 years, the use of the IJA Members Book declined as much of its content started to become out-of-date.
However, a new updated version of the IJA Members Book has been produced by the Order of Boar.
This forms the basis of all our activities.
Want to Joust?
If you want to joust you will need your own horse that has a suitable temperament for jousting.
You will then need to train as a Skill-at-Arms rider and as Foot Crew first before you start to joust training. All of our Riders also train as Foot Crew and are required to work on the ground as Foot Crew if they are not riding in a display session.
You will also need to obtain your own historically accurate jousting armour based on 14th century style armour.
If you have a riding background but don't have access to your own horse, you may be allowed to train on a member's horse but this is up to the horse owner concerned and they may charge a fee for riding their horse.