64-year-old Gene Martino has seen and done many different things in life. The Lafayette United Methodist reverend has lived in places around the world — which led to him having the opportunity to learn how to become a world class jouster.
“I’ve been jousting since 2022,” said Martino. “Our family enjoys going to Renaissance festivals, and while we lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, our son got a part time job with the jousting troupe at the Scarborough Fair Renaissance Festival in 2002. He began working as a Squire, and we started going down and hanging out in the backstage areas and watching everything going on.”
Martino said being backstage and privy to things firsthand got him even more interested in everything going on.
“I would often find myself helping out when they were short-handed,” said Martino. “The guy that owned the troupe actually lives in Westmoreland, Tennessee. One day we were working on a piece of steel, and the next day while helping him fix something, he had me get up on a horse. He invited me and my son to his farm here in Tennessee to teach us how to ride and do what we now do.”
Martino lost his position at his church in Texas due to the economy.
“I couldn’t get an appointment at any other churches,” said Martino. “So my son and I came out to Tennessee to take Roy up on his offer. We went back to Texas and packed up, and I met with Roy in Canada, and that’s when I started jousting.”
“I started up in Canada, then we moved on to Maryland, Texas, Florida and so on,” said Martino. “I ended up going back to the church in 2008 when I took a position in Gallatin. I have been in ministry since 1978.”
Martino is now the Pastor at Lafayette United Methodist Church at 506 Bratton Ave.
“Getting back to the jousting, my wife runs the ground crew,” said Martino. “They are responsible for picking the broken pieces and people up off the ground. People often have the misconception that jousting is choreographed, but what we do is 100% real. What happens out
there in the arena, happens. If I take a spear or sword and knock someone or something down, that’s just part of it. The same could happen to me anytime as well.”
Martino says they train for competition and every show they do is training.
“We will be at this year’s Tennessee Renaissance Fair in Arrington, Tennessee,” he said. “This year
will also more than likely be my last for jousting. Between
neck and back injuries and shoulder repair to knee replacement, I think it’s time. I will still help with the horses and training for the new people that come along.”
and his wife love the horses and working with them, and that is what it has come down to for him — the relationship between the rider and the horse.
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