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Riders aren't wearing suits of armor and the goal isn't ousting an opponent from their saddle.

Yet the sport of jousting, the official sport of Maryland, has changed little from the medieval times when it started to the Tuesday afternoon demonstration at The Great Frederick Fair. Riders dubbed knights and maids, in jeans and English riding gear, captured tiny rings with lances made of rake handles, broomsticks, even pool cues.

"We put on a number of jousts throughout the year," said Jefferson resident Leon Enfield, who started jousting at 14 and stopped this year at 76. "Some years ago we got together with the fair board and started to do this exhibition."

Around 100 people scattered the grandstand, taking shelter from the rain as they viewed the demonstration, as a variety of riders, with different sized and breeds of horses took to the track.

Three "arches," wide enough for horse and rider to go under, were lined up, with small, white rings hanging in the center. Rings vary in size, determined by the skill level of a jouster, from 1 ¾ inch to quarter inch ring. "The same size of a lifesaver," Enfield said.

Craig Minnick, a 24-year-old Middletown resident has been jousting since he was 5 years old. Before the exhibition started Tuesday afternoon he held a horse as brother Corey, a farrier, shoed it.

Though he's been involved in the family sport a long time (Enfield is his grandfather), his reason for continued participation is simple. "I really enjoy it," he said, saying he hadn't won a tournament in a while. "I just like riding."

When competing, competitors raise in the stirrups, with ideally only their feet, side of their lower legs and left hand holding the horse. "That's the biggest thing, is getting out of the saddle," he said. The goal is to have the least amount of movement for the upper body.

Jousters range in age. Enfield's granddaughter Marley Enfield, now 11, started when almost 3, brother Bradley, now 14, started at 5.

"Everyone starts as a novice," said mom Dawn Enfield. "No matter what age you are, no matter what sex you are." Ranks are novice, amateur, semi-pro and pro and riders are separated on skill level and nothing else.

Bradley, a freshman at Boonsboro High School, also plays basketball and baseball. He likes jousting as well because he said it "keeps him busy."

The family has a track at their Keedysville home. "That was one of the first things my husband did when we moved in," Dawn Enfield laughed. "…Wouldn't have bought it if there wasn't room."

The usual jousting competition schedule runs from May to October.

The measurements are strictly enforced: the rings hang at 6 feet 9 inches, the track is 80 yards long and certain ranks are required to complete the run in nine seconds in Maryland.

A culture has built up around modern jousting, and Minnick grew up with many involved, though he said in the last 10 years the sport has seemed to dwindle.

But newcomers still arrive, as evidenced by Heidi Hallein and Mike Myers of Middletown. The couple was looking for something to do with their horses in the summertime, and just began jousting this year.