The most common response I get when I tell people about our mounted Martial art school is something to the effect of, “Like, knights? Like, what’s it called?” I help them recall the word. “Jousting?”
Jousting comes in several forms, but, for most forms of joust, and probably what you’re thinking of, there are two heavily armored contestants riding, usually cantering, along a rail (as short as 120 feet long) separating them (and sometimes also between outside rails keeping them laned in), opposite each other and to each other’s left, and are required to let their opponent land the hit, with specialized lances designed for the game.
Let’s break down how jousting is antithetical to what we do:
1) The armor is mostly for show. I jousted professionally for a little while with only a shield (which I held in my rein hand, much to the chagrin of my horse, I’m sure) and a plastic face mask to protect my eyes and throat from lance shrapnel, and was otherwise unprotected. Seriously—no suit of armor at all. The shield, or ecranche, is quite a large target, and even someone with mediocre athleticism should be able to hit it every time; although most jousting lances are so badly balanced (which is, for some reason, tolerated by the jousting community) that they are hard to keep steady for even a strong arm.
We want as few things weighing us down as possible, especially things that aren’t actually serving us. You could say we’re light cavalry (although the term is problematic). An encumbered horse is a slow horse, and that largely defeats the purpose of putting a warrior on a horse. Besides, we don’t do things for show.
2) Jousting confines the riders to riding in a straight line, for a short distance, with the aid of a rail. There’s no steering necessary, and in most cases, no need to drive—the horses will usually canter themselves. In fact, the biggest challenge here is holding them back and then keeping them in a canter of the rider’s choosing (and not bolting).
The entire point of cavalry is its mobility. We practice in open spaces in open skirmishing, unconfined (apart from specific exercises) by rails, and transitioning through gaits as needed, and for longer than 120 feet at a time—sometimes in continuous strafing.
3) Jousting prohibits any kind of defense. The lance is a notoriously bad anti-cavalry weapon; it consistently performs better against infantry. However, a clever lancer should still be able to fight another lancer while at once menacing his opponent and defending himself.
Jousting does away with this completely and just has each lancer run right into the other’s lance. It is literally against rules to try to turn away the incoming lance. In any weaponized Martial art, this is called a “double kill,” and it’s bad. It means both parties lost, and neither won. Yet there it is: In jousting, according to the most popular rules, double kills are required.
Inasmuch as the armor was ever historically anything more than just for show, it seems, according to the rules of the joust, that it was an ostentatious display of how effective the armor was. “Look,” one says, “I can take a direct shot with a lance (without making any attempt to defend myself) and be fine.”
At our school, we suppose that if you get hit, you are a casualty, and hits are therefore avoided. That is to say, unlike jousting, we train to turn away blows, stay out of their range, and vie for angles of advantage.
Additionally, jousting crosses the lance across one’s horse, attacking from the right arm to the left side, which drastically shortens the reach, strength, and application of the lance. There is a style of jousting, the Southern Italian style, that puts the lancers to each other’s right side, but it’s out of favor because, unsurprisingly, it hits much harder—as it should! In a fight, one should never intentionally target to the left side with the lance in the right hand (unless it’s being thrown).
That segues into the last point:
4) The jousting lance is an impractical, use-limiting design, with a long, tapering, needle-like front, and a short, blocky butt end. It’s difficult to carry and wouldn’t be good for campaigning, and because of its shape and specialized application has very limited use. We prefer a shorter, slender pole, balanced around the middle, that carries well, strikes easily at different levels, can be used defensively (because defense is an option when you’re training to fight, not jousting), and, in a pinch, can be thrown quite effectively—and that is the only time one should be attacking to the left with a lance in the right hand.
If you had to make a comparison between what we do and mounted combat sports, look at tent pegging. Although we’re not a tent pegging facility, per se, we do sometimes play some tent pegging games for skill. Tent pegging utilizes weapons and tactics more closely commensurate with what we do than jousting does, and does away with the completely ornamental suits of armor.
TL;DR: No. We don’t joust.
Martial Equestrian 