O koniach i gawedach

Salve,
na Histmagu pojawiły się 'gawędy' autora mosci Jerzego M. P. o koniu polskim i o koniu husarskim - myślę sobie ze warto ustosunkować się będzie to tych gawęd pana autora -  nota bene autor tychże jest znanym odtwórca militariów, strojów a także rymarzem/siodlarzem - autorem siodeł i rzędów  na bazie staropolskich,  i koniarzem w długoletnim stażem, również autorem ciekawego artykułu o wydarzeniu kawaleryjskim  z Września 1939, pisarzem i badaczem-amatorem historii Podlasia(eg o kawalkatorze knyszyńskim), ale także dość krewkim dyskutantem na forach historycznych eg historycy.org, znanym z omijania materiałów źródłowych i 'chodzenia w zaparte', mimo właśnie tychże źródeł, jak i również autorem blogu, w którym niczym Kato starszy atakuje często i gęsto a bezpardonowo dorobek a przede wszystkim osobę dr. Radka Sikory.

Ad rem, wydaje mi się, ze od strony merytorycznej owe gawędy są słabiutkie. bo głównym zajęciem autora jest atak ad personam na dr. Radka Sikorę, autora wielu już książek i mnogich artykułów na tematy husarii staropolskiej oraz wojskowości staropolskiej.
Ten atak jest szczególnie silny w gawędzie o husarskim koniu, i niestety drastycznie obniża a wręcz niweluje wysiłek autora do tego żeby  podważyć używanie terminu koń husarski, terminu który często używa w swoich pracach popularnonaukowych  publikowanych na kresy.pl sam dr. Sikora.
Ergo, mam zamiar odnieść się do obydwu gawęd na lamach mojego blog, choć ta druga poddająca w wątpliwość istnienie konia husarskiego wręcz nakazuje 'zaszarżowanie' na argumentacje i przykłady zawarte w tekście 'gawędy.'
np napisałem już w komentarzu na Histmagu:

''wiele dziwnych rzeczy tu wypisał pan Autor, ale mnie szczególnie ciekawi ten akapit - ''Można przecież uznać, iż cała husarskość biegunów „husarskich” sprowadza się do dosiadania ich przez husarzy akurat.'' ? 
Czy mógłby ów świetny znawca tematu pan Autor rozwinąć myśl swoja, co można i jak uznać, żeby dojść do wniosku jak wyżej? 
Bo wydaje mi się, ze nie pisze tego pan Autor do czytelników-znawców miliardowy rycersko-husarskich, którzy mogą i rozumieją co oznacza dosiadanie konia przez członka formacji kawalerskiej zwanej husaria, a raczej do XXI-wiecznego pasjonata historii, który zazwyczaj nie ma pojęcia większego, co okrywało się [w formie treningu i szkolenia a selekcji] pod pojęciem konia bojowego husarii. Zwracam tez uwagę na drobny fakt, ze oprócz koni bojowych husarze dosiadali konie niebojowe będące częścią ich pocztu, czyli np podjezdki i rumaki paradne. O koniach podwodnych może innym razem. 
Cala gawęda raczej z tych, które zamiast rozjaśniać mroki naszej historii jeszcze szczelniej pokrywają te historia mrokiem, w ramach swojej prywaty i personalnych facecji. Ergo można sobie z czystym sumieniem oszczędzić czytania tych ad personam wypocin, zwłaszcza, ze autor swej tezy nie udowodnił ani trochę.''

Sygnalizuje wiec, moi mili, ze temat będzie podjęty na ostre , i mam nadziej, ze z Boza pomocą (jak mawiali nasi przodkowie) uda mi się zgrabnie przeprowadzić mój własny 'bardziej pełny' wywód w temacie.

Tymczasem pozdrawiam i dobrego weekendu życzę

Grunwald 2015 - some photos

Salve,
 I received two separate permissions from two photographers who were present this weekend at Grunwald to 'hang' some images from the reenactment on this blog - I am very grateful and much obliged!
Arkadiusz Rutkowski from Fundacja Bielik took these photos -
1.Polish king Wladyslaw Jagiellon, his cousin duke Witold and Zawisza Czarny z Garbowa, then the most famous and respected Polish knight
2. Teutonic Knights, including a female reenactor in the foreground

while Andrzej Kowalski took these great photos-
Polish King and his army

Teutonic Knights and their guests

note, that most reenactors come to this event without horses, and they mostly fight in full XV century armour while on foot, in the scorching heat of Polish July sun. I did not show here photos from the foot combat, showing hundreds and perhaps thousands of reenactors.
More photos at the Grunwald Museum page on Facebook

Nota bene 2 weeks earlier at the Golub-Dobrzyn Castle took place the 39th International Knightly Tournament,  started already in 1970s.
I like that castle a lot, it is in good repair and nicely situated, so even if there is no tournament or other reenactment this medieval and Renaissance monumental structure is worth your visit

Again, many thanks to Andrzej Kowalski and Arkadiusz Rutkowski for allowing me to 'publish' these Grunwald 2015 photos on my blog
enjoy
ps
Photos:
Arkadiusz Rutkowski copyright
Andrzej Kowalski copyright
PS"
more photos here - Joanna Wolska Photography & studio Darosz

Grunwald 2015

Salve,
past weekend another huge celebration-reenactment was held at the Grunwald Battle Museum in the 'gmina' Grunwald,  Poland, commemorating the famous battle of the Middle Ages, regarded as one of the largest battles of the period.

