Order of the Boar Spring Workshops

[Callum]

I have sent this via email to everybody who I think would be interested in this but I'm posting it here in case anybody has slipped through the cracks.

We have had an appalling run of weather which has been putting off our Spring training workshop. However, with Taupo looming, I have decided to go ahead and schedule the workshop in the hope that the weather has settled by then.

The workshop will be held over the weekend of November 14/15 at our place (234 Marchant Road, Kaitoke, Upper Hutt). It will commence at approximately 2 PM on the Saturday and run through until Sunday afternoon.

The seminar will be run by Joram Van Essen. For those who don't know Joram, Joram has spent over a decade living and working as a professional re-enactor/jouster in Holland. There is probably nobody else in New Zealand who has the unique set of skills, experience and knowledge that Joram has.

So we are very fortunate that he has made himself available for this workshop.

The workshop is aimed at riders and will cost $60 (this does not include food, accommodation, any lance tips or use of our horses for non-Order of
the Boar riders - these are all extra). Over the weekend Joram would like to cover:

Gear for horse and rider and how to integrate them into historical
jousting and equestrian skills, particularly looking at the writing
of Dom Duarte as a source of information, and how they fit in with
modern concepts of equine care.

Drills and exercises to help build a solid foundation for balance,
control and confidence of both horse and rider.

Joust practice, with specific coaching on personal techniques.

Joram will also have some resource material if people have specific
questions. Although if anyone has any questions before hand, he can
endeavour to bring specific information to answer them as well.

If you have your own horse we would prefer that you bring it if possible (and if it is trained to joust).

Note that we require all horses to be wormed prior to arriving on our property, and they may be on restricted paddocking overnight due to the
current soggy state of our property.

If you require accommodation we recommend the Harcourt Park Holiday Camp which is approximately 15 minutes from our place. On Saturday night for those who would like to, we will visit the Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan club for a meal.

Can you please advise as soon as possible if you would like to attend and, if so, whether or not you would be bringing a horse.

(We may be able to provide some non-Order of the Boar riders with a horse, on a first-come first-serve basis. This costs $50. If people want to do any joust practice, each tip broken or damaged so it is unusable costs $5)

[Callum]

The Spring Workshop finally happened last weekend. This was only one of three workshops that we had originally hoped to schedule this year but unfortunately the weather has conspired against us since last Autumn.

Even was weekend the weather was marginal with gale force winds (some gusts were up to 120 K), dust storms and patches of rain creating challenging conditions for horses and riders alike.

Joram Van Essen took the workshop and he covered a range of things including medieval riding skills, warm up drills for horses and riders, formation drills, lance carriage and presentation, mounted melee, mounted spear work for the skill-at-arms and jousting.

The weekend was a great success and we will be incorporating Joram's material into our own training which had become somewhat predictable in recent years (just because you have a successful formula doesn't mena that it can't be improved!)

We will be looking at scheduling another similar workshop late next Summer.

[Chevalier]

Hello,

any chance somewhat filmed and/or took pictures?

[Callum]

No. We might have got some stills but it was too windy anyway to get any decent shots.