# Full metal jousting



## SeverinR (Mar 7, 2012)

Full Metal Jousting &mdash; History.com TV Episodes, Schedule, & Video

To see jousting for real.
Real armor, real solid wood lances, real falls, real horses acting and reacting.

I loved this, but one problem I had, they practiced with lances with humans only in armor, horses unarmored.  If you have a horse charging towards a lance, armor all the time, horse and human.  freak accidents happen even in practice.

I believe they care for the horses and they just didn't think about it.


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## Xanados (Mar 7, 2012)

Sounds like fluffy nonsense to me. Then again, I haven't even watched it. It's just that the name of the program and its design looks like "new age" garbage.


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## Telcontar (Mar 7, 2012)

I caught the tail end of one episode a couple knights ago (giggle). The horses were armored in what I saw...

It was entertaining. Not sure how the show would work over a full season, cuz from what I saw it's just a bunch of guys learning to joust. The armor was neat-looking, all precision machined and kinda futuristic looking. 

The only real problem I had with what I saw was that, because this is television, they have to be more careful than the sport of jousting can really allow and still be called jousting. The lances they use are thin, floppy, and easily broken. I think the show would get old pretty quickly.

The horses are pretty cool, though. The horse one guy was riding was named Praetorian and apparently was a real aggressive mount. He kept starting down the lists as soon as they let him turn onto them, and the other guy often wasn't ready when that horse decided he wanted to run again.


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## SeverinR (Mar 7, 2012)

Telcontar said:


> I caught the tail end of one episode a couple knights ago (giggle). The horses were armored in what I saw...
> 
> It was entertaining. Not sure how the show would work over a full season, cuz from what I saw it's just a bunch of guys learning to joust. The armor was neat-looking, all precision machined and kinda futuristic looking.
> 
> ...




They have two sizes of lances, the thicker is as likely to unhorse your opponent as break. 
One episode, a double unhorse happened, each got 10 points, both had two minutes to get back on their horse after the Dr cleared them.  Basically, one was a good hit, the other wasn't set into his saddle properly.

Even in the practice events that we did in SCA, they encouraged riders not to face the field until time to go, when they knew it was time to run, they got excited, and were more likely to charge ahead even when the field was not ready.

In this event the horses are not facing each other until time to run, so when they see the opponent they are ready, much like a race horse reaacts to the starting bell, they react when they see the list and the opposing horse/rider.

Injuries I have seen in the three episodes I watched:
full impact lance to the head(practice) would have been -10 points if in real joust. Broken teeth(he used a mouth piece after that)
dismounted; cut to head.
pulled groin muscle.
They advertised one of the riders going to the hospital in a future episode.

One jouster was skunked, 22 to -4(horse balked-5 points, plus the rider trotted by and tapped the target for a point.)

So the lances are tough enough to knock a person out of the saddle, but weak enough not to kill a person.  The website says they are made of fir, hemlock or solid pine. Not sure of the others, but pine is kind of soft.


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## Codey Amprim (Mar 7, 2012)

I thought it was pretty awesome, a lot better than the other recent jousting show, _Knights of Mayhem_. KoM was too trashy, and the people were really immature - it turned into a drama-fest. 

I think this show has potential and I think mainstream jousting would be quite interesting. It reminds me a lot of top-shot, and I doubt that it could hold attention in that form for many seasons.


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## Telcontar (Mar 7, 2012)

I saw the (or _a_) double-unhorsing in the episode I caught, it sounds like the one you described (one guy actually threw himself from the horse when he knew he was going down). The odd thing is, in several of the other 'hits' they seemed to connect just as well and yet neither of them looks like he was even in danger of being unhorsed.

Perhaps it is my suspicion of the 'reality' of these shows, but I was not convinced that this unhorsing was perfectly real versus having been scripted somehow to make for good TV.


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## dojoson41 (Mar 12, 2012)

I've watched all the eps so far, and I love the show. better then watching some poor gator getting shot or cat fish getting killed/trees getting chopped. I've also had my share of falling off horses my whole 48 years worth of riding. When the guys got knocked off it wasnt just because of the lance but also from loosing his balance, balance is everything, its also the reason as to why they cannot hold onto the reins at that  moment of impact, ( there was a time where the reins were connected to the stirrups and you directed the horse that way) not only yanking its poor teeth out but it could pull the horse down on top of them, there is no way with that armor that he can pull himself back into the saddle when you know your gonna loose it, so you need to get as far away as possible. The horses safty is the best I've seen on tv. The horses do wear head and chest/shoulder armor and one reason for the height of the fence is to keep the lance up over the horse as much as possible. the riders dont wear the full chain mail and weighted armor of old so the horses dont have to be the size of a shire. This last ep one guy was kicked off ( the right thing to do) the black team because of his cruel/unprofessional and childish behaveor of hitting the horse in the head ( #1 big no,no in the horse world for multible reasons). just because the poor thing accidently step on the guy's foot, yes it hurt ( been there with a clydesdale's hoof) but the horse cant see were he is putting his big hoof ( the're called pizza feet for a reason) when the guy, who by the way let his guard down and was walking way to close to the horse to begin with, every horse owner knows to keep distance and control at all times. The armor reminds me of Iron man. I would like to see it go for more seasons. Lets see US go against the other countries, but then the'll ruin it and bring in tv celebs. Id' also like to see them and put justing into the oylimpcs and take out volting (seriuosly, whats is standing on a horse's poor back all about. complete nonsence and boring).


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