Prof. Piotr Nowakowski's book, with Andrej Klein's fantastic artwork, on the banners of the Teutonic Order is available at his page on academia website.

In Poland, UKraine, Bielorus etc this battle still draws artists to create more works reconstructing the battle, one of such artists is a Polish painter Stanislaw E. Bodes - here a little snippet into his Grunwald works.

The battle in Henryk Sienkiewicz's proze (1900 Basil Dahl  translation - via archive ):

enjoy

The Great Northern War Compendium

Salve,
I have already mentioned that I participated in a project on the military history of the Great Northern War.
I was asked to do some illustrations and even wrote one article devoted to the Polish pancerni cavalry of the period - article naturally geared towards the readers who do not have access to the Polish language materials.

The Historical Game Company, LLC will publish the Great Northern War Compendium  during the late summer/early fall 2015, it will be at least 2 volume compendium, full of scholarly articles, maps, illustrations et al. - shortly, a little gem to all who enjoy military history and wargaming - Kadrinazi published a list of authors on his blog, so if you interested do visit his excellent blog - :) .
The publishers maintain a Facebook page, where you can learn about the project and their authors.

I am very eager to see my 'stuff' published in this opus magnum, especially  since my name - ok, I gloating a bit - will be part of such an illustrious company of authors and artists.
Many thanks to Kadrinazi and Steve.

ps
above images copyright the publishers - THGC LLC

Roman cavesson

Salve,
time again I will return to my visit to Mainz archaeological museum, where I saw some surviving first class Roman cavalry harness.
They have on display two fragments of such cavessons as used by the Roman cavalry. I have seen a name 'psalion' used in the academic literature for this type of cavesson.
As usual the Comitatus website is a good place to start your reading on the Roman cavalry reconstruction and reenactment.

Roman military artifacts has some great photos of the cavessons used by the Romans.
Roman Coins page has some first rate images of the Roman cavalry harness and  armour.

 Finally, Roman Army Talk has a discussion on the Roman cavalry horse tack.
enjoy

Battle of Hattin 1187 reenactment

Salve,
I am a big fan of the Crusades, and have been reading and researching about that period of Medieval history.
Last July 4 was also yet another anniversary of the battle of Hattin AD 1187 -  it was the most tragic disaster for the Crusader states of the Holy Land et al.

 Modern view of the battlefield.

Dr Helena Shrader who has written many books on this period, wrote a blog entry on this battle that I quite like. Also  you can read her short stories about the most important companion of the medieval knight, his dextrarius or destrier stallion - the horse in question is Centurion, the mount of the famous knight of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Balian of Ibelin.

Ad rem, Salah Ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known as Saladin (Saudi Aramco has a long article on this ruler) and  the most famous Kurdish Muslim  warrior  of the Middle Ages, entrapped and then crushed the thirsty and demoralized army of the King of Jerusalem and his barons. After the battle 230 knights of the Templar and Hospitaller Orders were murdered by the scholars from the Saladin's entourage.
 'De re Militari' site has this article that includes four accounts of the disaster, from Christian and Muslim sides, including one by William of Tyre.

This year the battle was reenacted in Galilee, Israel, in its original surrounding. This article has some interesting photos from this daring reenactment
enjoy

Hipposandal

Salve,

this Spring I visited Mainz, the Roman Moguntiacum, and there at the Archaeological Museum they have some very interesting Roman artifacts, amongst them a hipposandal or Roman horseshoe - wiki gallery here.
Lunt Roman Fort has a blog, and there are some entries on the hipposandal.
here is my rather weak photo from Moguntiacum

enjoy

Happy Forth of July

Salve,
this Forth of July across the world Americans celebrate another anniversary of the famous Independence War and birth of the Nation - happy birthday Respublica!

And just yesterday was another anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the long and bloody Civil War.
Aside from the artillery and infantry struggle the cavalry battle was fought between the great American chevaliers  - Jeb Stuart and George Custer, (there were more great cavalrymen than these two, but they are the most recognizable) and this time Custer charging with 1st Michigan Brigade won . 
Gettysburg Cyclorama painted by a French artist Paul Philippoteaux, shows the famous Pickett Charge... Wikimedia Commons has some images from the painting

Battle reenactment is very strong and I hope it will stay this way.

Also, in the Polish history we just had the anniversary of the battle of Beresteczko AD 1651, fought during the civil war(Chmielnicki Rebellion) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and it is one of the greatest battles in the world history. Radoslaw Sikora wrote an interesting article about the numbers in this engagement

enjoy
ps
Don Troiani painted many fabulous paintings showing the Civil War battles, soldiers and horses -