In April 2012, I participated in an event inspired by the Gaston Phébus hunting book (from about 1430-1440 France). My horse Scotty (he is not really mine; this event was the first, and likely also last, time I rode him) was the uncontested "king" of mounted archery, which was the means of hunting mountain goats and wild cats at this event.

We even hunted wild boars and bears. But since this event took place in California :-), all the hunted animals were pretty safe. The bear was hunted Mogu style; Mogu being a mounted archery game where one rider drags a ball and others shoot it. And even though the wild boar looked really fierce and "ran" quite fast (along the line on which it was suspended), it did not actually attack from the side :-).

The hunt was concluded by the chase of two harts; which were portrayed by other horsemen, whom we were supposed to find in the hills and chase down in order to "kill" them with a "sword." Unfortunately, I have no pictures from this event. But although we (with Scotty) originally left this ultimate hunting task to way more experienced riders on their own horses, the time came when it was again Scotty who chased down both the harts, and thus enabled me to "kill" them both with the "sword" that was ultimately handed over to me. 

The day was concluded by a picnic with period food, which the cooks prepared in the meantime, and which focused on dishes made with game and fish. 

The previous summer, I met Dianne/Siobhan, who had me at her house for some mounted combat training. She let me use one of her horses, which surely knew what she was doing. And already during the spring, Henrik hauled all his historical riding-related back equipment to my area in order to perform the pertinent "show and tell" for me. During his following visit, he brought books and other materials to study historical equipment and mounted combat techniques, and we (with Henrik and Shasta--see below for an explanation of who Shasta is) also practiced some "knight games," including most notably the quintain. 

I also visited a couple of times with the Canale Fettburg Equestrians, and on each of these occasions, I got a lesson (needless to say for free :-) as well. Although with Tyr and Reggie (the horses they lent to me), we did not use the dressage longe (we instead just rode around the whole arena while receiving the instruction), our teacher Else is shown in the middle with the longe and another student.

Earlier that summer, then, I visited my friends Kay and Katie. Although my journey to their place turned out to be unduly dramatic, the visit was definitely worth the perseverance I thus had to display in order to reach Kay and Katie's little thoroughbred ranch, which is located in the vicinity of the Great Sand Dunes National Park (in Colorado).  

My assigned horse for the duration of the whole visit was Graceful Victory. Her name is indeed very appropriate. She certainly represents her breed very well by her speed, but she is at the same time very gentle and responsive. Just make sure not to offend her! When I led her over this size of jumps, she was like: "Well, do not you have any actually "real jumps" for me?!?"

During this trip, I also made a new friend, who has a sizeable collection of specialty weapons, in particular knives and guns. And guess what! Out of his whole collection, he finds the CZ527 7.62x39 to be his most accurate gun (my point being that this gun, shown in the first picture, is made in the Czech Republic :-).

My Indian Wars re-enactment camp went well too. This year, it was held in the beautiful environment of eastern Utah, near Colorado border. For more on these living history events, please, see http://home.uchicago.edu/~advorak/Indians.htm

Within the California SCA, there indeed are some really generous people as well. They not only get you a horse and haul their mounted games equipment, but they are happy to even ground-crew for you for a whole Sunday afternoon. (By ground-crewing is meant that they put back the "heads" you cut off with your "sword," the rings you collected on your lance, etc.) While Marguerite, the Helpful is unfortunately not featured, please, meet Shasta, the Patient (horse :-).

The middle picture above clarifies why we are getting "yelled at" (in the FMP: http://home.uchicago.edu/~advorak/Web_pictures/FMP201Web/Watching1smaller.jpg) to not cut from the wrist, because that would not work should we pick up a heavier weapon. I mean, the straight line from elbow to tip really helps! :-) Although when it comes to "sabre cuts," Marguerite actually says these should be done "with a flick of the wrist." Well, I guess that just means that after you have practiced your cuts from the elbow so hard in the FMP, you can now "cut off heads" without even looking :-)... 

And while everything, including the mountains, seems smaller around here (as opposed to my general observation that everything, except rabbits of course, seems to be bigger in America than in the Czech Republic), it is still possible to find enjoyable places, particularly with such a companion as is Shasta. 

