In the beginning...

Hola! To all of the beautiful people reading this blog. First off, I would like to explain the title. "...Who knows what she muttered in the dark..." is part of a larger paragraph quote from The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I believe it goes something like this:
"My friend," said Gandalf, "you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields, but she, born to the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours...yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man, whom she loved as a father, and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff that he leaned on...but who knows what she muttered in the dark, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, the walls of her bower closing in around her...a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?"

Anyway, this blog will be used to update you lovely and curious people about my life as a knight (I was going to type jouster, but I'm a full blown knight now. Still not used to that. It's pretty cool, though.)


Probably the most common question I get asked is, "How did you get into this (jousting)?" So, the simple answer to that is as follows:
In April of 2009 Mom and I went to the Ohio Equine Affair. On the schedule was a talk on jousting to which we were both curious (admittedly I was a wee bit more curious than Mom). There was this tall guy with red hair talking about the history and introducing guys dressed in different styles of armor. Then he introduced this girl that was a squire and was going to train to be a knight. I was like, what?? You can do that?? So I talked to him afterward, found out his name was Shane Adams, he was based in Ohio now, just happened to be the reigning world champion, and my first lesson was August 1st of that same year.
(Looking back, though I did not know them then, that is the first time I saw Amy, TJ, Charlie, Alex, and I think Phantom too.) 

A little over a year later I am a knight. A dame. Cool, huh? There was a time when I was waiting for my Prince Charming, my own "knight in shining armor", when loved just about anything that had ruffles, played with barbies, and someday gosh darn it, I was going to be a princess in a castle. So uh...what happened exactly?
Well, that story is kind of long. But suffice it to say that I really feel I am suppose to joust. That I was made for this. It combines a lot of my interests and passions (horses, history, martial arts)...not to mention there are some pretty cool people in the jousting world.

In my first lesson, when Shane told me I would not be riding with stirrups for a very long time, I knew that this whole becoming-a-knight business would take way more than I expected. I mean, don't you just gallop toward your opponent and hit him with a lance? ;)

The second weekend of August 2010 I put on a heavy suit for the first time. I might still be dreaming about jousting in heavy armor if it weren't for my bro, Marc, who is letting me borrow his suit. I am very thankful for that.
Went to Estes Park, Colorado for an international jousting competition (and my very first tournament) the second weekend of this month and now (as if I wasn't before) I am hooked.

Well, I suppose that will conclude my first post. My following posts will be about the Renaissance fairs and tournaments I attend. Just thought it would be good to give you guys a small introductory.

 Off to the lyst!~