An Eye-Opening Fact I’ve Learned From My Book Research…
USA
A friend asked me this recently and my initial response was, “What, only one?”
But it made me think I should share a few of them with you here on the blog—starting with something fun for the weekend.
UK/AU/NZ
I was doing some research into the Burgundian knights, as part of my background research for The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two, and I was awed to find out that they were trained to vault onto and off their horses in full armor!
From my reading I believe this fact was genuine (and probably where the “vaulting horse” in modern-day gymnastics originates—see, I bet you’ve never thought of gymnastics as a ‘martial art’ before 😉 ) and that the Korean armored ‘knights’ or warriors also developed similar skills.
Watch this space — more eye-opening facts (warning: some a lot less fun) to come. 🙂
Last summer we took a trip to the Cantal/Correze region of France. One of the highlights was watching acrobats in a medieval reenactment troupe perform a series of death-defying stunts with horses. (The setting was castle ruins on a hilltop, breathtaking.) They vaulted on and off their mounts, hung off the saddle at full gallop, etc. all the while engaged in a “jousting” tournament. The troupe also do film stunts, apparently. So the knights are alive… 😉
Wow, that is amazing, Mary—I would think it worthwhile coming to Europe just to see that!
These are the people. They were amazing:
http://www.chevalspectacle.com/?page=galerie_photos_de_chevaux_en_spectacle_equestre
We wants to see them in person, yess we doess, preciouss!