Full contact jousting is not your everyday entertainment, but people in Lethbridge seemed to really take a liking to the sport over the weekend at the Knights of Valour show.
Fans started to line up for the show four hours before it started.
“Number one, it’s different. Number two, we are calling it NASCAR on a horse,” Doug Kryzanowski, Marketing Manager Exhibition Park, said.
Jousting gained popularity in the 13th century, and maintained its status as a European sport until the late 16th century.
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For 21-year-old Samson Miller, it’s so dangerous, his mom says she won’t come see a show.
“If you get hit really hard, it’s like being hit in a quick car crash. If you fall of your horse, it’s like being in a roll over,” Miller said.
The ‘knights’ aren’t actors, they spent months training before getting on a horse and jousting against other knights.
“Pretty much it doesn’t hurt. Sometimes if you whack your head, it does ring your head a little bit,” Kyran Fairchild said of his first summer jousting.
“I’m not trained on falling off the horse, all I do is snap my arms and hope that I don’t land on something,” Miller said.
It’s the first year Knights of Valour have come to Lethbridge, but judging by the turnout, Kryzanowski says the show could be back in the future.
“We didn’t know this was around us, and we thought this was something that would be absolutely at the other end of the spectrum for us, and (seeing) the popularity of it (we) can maybe expand on it next year,” Kryzanowski said.
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