Do ponies joust?

[Frain Breeze]

We've seen Twilight and Nightmare Moon charge at each other in season 1 episode 2, and I'm sure a lot of bronies thought "unicorn joust, yeah!"

Question is, do you think anypony does stuff like this for sport? Obviously, the rules would have to be a little different from our form of jousting since there's no rider to unhorse. Perhaps the losing condition would instead be "if your body touches the ground, you're out" or something to that effect.

(topic may or may not be related to an OC idea of mine...)

[Xiee]

I don't see why not? I mean we have ponies in knight armor, so I don't see why they can't carry a lance and do jousting. ^^

[Fawkes]

OR

Perhaps the losing condition would be, "Whichever pony doesn't have a horn impaled through their eye socket wins!" >:3

Although jousting doesn't really strike me as a sport that'd be played among ponies. It's the right time period, but I think it's far to violent to be a sport for ponies. Jousting is all about the violence. In the olden days, competitors would die all the time. In the case of NMM and Twilight, they were battling. They had intent to harm each other. NMM did at least. Twilight, I'm sure, only intended to fake her out to get around her.

With that being the case, that leads me to believe that it could potentially be a form of training exercise for soldiers in the Royal Equestrian Army. A head to head rush would be a tactic which I think would be at the forefront of a four-legged anima'ls arsenal. As well, unless I'm terribly mistaken, various forms of weaponry have been implemented for the REA, such as swords and perhaps spears and lances. So then a large amount of skill would be necessary to master when you're a pony with a sword in your mouth, charging down another pony with a sword in his mouth. Thus you have jousting. I would assume that that would mainly be an Earth pony thing, although similar tactics could easily be implemented for Uni v Uni and Peg v Peg, as well as combinations of the three.

Assuming we're talking about board canon as well as regular canon.

[Kneazle]

It would be amazing if they had teeny tiny little bunny's as riders.

[Acynder]

It must be incredibly awkward to handle a sword in your mouth.

[Ancre]

It must be incredibly awkward to handle a sword in your mouth.

Ponies have a lot of tools and other stuff that look incredibly awkward to use for a pony !

[Corsair]

There has been dicussion on the board in the past about what weapons a military pony could use. Lances strapped to the side were discussed as a weapon for fighting dragons. I can definately see a version of jousting as a sporting event and training for Knights.

As for sword use, we did kinda see a pony mouth-wielding a sword in the show. Ok, so it was Pipsqueak and the sword was rubber, but it it was still a sword in the mouth.

[Xiee]

There has been dicussion on the board in the past about what weapons a military pony could use. Lances strapped to the side were discussed as a weapon for fighting dragons. I can definately see a version of jousting as a sporting event and training for Knights.

As for sword use, we did kinda see a pony mouth-wielding a sword in the show. Ok, so it was Pipsqueak and the sword was rubber, but it it was still a sword in the mouth.

Like this?

[Snowshoe]

Perhaps instead of jousting, combat, or at least combat sports in the Ponyverse are a little more primal? For example, two unicorns charge at each other in an effort to get the other to back down, if neither backs down, they use their horns to try and knock the other over (think all the times you've seen guys in movies using swords, and one flicks the blade out of the opponent's hands, except instead of flicking a blade away, it's more like the loser of the contest gets tossed to the ground).

Edit: God that pic is glorious, Xiee. Although what would a magic wielding, Force sensitive pony do with the sword in her mouth? Wouldn't it be easier to magic-swing it errywhere xD?

[Xiee]

Edit: God that pic is glorious, Xiee. Although what would a magic wielding, Force sensitive pony do with the sword in her mouth? Wouldn't it be easier to magic-swing it errywhere xD?

Fix'd.

Lol sorry I think I'm hijacking this thread. Last one I swear!

[Shyriath]

To be fair, though, Jedi ponies are best ponies.

[Willow Whisper]

They should joust, and also play polo.

[Parker_Izing]

Jousting can be done, with American Gladiators like implements, like nice helmets, chest protection plates ad foamed spears. in a "no deadly" fashion

[andbyhisdivineshadow]

I would think that unicorns would charge in with their horns only out of desperation, as you would almost have to stare at the ground to do it. I would think even if you did make solid contact with you opponent, you could really mess your neck or back up from such a high impact. Two ponies charging at each other would almost certain kill both of them from the sheer force of it, let alone a horn through the eye or mouth.

Jousting is all about the violence. In the olden days, competitors would die all the time. In the case of NMM and Twilight, they were battling. They had intent to harm each other. NMM did at least. Twilight, I'm sure, only intended to fake her out to get around her.

Hmm. All contact sports have a semblance of violence in them and I really do concede that tilting has martial origin. However, the entire process of the joust has a lot of ceremony and can be relatively safe if both tilters (almost said riders) know what they're doing. I would think Equestrian jousting would be even safer by cutting out the uncertainty of the mount, both knights are in complete control of what's happening.

With that being the case, that leads me to believe that it could potentially be a form of training exercise for soldiers in the Royal Equestrian Army. A head to head rush would be a tactic which I think would be at the forefront of a four-legged anima'ls arsenal. As well, unless I'm terribly mistaken, various forms of weaponry have been implemented for the REA, such as swords and perhaps spears and lances. So then a large amount of skill would be necessary to master when you're a pony with a sword in your mouth, charging down another pony with a sword in his mouth. Thus you have jousting. I would assume that that would mainly be an Earth pony thing, although similar tactics could easily be implemented for Uni v Uni and Peg v Peg, as well as combinations of the three.

I would think the primary weapon for the REA would be the lance, it would almost seem odd to not have every soldier equipped at least with a light lance to at counter charge other advancing or flanking formations if you can. This would lead to opponents to use something akin to a phalanx to prevent the almost certainty of an Equestrian charge, which I would think would be countered by cataphracts with heavy javalins or heavy maces to break their spears. [/over analyzing pony warfare.]

[Madhatter]

In an episode, it show that Pony can do Karate. So I think they can joust too.