In fact, I have figured it out. Shasta is a hunting horse! The best thing is that she doubles in the capacity of a hunting dog as well. She finds out where the game is, and indicates that. Shooting we have so far practiced using only a camera (except our horseback archery practice, of course, but that was just target practice :-). Anyway, I was looking at the deer though my camera, needless to say on old, small, and half broken one, and Shasta totally acted as my legs as if she saw the compositions through the lens as well. This concerned not only all the steps required for the best view, including backing up and yielding to sides, but also standing completely still otherwise, together with no spooking, of course...

Unfortunately, I still do not have my own horse (and on my graduate student budget, I do not expect t have one any time soon either). But I am so into riding whenever I can that my friends seem to have so much fun watching me turn into an Indian Wars warrior or else that they very generously and considerately let me ride their mounts. This was the case also during my trips back home, to the Czech Republic.

To begin with, Petr (whom I used to be helping with horseback American Indian style summer camps in the "good old days") would invite me to join his horseback journeying through the nature around Usti nad Orlici. We lived in an Indian style tee-pee camp just below a hill with an old castle on the top of it, and traveled on horseback to various locations in the vicinity of day trips. 

   

When I go back to the Czech Republic, I also frequently visit with my friend Scott and his horse Sam (Scott comes originally from the U.S., but he moved to the Czech Republic some years ago). These guys are horse shows professionals.

The first several pictures are from one of my visits, when Scott lived at the Kostelany ranch, which is famous for breeding quarter horses ideal for the above-mentioned "Western Riding" style. I got to ride one of these prized quarter horses through the woods and mountains in the vicinity of the ranch, together with Scott, who did not even use a bridle on Sam (instead, he had only a piece of rope around his neck, as pictured). Since my sister, with her two children, gave me a ride to this visit, they too got to check out the quarter horses (of course the colts were most popular with the kids :-). 

In the four following pictures, my bow, my saddle, and most importantly my "war bridle" already gives me away as an "Indian" (the war bridle being just a piece of string, which I tied around my horse's lower jaw).

However, we played some "knight games" as well. Sam is a very hard-working as well as skilled horse.

In 2010, Scott moved to the Malkov ranch, so I visited him there. Guess whether they have beautiful natural surroundings in this part of the Czech Republic as well :-). Scott was building a little "Indian village" out there...

And Scott's horse Sam was again very patient with me... (no, he is not trying to get rid of me in the third photo; instead, he is pictured in the middle of the process of getting on his hind legs in order to "stand like a show horse" :-). The last photo, then, features Sam and Scott in an actual "action."

While visiting the Malkov ranch, I made sure to get in also some sightseeing in the area, and at the royal castle of Krivoklat in particular. Guess what? They still keep their kitchen, and they dress, the same way they used to in the middle ages (just kidding; they were actually making yet another movie there :-). And even the interior of their chapel is still in the same configuration it used to be in the gothic period (no kidding here though, this is a fact)!

While a separate report exists from my summer stays in Italy, I visited also Hungary in conjunction with one of these trips. I stayed in Budapest with Monika, my roommate from the times of my University of Kansas M.A. studies. My other host was Marc Nemethy, the founder of the Horseback Archery Academy (HAA; http://www.haaworld.com/hun/en/about-us). First, his students came to an extra practice in order to demonstrate to me how they practice, and they showed off with their skills in a couple of Budapest archery clubs. I also participated in a training session for instructors of the HAA. Of course, I got to try shooting "the HAA way" too, and that both under Mark's couching and in a separate Sunday session with a senior HAA instructor, Bori. The first photo illustrates my training with Marc, the second one shows the HAA way of holding up to 12 arrows to facilitate fast reloading, and the third picture features one of the horseback archery saddles these guys use. And why it is important to practice shooting backward,... 

...in addition to forward and to the side, is illustrated in the following photos from a HAA practice in Debrecen. While riding along a pre-determined course, one needs to hit targets by shooting in all these directions during horseback archery championships.

Additionally, Marc took me to an event in Ópusztaszer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdE-vCCUqzU&feature=related. It turned out that only Hungarians get invited to participate in this event, a matter of national Hungarian pride. In the history of the event, I was the only non-Hungarian participant allowed, which was due to my being Marc's personal guest included in his Horseback Archery Academy team. The first photo shows me marching among the members of the Horseback Archery Academy, and the two following pictures illustrate the (kind of :-) battle re-enactment performed at the event. It involves around 2000 archers shooting together to commemorate the "power of the Hungarian arrows."

