Summer Hunt

The Shire of Earnrokke (Whidbey Island, WA) is located in the central region of An Tir.

• Earnrokke website

SUMMER HUNT I (2005) EVENT REPORT BY Baroness Murakami Tsuruko

Greetings all,

The Incipient Shire of Earnrokke put on their first event this past

weekend, Summer Hunt. Not only was it their first event it was the first

event of it's kind in An Tir. It was simply awesome! It was a very animal

friendly event, with equestrian activities on both days, a falcon demo, and

hound races. There were also merchants and a served delicious period feast

in the Cloisters on Saturday night done by the very talented Baroness

Anastasia and her crew. Royal court was held during the feast where the

day's winners were announced, hunt-themed stories were told and a number of

gentles from Earnrokke and Druim Doinnen were recognized for their service

and talents by Her Majesty.

As for equestrian activities there was a hunt course on Saturday.

Obstacles/challenges included a low jump, defense against an attacking boar

(pig sticking), picking off three different game animals with javelin or bow

and arrow (mounted archery, yeah!) and protecting a terrified peasant from a

marauding bear. Points off if you shot the peasant instead of the bear.

The bear took various hits throughout the afternoon, but it was the youngest

rider of the day, Giraldus Evienence who struck it through the heart! I

rode the hunt course along with everyone else. I'm just getting back into

riding after a break imposed by health issues and although I didn't score

well I didn't do any soil testing either! The hunt course was won by HL

Thorkel Haraldsson with an awesome run on George (aka Jorge). It should be

noted that Her Royal Highness Princess Angharad was the next highest score.

She's an excellent rider and I've seen her handle a javelin so I recommend

being very, very nice to her!

Sunday was the Equestrian Championship for Dragon's Laire. There were

thirteen riders, a great turnout! HL Agelos came up with a good challenge

course which included pig sticking, a spear throw, rings, heads, quintain

and flag race. In addition to their riding scores, riders were judged on

the "WoW" factor. Giraldus provided a fine example of horsemanship and perserverence

when, after losing a stirrup during his run (and I mean losing it for real,

it came off the saddle and disappeared in the grass) he chose to continue

with only one stirrup. He clug like a burr as he galloped through the flag

race and everyone was cheering him as he came in off the course. Again, Her

Royal Highness gave everyone a run for their money so a final test was

needed to determine the new champion. Maximus, Her Highness's 3-year old

Black Percheron gelding was pressed into service. He is a big, beautiful

boy who is very laid back and is quite happy to amble along at a nice walk.

He'd never seen equestrian games before but he got the chance to see the

quintain up close and personal. After Maximus had a good sniff and a nibble

at the quintain, the contestants took their turns and HL Donwenna emerged

victorious as Dragon's Laire's new equestrian champion!

But wait, there's more! I don't know whose idea this was but after

everyone was done riding they kept to the field and did a few carousel

maneuvers which ended with them all in a line in front of me where they

saluted me. It was a wonderful piece of pageantry and I really appreciated

it!

A big thank you to the Incipient Shire of Earnrokke for putting on a

fabulous event, to Baroness Anastasia for a great feast, to Her Majesty and

Her Highness for supporting the Shire's first event, and to HL Thorkel &

Tara along with Lang's Horse & Pony farm for providing rental horses (which

greatly improved participation!). If I'm forgetting anybody please forgive

me, it's not intentional, I'm still pretty tired after the weekend. I hope

to see more events like this in the future.

YIS,

Baroness Murakami Tsuruko

SUMMER HUNT XLI/2006 EVENT REPORT

For my part , I would like to thank the following:

Lord Johannes vonMorgarten, seneschal and autocrat did an excellent job running the event, setting up a merchant bazaar (12 merchants!), and handling Gate, Lord Maghnus acted as Rider auctioneer, Lord John the Immobile worked all weekend as CiC. Lord Arn ran the A&S contest; Lady Kathryn Maclaclan ran Lists.  HL Agelos Evienece was MIC and with m'lord Giraldus Evienece and Lord Johannes MorGarten did the 2 weeks of site prep for this event.  Baroness Anastasia ran the dog barding contest and with Baroness Tsuruko, ran the Lists for the Equestrian and the Forresters Championships.

Please see below for more! In joyful service to An Tir, THL Donwenna La Mareschale www.huntguild.org

From: Lord Johannes Von Morgarten, Summer Hunt Autocrat To: All the Fine An Tiran's and Out of Kingdom Guest's that attended Summer Hunt A.S. XLI

• FORRESTER (HUNTING ON FOOT)-the Master Julian Memorial Summer Hunt Champion is Richard de Touchet

(2nd place, Banu Shadhra Aliya --12 contestants)

• Summer Hunt Equestrian Champion is HL Donwenna La Mareschale riding Antares

(2nd place, Mistress Yaasmiina of Artimesia; 3rd was Sir Jerald on Valerius-competing in a field of 15 riders).

• Earnrokke Heavy Weapons Champion is Lord Palladius Hibernia who defended his title

from last year. Congratulations to Lord Palladius!!!

• Earnrokke A&S Champion is Banu Shadhra Aliya

Autocrat's tidbits:

• Rider Auction-Earnrokke fundraiser went extremely well. (HL Donwenna was bought by Ladies Ceridwen and Georgette of Intriguing Designs, The HL Donwenna won the competion, so they won the treasure chest). Apologies for

Kolfinna for having to get auctioned off first cause folks didn't understand how to bid. It was very humorous when bidders allied to combine their funds to purchase riders! The highest sale was Duchess Angharad to Duchess Elspeth. A special thanks to Duchess Elspeth for kicking off the Rider auction in to a real bidding war.

• Dog Barding contests-Lady Marguerite Fitz Williams won most period dog barding with her dog Mischief, wearing household badge on his outfit.

Lady Ceridwen's dog Zeus, won for most adorable wearing his 'mongol hat and coat'

16 total riders! 14 riders rode advanced , 1 rode BEG, and 1 exhibition run by HL Thorkel Haraldsson featured a mounted archery & javelin on the first leg of the course--which no one else had done. Over half the riders did mounted archery and almost every single rider did the two-handed boar spearing at the handgallop. A difficult challenge course unlike any ever seen before that was run by exceptionally skilled group of riders. No unauthorized dismounts; no overheating problems.

Kudos on ground crew go to HL Sven innHeldt, Master Togrul and Lord Arn. Several youngsters ran weapons outside the field back to the staging area, especially noted m'lord Magic the Fierce, Page to HL Donwenna.

• A friendship treaty was presented by the B&B of Aquaterra to Earnrokke! We love Their Excellencies!

Aquaterra provided amazing support for this event with help on Court Heraldry (thanks HL Alan), on gate (HL Marie Chante) and Thrown weapons (darts!).

• Special thanks to the Kingdom Officers who came out & supported Earnrokke's 2nd Annual Summer Hunt:

Master Togrul Guiscard, KEO;

Master Ian, Kingdom Constable;

Banu Shadhra Aliya, Kingdom Archery Marshal.

My special congratulations to all of the Winners of the various competition's. May you all succeed in defending your Championships next year at Summer Hunt.

Lord Johannes VonMorgarten, Autocrat for Summer Hunt II