have you been able to find ANY documentation for it to be appropriate for a medieval portrayal of any time period?

(the only source folks have been able to wave at me was a tertiary source, referring to eastern cultures, and this looks like so much fun, I'd love for it to be appropriate for us 15th century types, but I'm starting to think its not )

thanks!

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are you talking about Northern Europeans and horse bows or cultures that fall into the 15th century in general?

Horse archery goes back quite a ways.

Jenn

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This mural includes a bowman on his hose shooting at two men on foot.

Trouble is I can't recall the context of the murals .... i.e. allegorica &/or mythical story etc.

Also the only eample I can think of.

The ENglish throughout the C15th had a fair proportion of their archers, like the men-at-arms, mounted ... but this was to get to th battle not to be mounted n it. Indeed ordinances for war of the period tell them to get off and how to deal with te horses when they do.

I'd like to do it just for my own fun, not for use in any LH/RE aspect.

I think it's a cool skill.

J

PS: you should go for it AM.

[ 06-21-2005: Message edited by: Fire Stryker ]

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quote:

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Originally posted by Fire Stryker:
I'd love to learn, but will probably have to wait until next year.

I'd like to do it just for my own fun, not for use in any LH/RE aspect.

I think it's a cool skill.

J

PS: you should go for it AM.

[ 06-21-2005: Message edited by: Fire Stryker ]

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oh, i agree, its cooler than snot . I just want to be able to know when its LH appriopriate as opposed to just really really cool

(and for the record, folks around here seem to be focussing on the eastern stuff, mongol, recurve, etc etc etc again, waving a tertiart source at me that says its medieval but unable to provide any more info than that)

thanks for the pointers! I've been working on using driving seat and non-rein cues in the hope that I might end up accidentally on the archery range some day

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quote:

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Originally posted by Dave Key:
Have a look at the Eton Murals. They are c. 1480 murals in Eton College and were probably painted by a Flemish artist (i.e. they're quite good).

This mural includes a bowman on his hose shooting at two men on foot.

Trouble is I can't recall the context of the murals .... i.e. allegorica &/or mythical story etc.

Also the only eample I can think of.

The ENglish throughout the C15th had a fair proportion of their archers, like the men-at-arms, mounted ... but this was to get to th battle not to be mounted n it. Indeed ordinances for war of the period tell them to get off and how to deal with te horses when they do.

Cheers
Dave

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this actually makes a fair bit of sense.

horse=transportation. and I'm betting even the best horse:rider combo would see a serious decrease in accuracy if the shot were taken astride a horse in the thick of battle.

(tho some enthusiastic proponent told me that "medieval archers would cut off their horses ears so they wouldnt be in the way". gotta love apocryphal stories like that )

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quote:

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Originally posted by Anne-Marie:
this actually makes a fair bit of sense.

horse=transportation. and I'm betting even the best horse:rider combo would see a serious decrease in accuracy if the shot were taken astride a horse in the thick of battle.

(tho some enthusiastic proponent told me that "medieval archers would cut off their horses ears so they wouldnt be in the way". gotta love apocryphal stories like that )

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Hi Ann Marie, it was great meeting you this weekend! Your story reminds me of a horse that a friend had, that I rode fairly regularly while doing Dragoons way back when in Colorado. The horse had lost the tips of his ears due to frostbite, and looked for all the world as though "someone" in a fit of over-enthusiasm, had whacked them off with his sharpened sabre... I came in for a fair amount of grief during Sabre Drill for that little oddity!

I've heard of horses loosing ears from mis-applied sword strokes and accidental discharges from pistols, but this is the first time I'd heard of anyone claiming this sort of thing was ever done on PURPOSE!

As the French say; "Unlikely, Monsieur".

Cheers,

Gordon

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I wonder if the archers got stuck with the "dented" horses, ie ones that got frostbite, or the like, and someone saw that and said "stupid archers, hcking off their horses ears like that" and it got passed along as info?

or its like the lemmings story. (they dont really run off cliffs, you know...)

I dunno. I cant believe anyone would cutt off the horses ears. Docking tails I can see, so they dont get caught in harness, but ears?

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Funny, speaking of ears, but in reading a couple of period (well, MY period at least, being early 17th Century) discourses, it was several times noted that you (to all intents and purposes) use your horse's left ear as an aiming device for lowering your lance towards your opponent. Thus that ear would be rather handy to keep, I should think. Interestingly too, there are many references to Frontiersmen of the Americas keeping close watch upon the ears of their horses, since they act like radar scoops and point to the direction of danger. Plenty of fellows owed their lives to this little bit of "horse sense", knowing that horses have better hearing and eyesight (certainly at night) than people do. Since mounted archers were often used as "The eyes and ears of the army" it would be rather silly to remove half of your enemy detection array right off the bat... I suspect the story is right there with the lemming tale and the hoisting of knights aboard their destriers with cranes.

I look forward to seeing you this weekend, BTW! We'll get some riding in and smack that quintain around a bit!

Cheers,

Gordon

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