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Jousting is alive and well in Aldie Date published: 10/16/2009
ALDIE --It takes skill and a certain zany zeal to race a horse down a dirt track at 40 mph and spear three rings the size of Lifesavers on the pointy end of a 6-foot lance.That's what the best jousters in America do every October in a Loudoun County farm field, at the annual National Jousting Championship. This isn't quite the medieval sport--nobody wears armor or tries to knock anyone else off a horse. But ring jousting, as the modern sport is sometimes called, has its own long history. It's been played in Virginia for at least 150 years, and in Maryland for so long it's been named the official state sport. The competition this year came on a blustery Saturday, deep gray clouds spitting rain. Bundle-up weather. It was the national championship, but the 66 participants came from clubs in just four states, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. They competed in skill-level categories of novice, amateur, semipro and professional. The lower the category, the bigger the rings for which the jousters aimed. Even the biggest are not much larger than keyrings. And except in the untimed novice class, riders must roar down an 80-yard track in eight seconds or less, passing under three arches from which rings are suspended. Ideally, they'll collect all three rings on the ends of their lances. Riders wear modern-day clothes, and any able horse or pony can be used. In the recent competition, the "maids" and "knights" mounted steeds as varied as Appaloosas and quarter horses, paint ponies and a thundering Belgian draft horse. The 5- to 7-foot lances they carry are custom-made from cue sticks or broom handles or, in at least one case, a shovel handle, with pointed tips affixed to skewer the rings. To an observer, it would seem that the slower you go, the better chance you have at accuracy. That's not the case, said 16-year-old Ashley Barnett of Hampstead, Md., whose jousting persona is "Maid of Buzzard's Glory." Riding her buckskin quarter horse, Dillon, Ashley won the hard-fought amateurs' competition with a pair of perfect three-ring rides followed by a playoff against another rider with a perfect record. In each playoff, ring size is decreased, calling for cool nerves and keen hand-eye coordination. The faster you go, Ashley said after her win, the better.
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