THE HOME OF CAVALRY RE-ENACTMENT IN NEW ZEALAND
 

Our Warhorses

Active Warhorses

Charlie (owners Forbes/Williamson)

Charlie is a 15 hand (153 cm) Pony x Standard bred cross. We purchased Charlie in 2001 when he was about 8 years old and he quickly became one of our main horses. He is the most experienced horse in our current group of horses and has appeared at many of our events around New Zealand as well as at all of our Harcourt Park tournaments. So he has developed into a "been there and done that" horse that most people - experienced and novice riders alike - can work with. Charlie is what we call in New Zealand a "good doer" and it is hard even in Winter to keep the weight off him! As an experienced warhorse, we use him for all of our cavalry activities.
visit Charlie with Facebook Honours & Awards

Jake (owners Forbes/Williamson)

Jake is a 16.2 (167 cm) 9 year old bay Thoroughbred gelding. We purchased Jake in 2008 when he had just turned 9. Previously Jake had been brought by the Company of the Lance as a club horse and he was trained mostly by Graham Nixon (also a graduate from the Order of the Boar's Joust School). Jake was initially a bit shakey at our first displays over the 2008/2009 season but he went from strength to strength at each display, jousting on the first day at Harcourt Park 2009 and progressing from there to the point where he was cool under some real pressure at Omaka 2009. So Jake in a short space of time has become part of our core group of horses and he is also used for all of our cavalry activities.
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P J (owners Forbes/Williamson)

PJ is a 16 hand (162 cm) Thoroughbred/Quarterhorse cross gelding who we purchased in 2002 when he was 5 years old. He made his first jousting appearance at Harcourt Park 2004 in the skill-at-arms. PJ has since developed into one of our strongest horses in the joust, helping to earn his riders places in almost every event that he taken part in. He is a very trusting horse that most people, beginners and senior riders alike can do well with. He is the kind of horse where accidents are waiting to happen with so he quite often injures himself in the most stupid paddock accidents. So when it comes to major displays we do our best to wrap him up in cotton wool beforehand! This is another horse who just loves to joust and we also use him for all of our other cavalry activities.
Honours & Awards

  Will (owners Forbes/Williamson)

Will is a 15.3 hand (160 cm) gelding who we purchased in 2005 when he was 9 years old. We are unsure of his breed but he is either a full Thoroughbred or Thoroughbred cross. Will was one of the stunt horses used on Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King where he was mainly used as a front line "Rohan" cavalry horse. When we first got Will he was a bit distrustful of everything and he is the kind of horse that needs to develop trust in his rider, more so than most of our other horses so it took him longer to train than most of our other others. However he has since developed into a first rate warhorse. During the 2008/2009 season he proved himself to be an exceptional horse, particularly at Harcourt Park 2009 where he was one of the strongest and most reliable horses in the joust. He is now well established as one of our core group of horses and is also used in all of our cavalry activities.
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  Willie (owner Lisa Green)

Willie is a 15.1 hand (155 cm) 15 year old Thoroughbred gelding who one of our members originally used for Eventing and Dressage. She tried him out with skill-at-arms training over Summer 2005/2006 and he took to it so well that we continued training him to the point where he is now one of our core group of horses.
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War Horses under Training

Monty (owners Forbes/Williamson)

Monty is a 16.2 (167 cm) hand Stationbred (probably 1/4 Clydesdale) who we purchased in 2007 when he was 6 years old. He was originally used as a stock horse and he had not been ridden much. He had also been badly mistreated somewhere in his past so he had developed a general mistrust of people. As a result it took us a lot of time and effort to rebuild his trust in people enough to start training him for jousting. However he has made great strides in the last year and we took him to Taupo 2010 where he performed brilliantly in the skill-at-arms and as a marshal’s horse. With a huge presence, we expect this horse to be used in all of our cavalry activities coming year.
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Gizmo (owner Linda Williamson)

Gizmo is a 15.3 (160 cm) Percheron/Thoroughbred gelding who we have just purchased. Gizmo was born in October 2006 so he is a very young horse. However we brought him with an eye to the future as most of our other horses cannot carry the larger, heavily armoured riders. We don’t plan to start joust training with Gizmo for at least the next couple of years and in the meantime will just be handling and training him from the ground. He has had an excellent start in life with his previous owner so is very trusting and sociable.

Semi Retired Mounts

Anya (owner Glenn Fitzgerald)

Anya is a 15.1 hand (155 cm) NZ Stationbred mare who is in her late 20’s who one of our members originally used for riding club activities. She decided to try her out for jousting and she took to this very quickly and she took part in our first Harcourt Park Tournament in 2003 Quinn's Post Tournament where she performed really well in both the skill-at-arms and jousting and has continued to do ever since. Because she is also a very easy horse to ride, she is used as one of our school master horses. Because of her advancing years, she was semi- retired her from jousting competitions after Harcourt Park 2007 but because she is showing no signs of her age, she is still available as a back up horse if necessary and she also takes part in most of our weekly training sessions.
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Retired Mounts

We have a number of older horses who have been retired after giving us years of service. After we retire an older horse we do not sell it on. Rather, these horses are kept by us alongside our active horses. – so they can live out their remaining years with the care and attention they deserve.
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The Medieval Warhorse in Modern Times


Horses are the key elements for the success of any cavalry based reenactment group.

In the Order of the Boar everything is focused on the care and welfare of our horses. We have adopted the old cavalry adage – “the horse, the gear and then the man” - as our group's motto.

Although several modern breeds of horse claim lineage with the original medieval warhorse, most of these breeds have been bred for other purposes in later centuries and are often no longer suitable for their original purpose of jousting.

We instead use solidly built horses in the 15 to 16.2 hands range (150 cm - 165 cm).
This is in line with archaeological and other historical evidence as to the actual size and look of the medieval warhorse; one of the great myths of modern times is that medieval warhorses were the equivalents of today's huge Shire and other draft breeds.

However the right physical characteristics are not enough. All of our horses have been selected because of their boldness and their reliable temperament.
It takes a great deal of work to train a horse to joust, but more importantly the horse also has to enjoy it. If a horse is not comfortable with any activity there is no way that the rider can humanely enforce his or her will over it.

In the absence of any formal horse welfare guidelines or standards in New Zealand, our group has elected to comply with the standards published by the British Horse Society.

We believe that we are the only equestrian group in New Zealand that does so.

All of the horses used by the Order of the Boar are owned by our Riding Members. Most of these horses are also used in other equestrian activities including Dressage, Jumping and Eventing by their owners.