My vacation, second installment

[callistotoni]

Let's see, what haven't I talked about yet. Oh yes, The Party:
J/S' birthday party Friday night was a big success. :-) J/S estimated that at one point we must have had 300 people -- definately *the* party to be at that night. :-) The keg of Rabbit's Foot black cherry cyser was emptied. Many thanks to Brion for setting up and lending us his jockey box, as well as lending us the Bellatrix torch. And thanks to Ula who lent us her torch as well, and brought over a very large container of ?vodka punch? (not sure...) We had food as well, although apparently that was strange because I had to urge people to go to the food tables and eat. More thanks, this time to Vittoria, whose meat pie people *raved* over, and Anna Serra who I know brought something but it was gone before I saw what it was (eggs?), and to Ann Marie how came through with her picked veggies. :-) My ginger pies were out, but they weren't the big hit that they usually are (I think people didn't know what they were, or ginger is not as big up north, or they weren't as good as normal, or something.)
One silly thought: I've been hearing tales of Stupid Viking Tricks at An Tir Parties for a while now. We had none of that at this party. I told people afterwards that my theory is that there's nothing that will stop stupid viking tricks like a Renaissance fruit arrangement in a pink pedestal bowl.
;-)

I was also happy that they Palazzo layout did what I had hoped it would do for the party. My old bell provided a nice quiet(er) sitting space for people who wanted to sit and chat and get away from the standard Standing With Booze SCA Event party. I did see people playing games for a brief instant. And some people sat around in J/S's bell's sunshade and sing songs for a while.
And the read-through of The Queen's Tail did indeed happen in my bell. Pheobe of An Tir read Matilda to Great Effect, and Etaine was Joyelyn, and Leon reprised his role of Duke Rod The Flash. The party was so noisy it was very difficult to hear the play, but it seemed like it was fun for the readers and for those that saw it. J/S liked it especially. :-) And it was nice that immediately afterwards they all sang Happy Birthday, and immediately after *that* everyone moo'ed Happy Birthday for him. Very silly -- yay!

I was super dead and the party was still going, so J/S put me to bed and told Marco to start dimming the lights 30 after we went to bed. That party must have gone on Late. I knew the party had been successful when at 8:20 AM Saturday, when the heralds did thier first shout, it was so quiet in the surrounding camps that it sounded more like 6:00 AM. ;-)

Horse Stuff:
Because of Ann Marie I'd been asked to judge (along with AM) the 'palfrey' section of the equestrian trials. I guess different people thought different things about what this was supposed to be, because we got a pretty wide variety of presentations. The woman who won obviously shows; she and her horse were Very Good. Juliana did super well, too, with a last minute entry where she used the challenge set up to play act a lady riding through the country (complete with waterfall shower!). Bribing the judges with glasses and drink helped too. ;-) . Oh, and I got an offer to ride, but since I was being Authentic in my apparel it was *not* a good idea for me to take them up on thier kind offer (although I was a bit whistfully regretful). Huzzah to all the equestrians at the War! It looked like EQ activites were well thought out and people had a great time.

Shopping:
Very little, actually. I didn't see anything I couldn't live without on my first pass with the LBK. When I went shopping with J/S we got caught up talking to Ysuelt of Summerhall and so didn't really shop. J/S did buy me all the Madrone Culinary Guild pamphlets, which I've been interested in for a while now. Very inspirational, and will help with my goal of period food for the household. He also got me the Musuem of London book on Horse equipement. Silly planning and daydreaming about accoutrament for Brandee in progress. Besides, it was our one year anniversary, which is Paper, so a book was appropriate. ;-)

Household musings: It seems that I've become the lady of a ducal household. The Universe and my friends are laughing at the karmic irony of it all, and I'm laughing right along with them. ;-) I tried my best this weekend and I'll continue trying. As Sue would say, this is a Growth Opportunity for me. ;-)
Realistically, I don't know how this will play out. If J/S moves down here he leaves his guys, and that would be bad.* On the other hand, the situation with J/S' mom seem pretty stagnant right now, so I could see him staying up there for at least another year. Sigh. There's no good way out of all this that I can see.

