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Ashley Barnett, 16, of Hampstead, Md., attempts to collect a second ring on Saturday, during the National Jousting Championship in Aldie. She went on to win the amateurs' competition. |
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.
Jousters have different lance techniques, but Ashley prefers to line up the lance against her right forearm and get the first ring fixed in her sights. Then she and Dillon blast down the track.
"I think it's easier when you go faster, because the horse is steadier so it makes you steady," she said. "If you get the first ring and you keep steady, and if you're lined up, you'll get all three."
Ashley executed her two perfect rides in 7.1 and 6.9 seconds, comfortably below the eight-second limit.
Another amateur competitor, West Virginian Brandon Regester, made a perfect ride in just 5.7 seconds, and the announcer exclaimed "That's 38 miles per hour!"
Regester missed a ring on his next ride and finished in fifth place.
In the semipro and professional classes, rides sometimes top 40 mph. Though riders are not judged on speed, the fastest riders tend to be the most accurate--and the most crowd-pleasing.
As the morning clouds gave way to streaks of sunshine, the crowds did arrive to be pleased. Many spectators brought lawn chairs, blankets, picnics and kids to make a day of it.
"We live close by, and somebody said, 'Come over,' and we said 'We'll go see what it's about,'" said Cindy Gensurowsky, who came with husband Steve, daughter Jordan, 8, and a miniature Australian shepherd named Max.
Gensurowsky was relieved to see that the competition was about spearing rings, not people. "I thought they were going to be poking each other."
That, said Ashley Barnett, is what most of her friends at school think when they learn that she's into jousting. Once they realize it's not about rider-to-rider and horse-to-horse combat, "they think it's really cool," she said.
Though jousting may have originated as a way to hone necessary battle skills, modern ring jousters can't readily come up with a 21st-century endeavor that requires their particular set of abilities. Of course it's good to have hand-eye coordination, and to be able to execute a task that combines speed, horsemanship, precision and nerve.
But is jousting practical in the modern world? "I don't think it is anywhere," Ashley said good-naturedly. "It's like, for the joy of it."
Laura Moyer: 540/374-5417
Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com
