For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/teaching-horses-martial-arts-with-the-horsemen-of-eire/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Alessia Pagani and Jack Gassman run Horsemen of Eire, an equestrian training school and medieval combat academy outside Wexford in Ireland. Alessia specialises in natural horsemanship and Jack takes care of the swords.
In this episode we talk about what’s natural about ‘natural horsemanship’, and its origins in American cowboys and medieval training techniques. There is a blog post here with pictures of the single and double pillar training techniques we discuss: https://dariocaballeros.blogspot.com/2013/09/antoine-de-pluvinel-images-from.html
Alessia spent time living and working as a cowgirl in Arizona and she explains how Rossfechten (swordfighting on horseback) is similar to herding cattle. Teaching horses to fight is not dissimilar to teaching humans to fight, when you understand their motivations and characters. As Jack says, horses intimately understand violence and will beat the shit out of each other over “you looked at me funny”.
We also find out why there is so much unarmoured longsword in Liechtenauer, why it helps to be a dancer, and how many plates you have to spin to run a business involving horses.
Audiobook Bundle Special Offer!
Don’t forget to check out my audiobook bundle for The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts. This includes the ebook and the audiobook version, narrated by Kelley Costigan. You can find it at guywindsor.net/tsg22. That link will get you 20% off the list price until 15th September 2022.
Irish Stick Fighting, with Maxime Chouinard
Straight White Men with Swords, with Claire Mead
Fire Eating and Fencing, with David Ito
Designing Knives and Random Flow training, with Maija Soderholm
African Martial Arts, with Da’Mon Stith
Tournament Mindset, with Brittany Reeves
Wiktenauer, with Michael Chidester
Translating Spanish Rapier Texts, with Lois Spangler
Founding Longpoint and Fencing in Armour, with Jake Norwood
Women in Armour, and Translating Latin Fiore, with Kendra Brown
Maori Martial Arts, Bartitsu, and can an Uruk bench-press a motorcycle? With Tony Wolf
Dr Eleanor Janega on medieval history, the Dark Ages, and who gets to have a sword?
Anyone can do HEMA! With Robyn Alman
Making videogame swordfights real, with Kirk, Knight of Green
Indian weapons, aerial combat, and German longsword, with Alina Boyden
Mindset, military service, and why we train, with Rigel Ng
Setting fire to nunneries, Fiore’s wrestling, and more. With Kimberleigh Roseblade
Armour, building gauntlets, travelling in Europe, and the perfect sword for Marozzo, with Tomas Suazo
Acting, fighting, training, cloaks, shoes, and more! With Siobhan Richardson
Getting started in HMA, sword design, and more. With Roland Warzecha
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
That Don‘t Sound Right
Adeptus Ridiculous
Gun Talk
Feed Room Chemist: An Equine Nutrition Podcast
Acá Entre Nozz