Please pardon this intrusion if this is not totally appropriate to the era you generally portray, but when I discovered this site today I was totally blown away, and I have to at least let folks who might be able to join me know what is in the works.

I am teaching a Cavalry School on May 8 near Sacramento California (since it's a good solid 500 miles from Herr Hauptmann's Jousting Class, I don't think that there will be much of a problem with students not knowing which to attend). The basic thesis of this school is the evolution in tactics and drill of cavalry in the period of 1550 to 1600, due to the adoption of the wheellock pistol, and its eventual dominance over the traditional lance.

The school with begin with a lecture and discussion of the background, weapons and tactics of the period leading up to 1550, and then the reasons for the adoption of the pistol in favor of the lance. Then we will tack up the horses and head out for some basic drill to get the horses and riders working together as a team, and put together "Sets of Four", or Lances.

After lunch, we again mount up and get into the actual tactical formations of the period, beginning with the "en haye", or in line formation of the French heavy cavalry using the lance. After we get that down, we will advance to the Caracole, and practice the drills used by the German Reiters, or Pistoliers. Finally, we shall end up with the tactics used by Henri IV in the French Wars of Religion to defeat his Catholic advisaries in the massive cavalry combats of the late 16th Century.

I hope again that this is not intrusive, since the period is obviously well past your cut-off date of 1500. However, I did think it might be of interest, and though there is only a week or so until it happens, it is possible that someone might wish to make it.

Here is the link to our website: http://home.earthlink.net/~nebbo/cav/

Thank you for your indulgence,

Sincerely,

Gordon Frye

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No issues with posting it here. It sounds intensive for a single day, but looks like serious fun.

Too bad you all are out in Cali.

Cheers,

Jenn

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Thank you for your kind reply. I've done a lot of serious living history in a lot of different historical venues and eras, and the tone here is so high-level and quality-oriented that I couldn't resist jumping in. There is an ACW board, "Authentic Campaigner" that I have been most impressed by and is quite stringent in it's focus on serious living history, and I felt that this forum is its equal, just with an earlier era as a focus. The fact that you have an Equestrian forum to boot is icing on the cake. This is great!

Thank you, and I look forward to participating in and reading lots of great stuff here.

Sincerely,

Gordon Frye

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Thanks,

Callum.

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URL=http://www.jousting.co.nz

Being a Border Reiver type myself, it just so happens that I can help you in this quest of yours. I have two close friends who I can vouch for who make absolutely top-notch wheellock firearms, one in California, the other in Texas. Both are fully capable of making anything from a German Puffer to a French Pistolet, a Cavalry Harquebuz or a Tschecke Rifle. Or just about any historical item in between. I personally own a German Puffer that Dale Shinn made for me some 20+ years ago (along with a Matchlock Bastard Musket, and I just ordered a brace of ca. 1580 Snaphaunce Pistols; I also had Dale make my Daughters each a matchlock Caliver for Christmas a year ago, I was so proud when they actually wanted them!), and I have lusted after the artworks of Taylor Anderson for many a year as well (his "Doom-o-Matic" blunderbus is a gorgeous piece to behold).

Dale Shinn may be reached through this website, as he is the Captain of an ECW group:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dgshinn/companyinfo.html

Taylor Anderson is a native and resident of Texas, and while he primarily makes high-quality flintlocks, his wheellocks and baltic locks are works of art. If you wish to reach him, here is his email address:

fortcomanche@yahoo.com

What is fun is that both men were rather busy this year making firearms for various historical films, Dale making "Nock Volley Guns" for "Master and Commander", while Taylor made various weapons for "The Alamo".

Again, I cannot recommend either of these men too highly. Both are close friends of mine, and it would be difficult to say who is the "better" smith, since both men are artists in their own right, rather than simple "gunsmiths". Neither gentleman is cheap, either. I would hesitate to discuss prices, but it is up there with comensurate costs of high-quality swords and armour.

Good luck in this, and if you chose to contact either of these gentlemen, be sure to mention that Gordon Frye was the tattle-tale.

Cheers,

Gordon

[ 04-29-2004: Message edited by: Gordon ]

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URL=http://www.jousting.co.nz

You are very welcome. I wanted to note to you that I know of at least ONE Dale Shinn wheellock in NZ at present, perhaps more. As I understand it, the legal situation in NZ allows for smooth-bores (registered as "shotguns")to be fairly easily acquired, while a rifle is a bit more difficult to register, even a muzzle-loader. I am prone to think that any pistol, even a single-shot muzzle-loader from the 16th Century, would be even more diffucult. It's close to impossible in England, and I know that the situation in Australia is rather difficult as well (at least compared to recent years past). I'm sure you could get full information from whichever bureaucracy handles importation licenses as to what you may, or may not, bring into the country. Good luck on that...

I am hoping to put together a course akin to the woodcuts shown in J.J. von Wallhausen's "Kreigkunst zu Pferde" from 1616, and John Cruso's 1632 "Militarie Instructions for Cavalrie" using lance, sword and pistol, which ought to be fun. Rather like the modern "Mounted Cowboy Action Shooting", but with 16th Century weapons. It will take some thought to pull it together in a way that is historically accurate, and still fairly simple too. We'll see how it transpires. I know ONE of my horses will go for it!

Cheers,

Gordon

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We had almost 30 participants and 15 horses (17 riders) with a broad spectrum of interest, from one lady who's main area of study is Roman/Persian Cataphracts, to a couple of guys who do WWII Mounted Cavalry, and just about everything in between.

