Ladies' carousel

Women also took part in carousels, though very seldom in the actual course. A carousel at which the ladies of the royal family tilted at the ring, sitting in chariots, was held in Copenhagen in 1671. In "Des Galants Maures", a carousel which took place at Versailles in 1685, ladies on horseback took part in a competition of their own, and in Gustav III's divertissement "La Fête Diane" in 1778, the spectators were impressed by the sight of an Amazon on horseback who "fought like a man".

Usually women appeared as literary or allegorical figures in the tournament story lines, but during the 17th and 18th centuries there was a special form of carousel for women, viz the sleigh carousel. Ladies of the court in fantastically carved sleighs, often in the form of fabulous beasts or mussel shells would then race each other or compete at tilting at the ring. This type of carousel mainly occured in the courts of Northern Europe, where the climate was appropriate.

But there were ways of overcoming the lack of snow. In 1721, August the Strong had 2,000 cartloads of snow driven to Dresden for a sleigh carousel at his court. Sleigh carousels in Sweden were also used for outings on Lake Mälaren when it froze.