*Unless I can convince them all to move south. Hey, there's more economic opportunity down here then in Portland, that's for sure! ;-)

Pack down was fine, but it did take longer than we'd budgeted for. By about 11:00 AM I had decided to just change my flight home. Good thing, because we got stopped for a long time behind a traffic wreck so I would have missed my flight no matter what. And I got to help put all the tourney stuff away on Monday; I can't imagine sticking J/S with all that. Lesson internalized, I'll plan accordingly for future trips.

Got home. Got to see my Paint Princess last night. She was happy to see me: met me at the stall door, knickered, and wanted face scratch time. :-) And she was a super good girl all through our ride as I tried to access muscles that hadn't been used for almost 2 weeks. :-/

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Glad to hear everybody got home safe and had a good War themselves!

Comments

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

Household musings: It seems that I've become the lady of a ducal household. The Universe and my friends are laughing at the karmic irony of it all, and I'm laughing right along with them. ;-) I tried my best this weekend and I'll continue trying. As Sue would say, this is a Growth Opportunity for me. ;-)
I'm still boggling at the difference between the 14th C lady of the household and her 16th C descendant. :-)

[hunrvogt.livejournal.com]

When you have time, I'd love to chat with you in greater detail about how the "judged" portion of the competition went. Thoughts on what worked and what didn't and if you would like to see it done again and if so, how?

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

One thing I'd suggest right away was to (somehow) make educate participants on what exactly was being judged and where the wieght of points was. In this instance, there was 5 points given for whether or not you rode to music, 30 points for overall "performance", and 15 pts for costume and ceremony. So you could pick up a good amount of points if you and your horse were tricked out, but the bulk of the points came from showing what you and your horse could do.
Another issue (which we didn't really ding people for, because obviously it hadn't been clear) was the scenario. We were told that the premise was that the contestants were trying to sell their horse to two noble ladies, so they had to show what the horse could do and it's suitablility as a ladies mount. Now, Juliana got told another thing, namely, that she was a lady riding though the country on a summer's day. And when Henrik rode around in his usual Norman get up with his lance, and William rode his Freisian swinging his sword, well, not so useful in showing off what a good lady's palfrey the horse would be. ;-)

So, yeah, better education on what the judges were looking for would have been good. And since Ann Marie and I are dressage wannabes we were looking for things like how 'together' the horse was (I wasn't looking for collection so much as I was looking for engagement), grace of transitions, evenness of gait, and lateral work if the horse knew any of that. As opposed to just charging around on a strung-out and/or hollow-backed horse in a costume. :-/

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

I think you're right that folks didnt really know what was being expected of them. theo rganizer told me that they had been given a blurb in the handout, but who reads taht?

persoanlly I would have opened the whole thing with a short intro "this is the points, this is what the judges are looking for" so folks could tweak their performance accordingly...

even with all that, I am VERY happy with the gal who we gave top score too :). I'm gonna try and find her and send her note telling her how lovely and rare that kind of thing is and that this dressage wannabe at least appreciates it to no end :)

[hunrvogt.livejournal.com]

I would like to see "competitions" that encourage "good" riding as opposed to just fast/accurate riding. There is definately a balance point to be found that doesn't just create a horse show in mideval attire.

It's interesting because I have shown in many disciplines over the years I have definately developed an appreciation for different standards of the ideal horse or rider. I also have an appreciation for how those different standards are understood by other groups. Something I must ponder more...

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

it is my hope that as we as a commuinity get more mature we start turning our brains away from the renn faire/medieval times model and more towards the medieval model.

if someone showed up with a horse accoutred and performing in accordance with one of the jillions of period horsemanship manuals, that would rock my world :)

we've had some bits of it up here, with someone performing a carousel as described in one of the manuals, but so few of our horses (or riders) are trained to the level that those performances require!!

there is certainly room for many disciplines in the game. and that right there is already light years ahead of where it was just a few years ago. woohoo!

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

>>it is my hope that as we as a commuinity get more mature we start turning our brains away from the renn faire/medieval times model and more towards the medieval model...if someone showed up with a horse accoutred and performing in accordance with one of the jillions of period horsemanship manuals, that would rock my world :)

But this is problamatic. I, frankly, would be loath the see people treat thier horses like they did in period because horses were mostly Disposable Things rather than our modern attitude of Living Creature That Needs Care And Respect.

