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Joust Doing His Job
Champion teaches medieval tradition at Westmoreland farm
Jousting student Cody Powell gets ready for some full-contact action during a two-week session. Each Memorial Day weekend, hundreds of spectators gather in Triune to watch the jousting tournament at the annual Tennessee Renaissance Festival. The crowd cheers as knights – dressed from head to toe in heavy metal armor – enter the arena. Atop their horses, the knights position their lances, hoping to score enough points to be crowned the tournament champion.
But most onlookers don’t realize the event isn’t choreographed; there’s no predetermined winner. The knights vie for thousands of dollars in prize money and, more importantly, recognition as a jousting champion.
And many of them have Roy Cox to thank.
A Natural Extension
Cox didn’t plan to become a competitive jouster. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he says.
For Cox, a California native, that so-called wrong place was
New York City, where he was
doing stunt work. He helped a
man unload a horse from a trailer, and the man liked the way Cox handled the horse. When the man’s partner didn’t show up, he invited Cox to joust in his place.
“Like a fool, I said OK,” Cox says. “But I worked with him for
a few months, and I learned why his partner didn’t show up.”
More jousting offers followed, and Cox decided to work jousting into
his own project – the Cimmerian Combatives Co., founded in 1978.
“We were already doing stunt work, and the horses were a natural extension,” he says.
In 1992, the jousting faction
of the group was established as the Free Lancers, after a medieval term. Hired by Renaissance festivals across the country, the group traveled for up to 10 months a year. Cox also competed in the heavy-armor division at the World Championship Jousting Association. He’s a 10-time U.S. champion and two-time world champion.
Free Lancing
During this time, Cox married and bought a 66-acre farm in Westmoreland, just south of
the Kentucky border in Middle Tennessee. “The neighbors were a little curious,” he recalls. “But I invited them out for some demos, and they were intrigued to find out what I do.”
Cox teaches two-week jousting sessions at his farm several times a year, depending upon interest.
The seminar attracts people from all walks of life, including Gesa Wellenstein, a self-proclaimed horse fanatic from Biberach an der Riss, Germany. She traveled all the way to Tennessee for jousting lessons.
“I did not have a lot of expectations,” says Wellenstein,
who has done everything from barrel racing to bull riding. “I was planning to show up and learn. My first shock was that Roy’s jousting is full contact. When you get hit, you feel it.”
Wellenstein is among the few women who participate in the sport, so they often compete against men. Cox’s wife, Kate, was ranked second in the nation after him, until she had an accident due to field conditions.
Still, he says that injuries are actually quite rare and that real jousting is safer than the choreographed performances.
“What matters is technique,”
he says – a mantra evident in all
his workshops.
Cox sticks to a strict schedule, but it’s all for the benefit of his students. “I went from knowing nothing,” Wellenstein says, “to feeling comfortable participating as a knight in a jousting event.”
The first week of a jousting seminar focuses on riding safely with weapons, while the second week of 12-hour days adds heavy armor to the mix. Draft horses are usually used in jousting, since they can support the additional weight of the armor – about 110 pounds.
“They’re our livelihood,” Cox says of his horses. “I’m a staunch believer that horses are our partners, our friends and magnificent animals. And they enjoy it. They gallop into the arena with a fire in their eyes and thunder in their hooves.”
A Cultural
Renaissance
Cox takes pride in the fact
that his jousting lessons are historically accurate, from the points system used (Henry VIII’s) to the type of armor worn by the nights. Wellenstein – whose hometown was founded in the
800s – shares that fascination
with history. So does Mike Freeman, owner of Castle Gwynn – a real castle that drivers can see along State Route 840 between Murfreesboro and Franklin.
Jousting students in full armor practice with lances and horses.
During the month of May, Freeman’s property in Triune – about 25 miles south of Nashville – is transformed to look like 16th-century England for the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. Cox runs the jousting events, which take place each weekend
and come to an exciting conclusion with the Gath of Baal National Combat Jousting Tournament
on Memorial Day weekend.
“The tournament consists of people from different countries and states who have worked with Roy in some capacity,” says Leland Coleman, one of Cox’s students.
Coleman serves as the festival’s marshal mediate, an emcee who explains the rules to the crowd and keeps everything going if someone gets knocked off a horse.
These days, Cox stays behind the scenes, recording performances to ensure accuracy in judging. “I just fill in when needed. It’s hard to worry about competing when you’re running the show.”
But it’s much more than a show. It’s a true competition in the centuries-old style. And Cox is doing his part to make sure the tradition lives on.
Visit http://freelancers.faire.net for more information about the
Free Lancers and jousting training sessions.
IF YOU GO
The Tennessee Renaissance Festival in Triune takes place every weekend in May, including Memorial Day, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. – rain or shine.
Visit www.tnrenfest.com for details.
Story by Jessy Yancey