Morning lecture was primarily going over the handbook, and discussing the evolution of armies, tactics and weapons of offense and defense from the late 15th through the early 17th Centuries, with demonstrations of various types of lances and pistols. I had an old friend who used to joust at the New York Renaissance Festival, as well as work as a trainer for Medieval Times come out and discuss some of the more practical aspects of mounted, armoured combat. As he himself noted, it was far from historical, but he did it a LOT, and there were lessons to be learned from hard-won experience.

Morning horse drill was focused on getting participants and horses used to the idea of working in concert, and learning some of the commands. A quintain had been set up, and participants were welcome to try their skills at running at it with the lance.

After a break for lunch, the afternoon drill consisted of learning how to form up and maneuver in a broad line (and work on keeping it straight!), then practicing the same drills with lances in hand. After an hour or so of this, we reformed into column and learned the intricacies of the "Caracole" maneuver, in which we ALL learned a few things. Then pistols were issued out, and we practiced with pistols in hand (though due to a number of horses new to this, we didn't actually do any firing... that can come later. "BANG!" had to suffice!). Finally we showed the fragility of the "en haye" line of lancers compared to the solidity of the pistol column, as I rode through their column while they "pistoled" me. A four-rank structure was shown to have a much better cohesion than a single-rank one!

The basic thesis of the class was, of course, that the well-drilled unit of soldiers will defeat the well-skilled, and though numerous, individual warriors every time.

Thank you for the opportunity to post this on the Firestryker board. I know that my area of interest is a good century past the official limits of the forum, so I much appreciate your indulgence here. But it's nice to be able to have the chance to discuss such arcane ideas and knowledge with other people interested in historic equitation, especially in the various aspects of wearing armour, combat, etc.

I fully anticipate offering this class again in the future, but I'll have better notice to give, so that anyone with a serious interest in taking part will have the opportunity to plan it well in advance.

Thank you again,

Sincerely,

Gordon Frye

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Glad you had a great event. Sounds like it was a lot of fun.

You are most welcome. If you have future events, you may post them here.

Regards,

Jenn

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I figured that in case anyone was interested, here are a few pictures to check out from the class, taken by one of our students who attended on foot. Unfortunately for our pictograhic essay, most folks chose to attend in mufti, but you have to start somewhere. Next time will be better as folks figure out what we are up to. Still, we learned a lot about 16th Century Cavalry drill!

http://www.jeffress.net/jeremiah/Cavalry_May_04/[/URL]

As you can tell, we had participants from a BROAD segment of the reenacting community! Oh, and the horses who's portraits are up, are the Dun, my Old Warhorse, Taxi, who's about 30; and the Brown, my Young Buck, Twister, who's 15. Just in case anyone was curious. My Daughter's Fiance put these together, so I can't take credit or blame for the content! ;o)

Thanks again!

Gordon Frye

[ 05-11-2004: Message edited by: Gordon ]

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Our recent work in this type of area has so far been limited to working with only 6 horses in Norman style "conroi" training.

However even with 6 horses we find it hard to co-ordinate all but the most simple drills - the main problem being having horses who are unfamiliar with each other sorting out their status in the 'herd'.

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URL=http://www.jousting.co.nz

I can sympathise completely! Lucky for me, there were two sets of four horses from the same owners, and another three pairs that trailered together, so there really was only one "out" horse in the bunch. I grouped all of them into "sets of four", with the odd horse being paired with my own old campaigner who is used to drilling, (and I was usually outside the unit on my horse) so it all worked out well. One really has to work within the herd mentality to get things to work, or at least work fairly easily, that's for sure.

The one really interesting part about it all is that it's actually easier to get the drill into the horses heads than into their riders. After a while, the horses even begin to "anticipate" the orders, which is pretty amusing, especially when they anticipate the wrong direction! But that's when you know that the horses "get it".

Something else that becomes immediately apparent too is that there can only be ONE voice command, that of the Captain (or whomever is commanding), rather than the individual riders, or else there is chaos. There are certainly plenty of stories of horses obeying bugle commands and riding in formation long after the (green) rider had fallen off, and I suspect that there were plenty of trumpet commands in the 15th and 16th Centuries (and LORD I wish I could get my hands on some examples!)

I've had the honour of actually working with, and drilling, some much larger units, the largest I was actually in charge of was I think 72 horses and riders, but even when you start with horses and horsemen who are familiar with things, you still need a good break-in period. Usually a day or two will do it, and I found that, like the military (gee, imagine that!) it works best to keep the same horses in formation relative to the others. Pretty much it "establishes" the herd artificially.

One of the coolest things I ever witnessed was when working in South Carolina about 5 years ago, we had to put our horses into a huge pasture and then hi-tail it out of there due to a hurricane (we had nowhere to trailer them to, and in the huge pasture they were as safe as anywhere). We let them go (a good 50 horses) and all ran over a shallow rise and disappeared. Then the came running back, in an (almost) perfect "column of two's" that we had been practicing and performing for the past month or so. The line was a little ragged, there were a few stragglers, but still, with no riders, and no orders, it was wild. It was TOTALLY Awesome! Goes to show what horses will do when trained to it, and I have no doubt in my mind that given proper training, war horses would charge right into an enemy pike-square or cavalry formation, as long as their picket-line mates were there with them.

Anyway, long winded answer, but as you may have noticed, such things are my passion.

Cheers!

Gordon

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