Sunday, January 4, 2009

Cowboys......Guns...........and Horses



I was going to post shift three in the horses finally getting out in the snow but since there was so much meltdown yesterday followed by freezing temperatures overnight, this place was not safe for high spirited horses to be getting their first taste of freedom since the big storms hit.

Instead I thought I'd do an informational post about an up and coming equestrian sport that I've had just a wee bit of exposure to over the last few years. Not that I've actually seen this sport but I've heard enough about it to be a bit curious. It is fast growing, not just in our country but across the world. AHA (the Arabian Horse Association) even did an article in their magazine The Modern Arabian Horse in their late summer edition. That sport would be Cowboy Mounted Shooting.

I have to admit when I first heard of this new sport at a Region 5 mini convention, I thought that it was just a few of the locals from eastern Washington getting together and goofing around a bit. I had no idea there was already a national organization,Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association or that the first organized competition had been back in 1992.

The AHA article The Ride to Bear Arms states new members are joining at the rate of about 5.5 per day. There are currently over 7,000 members. The organization needed to hire translators to field questions from such countries as Italy, Spain, Pakistan, New Brunswick, Iceland, Finland, China, Denmark, Switzerland and Holland with more new clubs forming in Canada, Sweden, Australia and Germany. Who knew? Certainly not me.

What I did know was onlybecause our mini convention hosted a luncheon that featured a fashion show with some selections suitable for the dress code for this sport as well as the usual horse show fare. That code consists of western wear from the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Also the revolvers used were in the style of the single action Colt revolver used by the cowboys of the old west. Contestants rode their horses over a timed, obstacle course where they shoot out balloons for score.

I can tell you the six page article in the AHA magazine had a whole lot more details than my first exposure. The informational video I've posted here explains about the sports and features a look at contestants riding actual courses.

Contestants have two, six guns loaded with five shots apeice. The weapons are carried in leather holsters. Riders have to be able to draw, empty one gun, holster it and draw the second weapon and empty that in the process of running their course. They are even beginning to have courses set up for contestants to fire rifles as well.

From the sounds of it this fast growing sport is worth looking into if you have a love of fast horses, guns and the old west. Mounted shooting affords the ability to combine these into an adventure designed to entertain the entire family.

There are divisions for beginners and old timers, youngsters and retirees and everything in between. Competitors compete for prizes at the shows. They also earn points that accumulate over the season for big prizes at the end........as their website says, points are important, you could win a Ford Truck!

The sport has its own magazine, Shoot! Magazine I found google listing for Mounted shooting lessons and training in Texas.

There is even a Hall of Fame So far only six horses have been inducted. One is an Arabian gelding, Witez Dynasty, inducted in 2001. The "beloved teammate and companion" of the founder, Frank Turben.

For more information on cowboy mounted shooting visit history Their major events in 2009 They also offer a stallion incentive program


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11 comments:

  1. I've heard of these! They'd be fun to go watch! I couldn't quick draw anything these days!
    And now...as I type, we are being buried in snow again! Are you sending it my way???

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  2. We went to a CMS competition in 07, in Elgin Oregon.. it was a lot of fun! and visiting with the horses adterwards was fun too. As I recall, there was some really good competitors there, one of them named Comanche, he was a cool horse!

    CMS would be something I'd be interested in competing in, if I acquired some good firearm skills.
    And if I could condition the horse I'd compete with to compete well in the competition.

    Also, I actually freaked out a bit thinking horses had been abducted! and then realized horses were not abducted but inducted into the hall of fame. And then I relaxed.. lol.

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  3. Now THIS sounds like a BLAST!!!

    Hmmm...hehehe.. I have the shooting skills... now we just need to start teaching Sonny how to be ready for something like that... ;)

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  4. I love this! I have been reading and watching it over the last year. Something else I would like to do. It looks like a lot fun and combining 2 of my favorite things! I know that this horses if you buy them say a finished shooting horse are well into the thousands!

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  5. That's a cool way to combine some different interests. I haven't ever seen mounted shooting, but I've seen mounted archery. That's pretty cool! We actually had a guy who does it professionally come from Holland to demonstrate at our barn. It's tough, because you need both hands to shoot while you are galloping past the targets. I'm not sure how much of an organized sport the archery is, but I'd be interested to know. Did you come across this in your research for this post?

