over here tilting is jousting.
Definition of TILT
noun:
a : a contest on horseback in which two combatants charging with lances or similar weapons try to unhorse each other :
b : a tournament of tilts
tilting at rings was a later use of the term.
prior use was synonymous with jousting.
first used in 1594.
Tilting at rings, and the Carasel games were brought about as jousting fell from favor.
Ah Americans .. Tilting was a training exercise for fighting and jousting, it wasn't brought in 'later' though perhaps in the US at your Renaissance fairs? 'Tilting' at rings and the quintain were ways to practice. Most castles had a tilt yard where the men would practice, the three castles close to me did, all Norman. The Royal Armouries have a huge amount of information on fighting and training as well as genuine armour and arms from the 11th century through to the 17th. They also have a tilt yard.
The ātiltā is the barrier between the two opposing jousters ā this could be a solid fence, length of fabric or wooden rail. The ācounter tiltā was usually shorter than the tilt and was a barrier which defines the boundary of the lane down which jousters could canter. Again, this did not necessarily need to be a solid structure and could just have been some rope with fabric over the top.
Jousts replaced melees which proved to be costly as deaths would often occur so jousting considered somewhat safer was introduced. Infor from Royal Armouries and Middleham Castle historian (and a bit from the Household Calvary riding instructor who lives just down the road and wears armour on horseback for real but who is also an authority on fighting from horseback through the ages)
joust | Definition of joust in English by Oxford Dictionaries