Lance of St. Eligius

My apologies for not getting back to this theme of covering the events at the recent Gulf Wars XIX sooner. Life has indeed been busy. Anyway, my first full day on site was a busy one and entailed more work than anything else. Most of it is really not all that exciting, but it does merit mention here. It gives a good insight to the level of commitment involved in having horses on site at an event like this while so many other things are happening as well.

On to day one of the war! Day one of the war was really kind of boring to the non-initiated. By that I mean to say, I was really finishing up the last of my preparations and meeting up with a lot of old friends. For some I suppose such activities would be absolutely mind numbing. And I suppose, in some ways that is the case for me as well. But then again, part of what I am after is the mind numbing aspect of enjoyment that comes out of such activities for me that I do not typically get to experience in my regular day-to-day life.

The morning started off with a slow getting up and getting going. I had prepped the week before by slowly cutting down the intake of coffee – a questionable period beverage, especially for the extreme western part of Europe I portray. That being said, morning was not going to happen much with out at least a tasting of the beverage that Napoleon and I both agree, “Gives an advantage over our enemies.” As my enemy in the morning was going to be burr removal from to heavily laden horses, I was going to need all the help I could get.

Easy enough after some coffee was found to start on the horses. Jack had a heavy burr population in his mane and Angel’s tail was dense enough to be almost solid. Jack’s mane being thicker was the reason of the burrs in his mane and not Angel, but I can not figure the tail. Anyway, I started on Jack and it was going to be a chore. Edmund (Chris) offered to work on Angel, his thought being the tail would be easier. I had to agree with him given the amount of burrs in Jack’s mane.

After about an hour, maybe closer toward two, lots of baby oil, and some swearing over not having brought a proper mane comb, Jack was free of burrs. Angel still had a few in her tail, but was quickly hitting the spot where it was getting cleaned out. While there were a few piles of white mane hair from Jack, it is so thick you could hardly notice by looking at him. As the last burrs come free of Angel though, the last foot of length on her tail basically fell off as well, coming free as well. More is the pity on that score but a year from now and hopefully no one will be the wiser.

Next up was some intensive grooming, given the guys had been literally grabbed right out of the field. Given the location to a much warmer climate in Mississippi than the wet and drear climate we left in Kentucky, there was a lot of shedding going on as well. After another hour or so with the shedding blade it was time to get up and take each of them for a spin.

This was going to be either fun or something best approached with trepidation. Neither had been ridden nearly enough over the winter and especially leading up to heading toward the war. Both cold and wet weather combined with stolen saddles had kept me virtually away from riding the entire winter. Jack has a history of almost always being a handful in general and especially the first ride after even a few weeks off. Angel on the other hand had taken nearly a year off without any serious work and while I expected little from her, one can never be sure.

Edmund, knowing the history of Mad Jack Jouette (Jack’s full name) was so excited. As he all but yelled in delight, he got out and set up his video camera to catch-all the excitement. It was with amazement that I the saddle was cinched without issue and with minimum assistance holding Jack, I swung up and leg over. To my incredible amazement Jack was almost still. At a little urging to move off though, he was ready to go and fast. Still, nothing compared to the show I had expected to possibly give Edmund. Really, his only issue was being even more herd bound with Angel then he was before – which was saying something consider his issue about it before.

After a good little ride off and about, I came back, switch out saddles and took Angel for a bit of small spin. She was good as well, though a bit more herd bound then ever before as well. After a short bit, Edmund agreed to take her out some more. While he did that, I trimmed Jack’s feet up a bit. I can do it, but I am way to fat to do it often. My farrier friend had missed me the Saturday before though, and they needed at least some evening at the very least. After a good rest, I finished up the afternoon with a hastily done trim on Angel, getting her fronts only and vowing to do the rear feet later.

At this point I was more than exhausted, very hot and sweaty, and well past being hungry. We headed over to Phil’s Grill for some grub. Phil’s is good part of my reason for returning to Gulf Wars, offering a delicious mix of foods, most of from the Mediteranian area. I am always up for the gyro, with sautéed veggies (whatever is the choice of the day) and all the salad toppings a person could want. It is not so much something to eat with hands, but rather a fork. There are also options like grilled chicken, Portobello mushrooms, dolmas, and much more. It is an omnivores dream of delectable tastes and has been my personal meal plan the last two wars and always a special treat even before that.

I think somewhere in there we checked out a large portion of the vendors. I managed to stay with in my budget constraints and not go crazy. I think Edmund picked up some rattan though. I did note a few things I would have to look into in more depth later in the week.

Upon return to near to camp, the processional meeting was upon us. For those that do not know the Known World (as it is called in the SCA) is divided into kingdoms. Each kingdom has royalty, selected through marshal prowess and winning a tourney. Typically it is a King and Queen, currently reigning as well as heirs, having won the right to reign next. At this war, usually all of them mount up on horses and process through the populace, prior to the war officially beginning. At the end, they each declare which principle kingdom with which they shall align. Lots of pomp and such, but a lot of exposure for the horses and those of us doing that part of things too.

Jack and Angel were going to be separated. Something I had not thought about before, but they both have the issues with herd bound being but the two now. So, that was something look forward to in the morning. Jack was going to have His Highness of the Middle. Angel was looking like Her Majesty from Aethelmarc. They both went for a practice ride to get a feeling of things and we talked about the barding and such and how things would work in the morning. It all went well.

Later, we walked around site, hooking up with some old friends and running into a few folks that I had spoken to for sometime without having met in person. We got word on a couple of parties, some of which were literally walking around, to occur later in the week so that was a good bit of information. A chill was in the air though and after some thought about the long hard day, a plan to turn it was hatched. A last check on the horses and a turn in was in order.

* – picture of His Highness in the procession, credit to Jennifer Dudley!

** – a few picture galleries are planned to be added at the end, credit to several people.

*** – I wish I could have taken pictures, but even when I am not fighting or riding, I was marshaling or something and so, though I had a camera, it never made it out of the bag in which it was packed. I suck!