Mounted Combat and Precision Horsemanship

Not too long ago, a couple of friends and I were discussing one of our more energetic and curious pastimes: medieval mounted sword combat. They were opining that everything one learns in ground-based martial arts regarding how to swing a sword has to be changed for mounted combat because the torso and hip movement unavoidably confuses the horse and he winds up shouldering-in or spinning or something when you least want him to.

I haven't been doing the whack from horseback that long--Jack and I have been working on it off-and-on for about two years now and just authorized SCA heavy mounted combat in Sacramento last summer. However it's been enough that I think we have a comfort level with most of it. (Except the charging down strange horses part. We're still working on that.  I have a greater appreciation for the aplomb of polo ponies now.)

I don't even notice any issues with inadvertent cuing while trying to integrate effective swordwork with riding almost entirely from my seat... and as a lifelong fighter, I'm not sure I know how to not "uncork from the hip"--Even when swinging "light". Control and precision comes from the hip, not the arm and shoulder, so the swing is always a whole-body effort even when contact is zero.

My explanation for why this is a nonissue when riding is pretty simple: Jack can tell the difference between when I'm asking for something and when I'm not. We've done this often enough together, and done related things like roping, jousting, fidgiting, etc. that he's learned to distinguish movements that are cues from movements that are "noise".

This isn't magic. A common example of this level of discrimination in other aspects of horsemanship: Asking your horse to back up from the ground by just closing your hand around his halter lead under his chin versus asking him to lower his head for bridling by a very similar motion but with a different feel. Horses very quickly learn to distinguish between these.

If you're not sure you believe this, ask yourself the following question: "How does your horse know, if you approach his butt from the side, when he's supposed to stand quietly and let you futz with his back girth and when he's supposed to be already swinging his hindquarters away from you and getting out of your way?" In the case of our horses, they can tell because there is a different feel in the way we approach and even though a tiny distinction, it's more than they need to be able to figure out what's going on.