Maryland is a state with a rich history full of traditions and a unique cultural identity that has carried on to the modern era.
But one little fun fact about Maryland and its history is that in 1962 it became the first state in the country to recognize a state sport, and legislators picked a unique option for this honor: jousting.
When many people think of jousting, they picture a scene reminiscent of “Game of Thrones” with two steelclad knights charging at each other on horseback carrying heavy lances meant to knock the opponent off their ride, but that’s not exactly what the modern iteration of the sport looks like.
Yes, the riders are still on horseback carrying lances charging down a straight path, but modern jousters target small rings hung several feet off the ground from arches, aiming to scoop them up with their poles.
“It’s become a sport of precision,” said Randall McGill, the president of the Amateur Jousting Club of Maryland. “The best of us can hit a half-inch-diameter target at 30 miles an hour on a horse. The smallest target [that we use] is a quarter inch, the size of a Life Saver [candy]. It’s a tradition of precision as an equine sport.”
Maryland’s Jousting Clubs and Rules
The AJC is one of several jousting groups in Maryland, along with the Eastern Shore Jousting Association, the Western Maryland Jousting Club, and the Maryland Jousting Tournament Association, which serves as the de facto umbrella organization for the state clubs.
The major selling point of the sport is the tournaments, where McGill said they’ll typically see about 25 to 40 entries across the multiple skill divisions people can compete in.
The skill divisions are Novice, Amateur, Semi-Pro, and Pro. The skill divisions have increasing requirements to successfully compete, with smaller ring sizes and time limits to finish in, the higher you advance.
The rules are simple.
Three rings are suspended on the arches at 20, 50 and 80 yards from the starting line on the track and each rider gets three rides down the track for nine attempts to spear the rings onto their lance.
Once every rider has had their opportunity, riders with the same number of rings will get another ride to secure gradually smaller rings until the tie is broken and a winner is crowned.
While all the Maryland jousting clubs are separate and hold several tournaments a year, the MJTA brings them together and helps organize tournament schedules and some other logistical items, according to McGill.
McGill added that the clubs try not to overlap tournament schedules every season, which typically runs from May to October, with fewer competitions during the height of summer for riders and horse safety.
“You could probably go to a jousting tournament somewhere in Maryland or Virginia any weekend of the summer, depending on how far you want to travel,” McGill said.
At the end of the season, the top riders from around the state will come to the Maryland State Championship Joust, which will be held on Oct. 4 in Crownsville, Maryland, in 2025.
The state tournament is followed by the National Jousting Championship on Oct. 11 in Knoxville, Maryland, which will bring in some of the top riders from around the country.
How to Get Started
People interested in jousting may have a hard time finding a starting point in their journey with the sport, as there is no standardized equipment and not much public coverage of jousting tournaments, plus few people have a horse they can bring to events.
Lances are typically homemade and around five to seven feet long, according to the MJTA website.
Horses are harder to come by, but McGill said that people will show beginners how to ride and compete and get them started at a tournament, which can be found within the comprehensive schedule on the MJTA website.
Maryland’s Jousting Culture
McGill said that the culture of jousting in the state is a warm and welcoming environment of people that love riding and competing while carrying on the state tradition.
He added that the atmosphere at events is typically relaxed and can be fun for the entire family, with adults helping to set up the activities for their kids who might be competing and family members coming to watch their loved ones compete.
McGill said the environment also isn’t toxic or hypercompetitive and people are supportive of their peers at tournaments.
“At a jousting tournament, everybody wants everybody else to do well. There’s congratulations all around when you do well. There’s never any sign of competitive anger. Everybody wishes everybody else good luck when you’re waiting your turn to go down the track. It is just a wonderful family organization of people that are passionate about the sport that want you to genuinely fall in love with it,” McGill said.
McGill said he got into jousting after learning to ride with his ex-wife, who owned horses. He heard about jousting tournaments, and it immediately sparked his interest because he had been completely unaware that it was a sport.
After competing for the first time, McGill said he fell in love with the sport and felt that it gave his riding a new purpose. It has been a community he’s greatly enjoyed being a part of.
“It’s a good place to be. It’s fun. It’s exciting. We do skits from time to time, like, I’ll dress up as Robin Hood. We’ll do a little skit where Robin Hood robs the rich man, and it’s candy in a bag and we hand it out to the kids that are watching. We will dress up in medieval garb to do a parade where the national anthem is played,” McGill said.
What McGill wants most is to promote the sport, its community and Maryland tradition to more people to get them engaged.
“We do [fun events] all the time, just to help promote the sport and expose people to the sport and see if they would be interested in continuing,” McGill said.