A great book, if you haven't read it, is Horses in Shakespear's England. In it you can find one example of the problem with 'recreating' period horsemanship. In the 16th C, at least*, people trained thier horses to be gaited (apparently no one wanted to deal with the trot). One technique was to tie a young horse's legs together so that they had to move together (a la the 'ambling' horse of the Wife of Bath (I know, different century...) Today, of course, we do have naturally gaited horses and that's great. But I would not want to force a horse to have such a gait. We have modern horses and modern trainers and we know how to ride a trot.
Another example are the 2 poles you see in Pluvenal, used to train for early Haute Ecole. You tie the horse betwen the poles and beat it. The horse can't go forward, the horse can't go backward, it only can go up. Hence you get all those leaping movements. This was considered a kinder alternative than tieing a cat to the belly of a horse. So you can see where I start to have issues with re-creating period horsemanship.

I think the answer is education: This is what they did, here's what we do, here's where we come together and/or compromise, and here's what and why we don't want to do anymore.

[hunrvogt.livejournal.com]

I agree that more things with a period wash are good. I also firmly agree that our modern aesethic on what is humane and what is safe prohibits alot of period practices.

I'm working through it slowly, but I find I adore most of the philosophies espoused in Dom Duarte's Treatise. The gist is be a good rider, look admirable, have breadth to your riding ability, challenge yourself in the saddle. I find that is a period riding text that I can attempt to emulate :)

Driving is an area where I can generally tell you what they did. I will also tell you why I do what I do and what is modern/Victorian and what is similiar. I choose not to live without leaf springs and blinkers - That's about as non-period as I get.

Side saddle is another area. Personally I am a *big* fan of leaping horns and safety stirrups :)

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

I really should break down and take the time to come up with a class on the basics of period horsemanship and modern horsemanship and where the do and don't interact. I've been thinking about it for a while -- more in another post. Of course, consultation with more experianced modern horse people would be good. ;-)

Sounds like a faboo idea - For fall equestrium maybe?

[hunrvogt.livejournal.com]

Suggestion number one - Pick a century or a place or a text to explore. Compare it to the modern Hunt/Dressage seat/Training. As with anything in the SCA a narrow focus will help you, but I know you understand that. sA with any thing in the horse world it will narrow the folks you in-advertantly offend with generalizations :)

If there is anything I can do to help, let me know.

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

ooo! what a fabu idea!!!

[hunrvogt.livejournal.com]

One quick point that I forgot: Horses as "disposable" really seemed to vary by time, place, and function...just as it does today.

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

I guess I was thinking more along the lines of Xenophon and how he promoted the horse as a partner, etc....

I havent read through the elizabethan manuals I have yet to see what type of training they promote...but I was also thinking about the carousels and parades that they describe and how cool it would be to re-create one of those. barding out AlCega tailors manual. that kind of thing....

goodness knows the extant bits and spurs make me feel all ookie inside....

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

also I am minded that some of the modern training methods? make Pluvenal look like a Parelli clone. ugh.

it would be interesting to go and read some of the period sources and see where all the stories of the cruel training methods come from. were they medieval? elizabethan? victorian that they assumed were medieval?

does anyone have a copy of pluvenal? I saw one for sale at the Cluny in Paris but it was waaaaay out of my price range....

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Several years ago you could pick up a copy of Pluvinal for $50. Marguerite has a copy.

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

>>it would be interesting to go and read some of the period sources and see where all the stories of the cruel training methods come from. were they medieval? elizabethan? victorian that they assumed were medieval?

You may be interested in a blurb I found last night while I was searching on "Pluvinel". It references the Neopolitin Manage school of the 16th C.:
http://www.dressageworld.de/dressurgeschichte/3/egkapitzke3.html

[sigivald.livejournal.com]

Speaking of period foods, could you send me the recipe for that apple and sausage thingy?

It was delicious.

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

OK, I'll shoot you an LJ message. :-)

[young-raven.livejournal.com]

I liked the ginger pie. :-)