#rossfechten

alchemicalseraph Good advice, overall, and thank you for mentioning me. When I asked this question I was basically bombarded with "L2 ride noob"(I guess I deserved that, since I don't ride, but it is still nice to know how one gets in on the jousting hobby, not just that one needs to know how to ride, which is obvious). From what I've understood, there are three types of jousting... 1. Stage jousting. Rennaissance faires and shows, basically stage fighting in the saddle. 2. "Real" jousting. (Full contact more or less, high equipment standard). 3. Rossfechten. The HEMA aspect of it all, which can be and is used in 2. as well. It involves anything from sword combat from the saddle(both from saddle to saddle and saddle to foot), wrestling in the saddle, and lance combat. There is probably a lot more but I haven't delved deeper into it... But it is "the next step" in HEMA, the most hardcore stuff... That truly needs skill before even beginning. xD (And I bet there is Razmafzar stuff on it as well as Chinese, Japanese and other sources!) Regarding gear, I don't think one needs it in the beginning, you won't joust until you got a hang of the techniques... And just a coat/shirt of maille(even with a padded jack/gambeson underneath) won't protect much. Plate is what will be needed... And plate is a pretty high threshold, since it is very expensive. You can get away with cheaper reenactment stuff, but generally... It doesn't fit well, and it often is in untempered, cold-hammered mild steel, which bends and breaks more easily. A full set of tailored, hand-forged jousting armour is probably one of the more expensive things one can buy in any hobby... One can negate the price a tad by finding an armourer in Eastern Europe. But we're talking around $9 000 to $17 000. It isn't impossible though, just takes time, piece by piece, and lots of patience. You can always just go for the mild steel stuff, it tends to be a lot cheaper. 'Round $1100 to $2500, still a lot of money though, and there is no guarantee it won't cave in under a lance. Not writing this as critique or correction, alchemicalseraph, just adding some info/thoughts to your great post. :)