This woman lives in a castle, breeds baroque horses and carries a very big stick

Mieka Leitch first picked up a 12-foot-long wooden lance aged nine, and by 16 she was jousting on the back of Friesian stallions. 

❓What happened: Leitch, 24, was raised and still lives at Kryal Castle with her family, where she works caring for castle animals and jousting in replica 15th century German armour. 

Her father, Phillip, has worked as operations manager at the castle for most of her life. 

The role of a knight: A jousting tournament involves two knights in full armour charging at one another on a track called a list, with 12-foot long pieces of wood - the lances - aimed at the opponent's shield. 

Leitch told the Brolga the knights begin the joust 50 metres apart before entering “full tilt”, meaning full speed with lance in position. The horses move at anything from a canter (about 20km/h) to a gallop (about 50km/h).

🗣️: “When I first started, I had a really bad habit of closing my eyes,” she said with a laugh, “but obviously you’ve got to focus and hit the opponent’s shield. It can be hard to get used to. You never know what you’re going to get - no wood is going to break the same.” 

Getting the gauntlet: Leitch said the first requirement to become a jouster was to be a confident horse rider.  

🗣️: “Your vision and your movement is very limited, so it requires a lot of trust in the horse,” she said. 

The armour weighs up to 30kg and wearing it, Leitch said, “is a skill in itself. You’re using muscles you didn’t know you had”. 

One of her sources of inspiration is the 2001 film A Knight’s Tale, and she said it had become somewhat of a tradition for competitors to watch it the night before a tournament. 

Reaching full tilt: Leitch said jousting is "continuously growing” as renaissance fairs increase in popularity. 

🗣️: “It’s becoming the new thing, like dressing up in medieval kit with your friends. It’s like the new festivals. It’s becoming cool to be a nerd.” 

A family affair: Leitch’s family breed jousting horses, using Phillip’s Friesian stallion Valiant. They also breed Andalusians. 

Baroque breeds are common in jousting, and were favoured by royalty in the Middle Ages. 

• Friesian horses are ebony black, with flowing manes and feathered hair on their legs. 

• Andalusians, equally recognisable, have arched necks. 

Leitch said Valiant often jousts against his own offspring in the arena. Much to the crowd’s delight, she said she once surprised her father in a tournament by riding out on a son of Valiant.

The family has had Valiant for almost two decades. 

Equal knights: Leitch said on occasion, male knights don’t go as hard on female opponents due to an assumption they won’t be strong enough, “but they’ve all been proven wrong”. 

Kryal Castle is hosting an Australian championship event in August, and an all-female event in October dubbed the Iron Maiden Tournament.