Maybe a fool, but not me! 
I could ride my horse without hands, but only a little bit until it realized that… then the horse was getting naughty.
The much more important thing is riding your horse with only one hand, because you need the other hand for fighting.
Every fool can put both reins in one hand and ride straight forward, but building up the essential body-tension in the horse with one hand to ride like the guy in the bullfighting-movie is very advanced riding.
If you look at those movie, then you can see him riding “a la gineta”, but with a very long leg, sometimes even getting into “a la brida”. He can lean over and touch the bulls head while riding! He can ride fast attacks, fast retreats, tight turns… if he would wield a sword, he would be a nightmare for every foot-soldier.
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That’s why foot soldiers brought billhooks and pikes and stood in formation.
Yes exactly!
But… every stupid peasant can hold up a sharp stick, and its easy to put 500 arrows in the air per minute… I think there must be something special on them why knights and cavalry has played such a big role in historic warfare. Something which is usually underestimated by modern people.
The force of around 700 kilograms of horse + armored person moving at you at 40-42 kilometers an hour concentrated in the tip of a four to five meter long steel tipped lance. And it isn’t just one guy but around 200 of them riding knee to knee 2 ranks deep.
Of course you are quite dependent on good terrain since no amount or training or spurring will enable you to cross rocky or wooded uneven terrain in a good charge let alone in a formation.
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Have they said anything about horse armour by the way? I know this was used in those times, maybe not by everyone but it seems something fun to include. Maybe make different kinds of armor or even saddles, paint them, add a flag/emblem and more of those things.
Found a picture of some medieval horse armour to give you an example:
We discussed this a little but we can’t give solid answers since we aren’t insiders.
Hi,
this is what I said about that with a link to many pictures:
Horsearmour
Look at the pictures and form an opinion yourselves.
My state of knowlede: there has been horsearmour, but not as often as you might think. In the last 20years I’ve looked at thousands of pictures. I think it was very special. Fighting in full armor but with a “naked” horse must have worked very well.
Horsearmour was bitmore late medieval time, not sure how much at this time period, the other thing is also an price problem, usually an full plate armour for knight at that time was worth of fortune, taking this in mind how usltra expensive was horse armour?! This means only the really high level of nobility was able to use and own such equipment, probably such level is not even in the game, especially if it comes to player, so player may meet or see such stuff with some NPC characters but not own it…
I think it was a matter of weight and manoeuvrability, too.
I survived the first weekend of the Schaffhausen Tournament (not on horse, but it was exhausting enough) and would like to share a first video-clip as a demonstration of horse (and fighter) movement:
http://www.swr.de/landesschau-bw/tipp/tipp-die-grossen-ritterspiele-zu-schaffhausen/-/id=2248740/did=13758498/nid=2248740/1p7cw5p/index.html
For non-German speakers: “Blablabla… Its all as authentic as possible … blablabla… real weapons, no fake, no story-skript… blablabla”
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No wholesale horse slaughter? I believe the Spanish considered killing the horse a perfectly viable tactic.
In Germany, killing (even hitting) the horse in a tournament was highly prohibited. In this modern time, killing the horse of one of the “knights” would surely results in the killing of the killer, 'cause the horses are so cumbersome well trained and precious to them
I suspected that. Well time to organize a donkey joust then right?
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I am starting to suspect that while full horse armor might not have been common head protection might have been seen more often.
Some non biblical non Italian woodcuts and paintings show horses with either head and neck protection or sometimes chest/chest protection, sometimes combined. Of all these I still imagine head protection is the most important. A small cut or arrow in the hindquarter or the flanks of a horse won’t put it out of business but an arrow between the eyes or a vicious sword blow from another cavalry man probably would. Neck protection would come in handy against enemy cavalry whose sword blows might strike down and cleave into the neck of a horse, something you might consider when the rider is encased in steel. Breast protection I can only imagine as acting as a cushion for a collision or pointy spears and the occasion thin lance/pike.
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Here is an other Clip from the Schaffhausen Turnier.
Please have a look at the first Part. For most People it seems that the horses are lolopping around tiredly. But it is a highly collected kanter, sometimes changing into a redopp or terre à terre with galopp pirouettes and such stuff. This is exactly where the academic art of riding comes from and it is art of riding what you see!
By the way… What I didn’t realized before: Tourney/Tournament comes from French “tour”= turning. You can easily see why.
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Is there any reason they braided the tails? Is that something historical or something with practical considerations, or both.
I Think both. I have to confess, that I didn’t know exactly why, but till today, many dressage riders braiding the horsetails. It is also traditional in Spain, and for bullfighting and for the Vaqueros, there are tailprotectors from leather in use. On old paintings you can often see braided tails or… cut off tails, which is prohibited now in most European country. Modern riders do that (the braiding) for protection of the hair (I do it for instance when the horse is in a trailer) and for looking nice. Maybe there are other practical causes, but I can only speculate.
Why is it prohibited to cut it off? Does it annoy the horse or can he no longer swash flies with it?
Both. Many practices from former times are forbidden as a matter of animal welfare.
Ah, ok… they often cut not only the hair, but also a part of the tail itselve, like they did with some breeds of dogs. This is prohibited by law.
Ah I thought it was just the hair they cut off.
Some countries in Europe still allow tail cutting and ear cropping I believe.