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  6. That lady is AWESOME!! Megan and I watched her in some mounted shooting events in AZ. It was a lot of fun to walk around and look at the incredible outfits that people were sporting.

    LOL-Megan thought we ought to make up our own new sport at the ranch...mounted prairie dog shooting. One of the praire dog towns just happens to have grown up on either side of the road and we thought if we could get our horses trained, we could lope them down the road and shoot prairie dogs-hehehe...It never got past the joking about it stage though. It can take a lot to train a horse to handle being shot off of.

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  7. LOL funny that you do a post on this now. On the Ammy Army board
    http://theammyarmy.forumotion.com/

    There's a fella there that does this. I've been asking him about it for quite a while now. There's also a guy on the mustang board that's looking into this.

    I think it would be a blast to do. I'm looking into a local chapter right now. :)

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  8. WOW factor, well, I never could quick dram much so you'd still be a head of me.

    I'm afraid the snow must be coming from this direction but it's not ME sending it. If I had THAT kind of control it would be 70° here all the time and it would only rain during the night. What a dream that would be....LOL

    Kim, it does look like it would be fun to watch and maybe to particpate in but with co-ordination I'd probably shoot my foot, or worse yet, my horse.

    As for the abductions....that's what I get for late night posting. I was really tired from no sleep the night before. I knew it didn't look right but couldn't figure out why, so I just left it. LOL Bev emailed me so I fixed it but not before you got to it!

    Mrs Mom, I figured this would be right up your alley!. You never know Sonny might really take to this.

    kwdhorses, that doesn't surprise me, that finished shooting horses would be expensive. But then finished horses with any kind of special skills seem to be that way.

    Jackie, I did not see anything on archery when I did my research, sorry, but that does sound intersting. The riding shooting horses would be a one handed skill except for those advancing into the rifle stuff they are beginning to add. That would definitely be no-handed too. It would be fun to watch any of this stuff.

    BrownEyed Cowgirls, I'll bet it would be fun to watch. The outfits at the fashion show were pretty amazing.

    Somehow I can see the prairie dog shooting after having seen some of those prairie dog towns when I was in Colorado. They were even on vacant lots in the middle of Denver. LOL

    LOC, I have great timing, don't ya think! LOL

    I'll have to check out some of the boards. It would be fun to see some in our area.

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  9. MiKael, I'm right there with ya, on the 70 degree weather, and rain only during the night. That way our gardens, plants and grass gets watered, but we'd never have to deal with it! lol. Like the sun came out a couple days ago, warming things up, melting the snow away, and I was thinking we were done with cold weather and snow, but then the sun went away, it started to rain, then it got cold enough to snow! if it wasn't as cold, it would be rain, but since it got so cold again, it's converted back to snow again! Where did my sunshine go?

    I guess late night posting is more dangerous than we think! lol.

    But I think our coordination would be good enough to point our guns in the right direction, but I wonder if our coordination would be good enough for us to shoot our guns at the right second to shoot the balloons lol.. it's like dance dance revolution, have to step on the right one as the one on the screen. Now that definitely takes a lot of brain and foot coordination.. and a lot of practice.. so I'm definitely no pro at it.. it's been years since I've played it.

    This game is fun, but you play with the keyboard and the numbers 2 4 8 and 6, and with a dancing goat, it's a lot of fun, but takes a lot of coordination too!

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  10. How interesting, I'd never heard of this sport. Honestly, I think it looks like a lot of fun. (But then I grew up on a farm in a gun-totin family). It is great how the young lady keeps stressing how important gun safety is as the most important message during her narration.

    I love the lady in the red salon dress - what fun!

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  11. I have seen this event twice when I have been shooting other shows at big equestrian parks that host more than one horse show at a time. Unfortunatley it was under an open sided covered arena both times and I didnt get any very good shots but will try to dig some up and post them on my blog. It looks like a lot of fun. Unfortunately as I was the designated photographer for another show on both occasions I couldnt spend much time getting to know more as I was needed at my "post".

    Sorry about the weather, I saw it coming in when I watched the weather forecast and cringed for you, it has been a crazy winter.

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