While in Budapest, I made sure to do some sightseeing as well. After all, my former roommate is a certified tourist guide.       

The first photo below shows Monika at an outdoors classical music concert we attended together, the second one a hall within the gothic interior of the Buda Castle, and the last one a surviving textile from the 14th century, which is on exhibit in the Budapest History Museum.  

But when talking about Europe, the Czech Republic, in short back home, a few horses should not be omitted. These include the bunch owned by Fanek Santavy at my village of Moravsky Pisek. Admittedly, some of them are better draft horses than riding horses, and some probably have the notion they are rather dogs to be "led around on a leash," but they still belong to the good old Czech days of mine. 

Speaking of the good old Czech times, here is an article Lukostrelkyne strcila do kapsy muze that a friend sent to me recently, which means the article is over 10 years old. The third picture right below shows me in the finale of the historical archery competition, as featured within this article.

And then there is the horse we have at home in my village of Moravsky Pisek. His name is Dupal, and he belongs to my sister Josefa. He works great even as a draft horse, but he can do anything that may be required of a horse movie/stunt show star as well. (In the middle picture, he is shown performing in the movie Narnie, and it is not a coincidence that not a common soldier, but the commander who is about to lead the charge, is riding him.

Lately, Dupal had more important things to do, however, being busy baby-sitting instead. But do not get fooled. This little guy is not little at all, and if he moves slowly and carefully around the kids (or during groundwork), he is just saving his energy for the appropriate occasions. When you get into his saddle and let him go, you see how a cannonball moves. That means straight and true, as well as collected, but there is no obstacle that could stop or distract him (not even speeding freight train), and he can get darn fast as well. At the same time, he knows his dressage exercises too...   

And when already mentioning visiting my family during the summers, further photos of my nephew and niece, together with "the American auntie," their grandmother, and my sister, are in order. 

This site may also become the chronicle of the kids growing, as while the above pictures are from my 2010 summer visit, the ones below are from some of the trips we have made with our family in 2011, and that to (from left to right) the pilgrimage church Krtiny, the open-air museum Skansen Straznice, the Rudka caves (with the sleeping army of St. Venceslav, guarded by the pictured lion), and the Olomouc archbishop palace, which is shown also with the LittleWhite car that my brother lent us for the trips.

Finally a photo of me getting ready for a trip with my sister's horse Dupal. Before they moved from Prague back to our village, Dupal had been making a very good living as a movie star, performing mostly with stunts, but he was very popular with actors as well. He has not forgotten one bit, and I would ride him into a battle any time!    

And a couple of pictures from the hills above our village (some say town; we do even have a coat of arms as a city indeed)...

And our 2012 family trips? There number of pictures featuring our trips would hardly fit here, so selected examples are showing us at the castle Bouzov, by the pilgrimage church at Hostyn, at the chateau Buchlovice, and by the Kromeriz chateau. 

Having lived in the U.S. for a number of years now, however, I have been doing much of my riding at so called Indian Wars events and re-enactments. Please, refer to the following website for further details as well as a ton of pictures: http://home.uchicago.edu/~advorak/Indians.htm

At the same time, I never missed an opportunity to learn something new, for example in the Knight School of Jeffrey Hedgecock, as featured in detail at: http://home.uchicago.edu/~advorak/CaliforniaNew.html

So the question that remains then is whether I have also gotten to work with Kristi Charron, who is pictured below during her mounted combat demonstration at the 2009 Western Martial Arts Workshop. What do you think? Of course I did! Oddly enough though, I do not have any pictures from my work with Kristi and her horse Thor. I only have one of Thor enjoying his well deserved rest and dinner after being very patient and cooperative with me...

And my mounted archery endeavors? Further related adventures appear in the second half of: http://home.uchicago.edu/~advorak/BackCaliforniaNew.html, but long story short, I visited with Jay Red Hawk at his place in South Dakota. Jay, himself a Lakota, researches the history and practice of plains horseback archery. Obviously, we explored said topic practically... :-).