Horses
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Flashy with a personality to match, Pete is a complete showoff who has fans in the stable, in the tilt and on the polo field. He is nimble and a real star at skill at arms, hunting games and the melee'.
Pete is about 15h and weighs about 1,100. He is only slightly larger than a large foundation quarter horse.
Leopold, who we call "Leo", is a 6 year old Clydesdale X Thoroughbred. He was a PMU foal who didn't get as tall as his owner hoped, so he came to live with us in June of 2005. Leo is about 15.3 and 1,200 lbs.
Poor Leo has had some challenges and set backs early on in his life. His joust training had just begun in February of 2006, but not long after he tore a suspensory ligament while playing with one of the other horses. It was a very long, slow road to recovery as he regained confidence and balance in his movement, but eventually we got him jousting in a training day in the summer of 2007. Since then he's done various things but we weren't sure he would joust, given his meek nature, but on Sunday of the World Invitational Joust 2008- Tournament of the Phoenix, Jeffrey rode him in his first ever skill at arms competition. At first, Leopold was a little reluctant and random, but as the session went on he payed more attention and Jeffrey had the highest score of the competition. Subsequently, Jeffrey determined to give Leopold a chance at the joust later that day, despite his only having had one single day of full joust training, nearly a year and a half earlier. We all held our breath as Leo went out and performed -flawlessly- through two full jousting sessions; not even hesitating in his approach to the tilt or his pushing through the lance strikes. What a CHAMP!! We're so proud of him, and are thrilled to include him in our fully qualified stable of bona-fide jousting horses.
Since that day, Leo's performed tremendously in the 2010 Tournament of the Phoenix, jousting both days, and has become an integral part of the Knight School program, as well as school demonstrations.
Leo easily deceives the casual observer, as outwardly he would appear to be the least clever of the four, but his "doofy" demeanor belies that he's really very attentive, compliant and intelligent. Though he does require an assertive rider to get him up to speed when not jousting, he really comes alive when ridden in armour and steps up to the task. It's as if he were born to joust-- calm between courses, but quick and enthusiastic to engage in the run, strike and follow through.
People love him for his striking colouring, doe eyes and sweet nature, and he has a special place in Jeffrey's heart, since he surprised us all last November; being brave, patient and attentive under skeptical eyes and heaps of pressure.
He is our biggest horse at 16hh and about 1,200lb. He has only been under saddle since December 2007, so he's still learning what it is the rider wants of him. Even so, he is very willing to do almost anything he's pointed at, including jumping and jousting.
He shows a tremendous amount of promise, and with some age and experience we think he will prove to be an awesome tournament horse. He's performed brilliantly at our last two tournaments, last April and recently carried Venans team Captain Luke Binks to victory in the Tournament of the Phoenix in November of 2008.
Lucas took to jousting like a duck to water and was completely unfazed by armour, weapons and the tilt. He figured his job out in less than 6 passes, and runs straight and true like he's on rails. At first he was a bit underweight, but we worked on building him up and getting him ready for his first tournament and he’s done great since. At that event, Lucas was ridden brilliantly by New Zealand's Graham Nixon and dealt some terrific blows to his opponents. Amongst them, Graham landed three blows on Jeffrey Hedgecock that broke on the shield then slid up and pushed in his visor so hard the impact gave Jeffrey a cut lip and bruised jaw! Without Lucas' speed and concentrated effort, Graham mightn't have been such a formidable force on the field that weekend.
Lucas was initially accustomed to being one of a string of horses and was distant at first. He's a clever horse and soon discovered he liked human interaction as much as he likes jousting. He's turned into quite a cuddle bug who loves to be scratched and cooed over. He doesn't like apples, but horse treats and carrots are very welcome!
Update May 2010
Russ Sheldon of Poway Polo made arrangements so we could purchase Lucas earlier than expected and we jumped at the chance. Lucas is now a permanent part of our family!