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Having experienced such a packed season in 2007, and realised many of his jousting ambitions - how could he top jousting at the Tower of London? - Graham decided to take a sabbatical in 2008 to concentrate on family, painting, and bringing on his recently acquired horse, Magic.

That was before he received a phone call inviting him to joust at the Historisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland, as part of their major exhibition on Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy! How could he turn down such an opportunity?

Central to the event was Dr Tobias Capwell, curator of arms and armour at the Wallace Collection in London, who famously combines his academic studies with a ferocious reputation in the lists.

Two weeks of jousting - 21 shows - tested the team of four jousters, their armour and their squires to the limit, but they all came out of it in one piece, just about, and Graham probably did more jousting in his year off - at one event - than he would usually do in a season!

CLICK HERE to see more photos from the Tournament at the Historisches Museum in Bern.

Above: Not something you expect to see in the countyside! Graham out for a hack with daughter, Georgina, as part of Magic's armour acclimatisation programme. Once he'd accepted being ridden, he took to armour and all the paraphernalia of jousting very well.

Graham bought his own horse in September 2007, with the intention of training him to joust and build a partnership that is not possible when you're jousting on other people's horses. Magic, a Friesian/Gelderlander cross with a 'quirky' personality that immediately appealed to Graham, had been used for driving but was also backed for riding - supposedly!

It didn't take long for Magic's objections to having someone sitting on his back to surface (usually by bucking and squeeling), and Graham found the following months a very steep learning curve as he tried to get to the bottom of the problem. Having been through many dark days, being bucked off and almost despairing that he'd never make a riding horse, let alone a jouster, Graham's patience, perseverence and optimistic belief (bloody mindedness!) finally paid off; Magic took part in two low key Destrier jousts in 2009, before acquitting himself extremely well at one of the most intense events on the calendar, the Queen's Golden Jubilee Joust at the Royal Armouries (more on all this on the next page).

Left: Magic's first Destrier training session at Tournament Stud.

Graham has always considered the two major tournaments held at the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds to be the pinnacle of the sport of full plate armour jousting, for while it may not have the historic and evocative setting of, say, the Tower of London, the Armouries is the home of one of the greatest collections of arms and armour in the world, and the Sword of Honour team joust at Easter and the Queen's Golden Jubilee individual jousts in August are two of the most competitive tournaments on the calendar.

He was naturally delighted and honoured to be invited to be part of the Destrier team at Easter, and they came so near to victory, just losing out to the title holders, the Order of the Crescent, by a couple of points in the final.

Although Magic had progressed well in training over the winter months, and actually jousted at Tournament Stud, Graham didn't think that throwing him in at the deep end at an event of this intensity would do him any good at all, especially as it was Graham's debut at this level too, so he arranged to ride one of (supplier and trainer of many of the horses taking part in the event) Mark Atkinson's mounts, Tino - short for Valentino - a very capable dun gelding with a background in the world of trick riding.

Above - Graham scores a maximum with a good lance break against Jeffrey Hedgecock of the Order of the Crescent Team.