[Artemisia] Infantry and Horses

[Yaasamiina]

Interesting info that came across one of my newsgroups last month in 
preparation for Hastings this weekend. Posted by one of my SCA 
Equestrian Heros, Duke Henrik of Havn. Enjoy
Yaasamiin
Newly appointed Society Deputy of Equestrian Affairs
(((*)))

Infantry and Horses interacting in combat - during  Battle of Hastin
Posted by: "Henrik Olsgaard" duke_henrik at hotmail.com   henrikofhavn
Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:53 pm (PST)
As many of you know, October 14 will be the 940th anniversary of the Battle
of Hastings. Those of us participating in the reenactment of this battle,
whether mounted or on foot should read and heed the folowing as it may apply
to you.

For others who may only engage in seperate , either Equestrian or Foot,
combat activities, the folowing may be of interest from a practical and/or
historical perspective, and may even have future application in SCA or
other reenactment activities, yet to be determined.

I hope some of you will be interested.

I have appended to the bottom of this post, a copy of the latest numbers of
participants registered to be at the Battle of Hastings reenactment next
month. This report was issued about two weeks ago, and so doesn't reflect
the final totals expected.

Henrik of Havn

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Sam Hunt <SamanthaJHunt at AOL.COM>
Reply-To: SamanthaJHunt at AOL.COM
To: VMAIL at HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: [VMAIL] Fwd: [VMAIL] Hastings - Infantry and horses
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:19:14 EDT

Coming from the rider's perspective here - Em has made some extremely valid
points about infantry working with horses. But I believe, as does Ross -
(former Vike Master of Horse), that these comments are worth being passed on
to
not just the Vike, but also to other groups attending Hastings - and we also
believe it is worth passing on these comments to the riders themselves as
well, as not all of the riders involved have the opportunity to be around
horses
day in, day out or enough to really learn enough about their natural
instinct
as well as they could. Also because this can only lead to a better
communication between infantry and cavalry, with a far better understanding
of what
each is trying to do.

I have therefore already taken the liberty of passing Em's comments on to
several of the non-Vike riders who I know have signed up to ride at
Hastings,
and I really hope that Em's comments will be distributed further than just
the
Vike.

Sam Hunt and Ross Tynan

 From Em:

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

=============================================================

For the benefit of those who missed Bryans earlier mail to the Hastings_2006
list, and lovers of statistics everywhere...

Total number of Hastings registrants, as of today - 2684 Warriors infantry -
1685 Archers - 155

And approximately 120 cavalry.

The final registration page will remain open until 6pm Tuesday October 10th
- I head
down to Battle on Wednesday so there will be no-one to read the e-mail after
that. For those still not registered you can register on the day but it will
be
easier for me if you can commit earlier.

http://hastings.vikingsonline.org.uk/process/finalreg.htm

Maps, on-site instructions and timetables, coming very soon on the web pages
-
but I will have huge piles of photocopies at Battle for you to collect along
with your registration cards at Battle.

Sandra