Important Horse safety tips

With Hastings coming up fast I thought it might be a good idea to give people some tips on fighting other people who just happen to be on horses…

To begin with, the person on the ground must try to remember that, to a certain extent, they will in fact control whether or not they get close enough to the horse to actually get a good scrap. The best rider in the world on the most confident horse will have difficulties if the person on foot strides up to the horse square on waving the shield around and shouting. On the average horse with an average rider the person on the ground will most probably make the horse run off if he just strides straight up to the horses head. So, how do you get a good fight?

1) Come out from the shield wall. No horse likes to run at a solid wall of shields and most simply won’t so if you want a scrap come out so we can get you. Historically remember horses couldn’t actually break shield walls. The Normans had to feint to make them break and the horses really only came in for terrorising infantry to make them crack and run (for those expressing doubt right now just remember the rumbling hooves of 100 plus horses coming towards you at Hastings 1995).

2) Our job is made a lot easier if you also team up. If we can run between two of you the horses don’t have a chance to actually shy off to the side so we will get to hit one or the other of you. Just remember to come out with sufficient room for us to fly between you (approx 3 m is good for the distance between infantry, but go wider for nervy horses as they will be more inclined to take the chance with a bigger gap) and remember that we ride through so it won’t work if the shield wall is right behind you!

3) Horses would have been used mostly for strength, speed and the terrorising factor of the two combined. They are actually pretty useless for hand to hand against someone on the ground – think about it all you need to do is cut the horse’s legs out from underneath them. How does this affect the infantry? It means that we will try to sweep through you at canter and gallop rather than stop and circle round you doing tip taps. So be prepared for fast single blows.

4) Keep your shield still and don’t wave anything near the horses head. It just makes them shy and stops us all from having a good scrap

So far all the above has the infantry standing pretty static and letting us do the sweep throughs – so what do we need to do to get a good fight moving towards a horse or one on one?

To understand how to get the best out of a horse you need to understand a little equine psychology. A horse is a prey animal that is highly sensitive to body posture. They communicate between themselves expressing who is dominant or submissive by such subtle signs as how they stand in relation to each other and eye contact. Standing square on and looking a horse in the eye is the equivalent to a horse of throwing down the gauntlet. If you do it to a stallion be prepared to run as they may just take you up on it, if you do it to a less dominant horse the automatic reaction will be for them to bugger off. So how does this translate to fighting people on horses.

1) Never walk straight towards the horses head. Always go round to the side and walk towards the rider at the centre of the horse. In effect come in side on.

2) Try to keep your back slightly angled towards the horses head. Standing sideways or at a 45 degree angle is submissive for a horse whereas standing straight on is very dominant.

3) Try to keep your eyes slightly down or off to the side as you approach. Horses drop their heads to do a submissive pose, whilst most predators or an aggressive horse will lift their heads high before challenging / attacking.

4) If you are doing all of the above and the horse is still acting a bit funny try talking a bit – mock the rider a little or make jokes to other infantry. Sometimes a horse just needs to know that it’s a person behind that shield and under that chainmail not a monster. Just don’t do the grrs or make aggressive noises etc as believe it or not most horses will be voice trained prior to a person ever sitting on them and will still primarily be told off by shouting even when ridden. Since most of these horses will also have been trained by people on the ground for a good part of their basic training a person coming towards them shouting will more often that not be interpreted as a ‘telling off’ and the most likely reaction will be for the horse to disappear before the human gets even more mad!

Finally, some safety tips where horses are concerned:

1) Always keep an eye on where the horses are and be prepared to move if needs be. We won’t try to ride anyway down literally, but horses do shy and do have their own brains no matter how good the rider. It’s also a lie that a horse won’t crash into a human – they do and they have done in the past. If you want to be safe keep your eyes open. It’s a bloomin site easier for a human to control his own two feet than for us to convince an excited horse to go the other way in mid air should an incident occur (remember – it not only has to be communicated to the horse’s brain, and understood, but they have to control double the number of legs ;-) ) . We promise to do our best not to put you in a difficult position in the first place however.

2) Never ever hit the horse (obviously) but just as importantly do not wave anything near the horse’s head or legs for any reason ever! You can kill a horse by accidentally putting a spear or sword between its legs.

3) If you aren’t comfortable with the horses then stay in the shield wall when they come out to play (centre of a line too not the sides is best). Should you find yourself near a horse, and you aren’t happy, you can control it from on the ground by raising your shield and putting it face on towards the horses head, neck and shoulders. You should never thrust the shield at the horse – you will not need to go closer than 1.5 feet before the average horse will move away from the shield if it’s in the right position.

4) Remember horses can kick – don’t back into them and if you are fighting someone else and they are backing into the horses stop and warn them. They can kick with the front too, but this tends to be rare.

5) Try to keep all dropped shields, spears etc etc behind the lines as horses can be injured by things on the ground. Not to mention the fact that the equipment will probably get damaged too!

6) Don’t die where horses will be going until you are told to – if anyone does, and they are not supposed to, run out and ‘fix’ them (if your line commanders are happy for you to do so). YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE ON THE GROUND WHEN 150 HORSES COME GALLOPING UP.

7) If the horse looks like it’s about to freak do back off unless the rider is clearly happy to proceed. You do not want to be near a horse that hits the panic button. Of course, do liaise with the rider – most horses will just be bouncing because they are having fun.

Above all, don’t leave your common sense at home as you will be playing with 150 animals that are essentially half a ton (at least) of bone and muscle controlled by a brain that short circuits to bounce mode at the hint of a gallop or some fun.….. J

Happy battles all

Emmalyne Downing