The best way to becoming a knight was to start at early age. At a young age of about 7, boys were often sent to another castle as a page serving a family and learning how to behave. In the yard, a soldier taught the young boys to fight using wooden or blunted weapons. A page's first horse was wooden and had wheels on it. The boys learned to joust on it. A growing page learned to ride skillfully on a real horse. He would then learn to charge at a quintain which was a wooden target. This target was sometimes designed to spin around and knock him down if he was clumsy or slow. At around his fourteen years of age the page became a squire, his job was to help a knight and battle at his side. After four years of experiencing battles and being at war a new knight would be dubbed. The squire would go through a vigil before the ceremony which was a night of prayers. Swords

and gilt spurs could, from that moment, be used as a symbol of knighthood.