The Rules of Engagement

he historical sport of jousting originally evolved in the early Middle Ages as a training exercise for war.

As the Middle Ages progressed, specialised armour and rules gradually turned jousting into the more familiar pageant that we are familiar with today.

Today, most people understand jousting as being two riders engaging each other with long spears called lances, as popularised by such films as a "Knights Tale" and "Ivanhoe". Although technically this activity is more accurately referred to as tilting: to avoid confusion we also refer to this style of armoured engagement using lances as being jousting.

During the middle ages there were many forms of jousting each with their own specialised rules and items of armour, however the predominant forms were the joust of war where sharp weapons were used, and the joust of peace where blunt weapons were used. Our joust represents the joust of peace.

The main objective of most styles of the joust of peace was to "break a spear" anywhere on the opponent from the waist up, and this we follow, modified to safeguard against unnecessary risk to both horse and rider.

Points are awarded on how well you strike your opponent with maximum points being awarded for shattering your lance. This style of the joust of peace became common from the 14th century onwards.

We also do not try to deliberately 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.

A jousting match consists of a number of runs or 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 accumulates the most points - not only during the match but also over the course of the tournament:

+1 point for a hit that does not break the tip of the lance.
+2 points for a hit that breaks the tip of the lance.
+3 points for a hit that shatters the tip of the lance into several or multiple fragments

Penalties are awarded for various rules infractions. Minor infractions such as not presenting a good target, not cantering or galloping, or throwing the lance away result in points deductions.

More serious infractions such as striking a horse or causing an injury to an opponent by striking off-target normally results in disqualification - either from a match or in more severe cases from the tournament itself.

Order of the Boar tournaments attract some the best jousters in the world and to date we have never had a horse struck or injured in any of our activities and only minor injuries among the riders.

Mounted Skill-at-Arms

he jousting is supported by the mounted Skill-at-Arms competition.

The style of Skill-at-Arms competition has no historical basis as an actual competition but instead demonstrates many of the training exercises that jousters and other mounted warriors practiced in order to develop their skills for both the joust and for actual combat.

We demonstrate some of these skills as part of a skill-at-arms course consisting of a number of different exercises:

Rings - these are small rings set at varying heights that the rider must capture with the spear. The rings develop accuracy.
Quintain - the quintain was an exercise specifically developed for jousting to develop both accuracy and power when using the lance.
Moor's Head - the moor's heads are targets set in various configurations to develop skill in using the sword from horseback.
The Spear Throw - the spear throw develops accuracy in throwing the spear from horseback - not only in warfare but also during hunting.

Each rider is competing against the clock as well as working in a more open environment than the joust, with points being awarded depending on how well each exercise is completed with the rider who accumulates the most points winning the competition.

Melee

The Melee is a mock battle between two teams consisting of riders only, riders and footmen or just footmen only. It is designed to develop team work and tactics. We are in the process of developing rules for the melee between two teams each consisting of both riders and footmen. From Summer 2009/2010 we intend to present the mounted melee with batons as a formal competitive activitiy.