Oh my gosh, I don’t even know where to begin!
Most of you probably already know that Kelly and I signed up super last minute for a “Beginner Mounted Shooting Clinic” that we attended on Saturday. It was advertised as no experience necessary for you or your horse, learn about the sport, learn how to prepare your horse, and last year everyone was shooting off their horses by the end of the ONE DAY clinic.
I obviously had my reservations because I RIDE SPUR. But I was also secretly super interested in mounted shooting and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to learn more. So off we went!
We started the day with our horses in pens near the arena and we sat in chairs as we were introduced to our instructor (Torrie Griggs), the ladies helping her with the clinic, and mounted shooting as a sport. Torrie spent some time explaining how the levels work (you start at a level one and work your way up to a level six by winning a certain number of events against a certain number of competitors, depending on what level you’re currently competing in) and then she moved on to showing us the equipment and gear – aka the guns.
Mounted shooters use 45 caliber single action revolvers modified for the sport with an “action job” and their ammo is black powder (there’s no kick or recoil!). The black powder can travel up to approximately 20-30 feet, but the ideal range for shooting the balloons is 8 to 12 feet and depends on a variety of things, including the wind speed and direction that day.
After our initial instruction, we all suited up with gun belts and holsters and one by one she had us come forward and shoot five balloons from left to right in the standing position.
Because you’re riding a horse when you’re shooting, you don’t shoot in the “standard” position. Instead, you stand square, arm extended, elbow locked, both eyes open and shoot one handed.
Once we were all comfortable with that, as well as loading and unloading our guns, we then shot a pattern of ten balloons while walking so we got used to both strong (shooting to the right) and cross (shooting to the left, across your body) shots as well as holstering your gun after the first five shots and pulling your second gun to get the next five shots. You also had to remember to act as if your left hand was holding your reins.
Mounted shooters carry two revolvers, and load five shots in each one. The patterns have you shoot five, holster one revolver and draw the second, and shoot five more.
All of this shooting was happening about 25 yards from where our horses were penned and not a single horse was struggling with the noise.
After lunch we saddled our horses and brought them into the arena in their halters. Two of the ladies helping with the clinic went to the other end of the arena and fired their guns a lot while we worked our horses on the ground on the other end of the arena. Torrie said it’s helpful for your horse to already be moving his feet when he’s being introduced to gunfire and as your horse got more comfortable with it, you could start bringing him closer to the center of the arena and closer to the gunfire.
Side note: Spur and I never left the far end of the arena because he insisted on bucking at the end of my lead rope pretty much the entire time. I firmly believe this was caused 25% by the gunfire and 75% by the rest of the stimuli he was being exposed to… the arena setting with other people and horses. I also think that had it just been him and I in that arena, I would have been able to progress further with him than I was able to on Saturday. I also have to give him some credit because although he was struggling BIG TIME, he never left me. He easily could have decided he wanted no part of this and yanked the rope from my hand (he’s a BIG DUDE!), but he always came back when he hit the end of the rope. He may have come back bucking, but he came back. Huge shoutout to the Andrea Equine 14ft lead ropes I use and love!
Anyway, as the other horses grew more comfortable, people started mounting them and riding them while the gunfire continued. Once everyone was moving around comfortably, they “posse’d up” and rode in a tight group, with the shooters a part of the group, and the gunfire continued but in much closer quarters. There is a video of this part below (do you spy Wrangler and Kelly?).
After that, people paired off, riding directly next to a shooter. Once everyone was comfortable with that, we took turns walking around the arena, shooting off our horses in the 4-5:00 position (so shooting straight out – not down – but toward the rear of our horses). We also shot straight up in the air.
At this point, I was lucky enough to be riding the instructor’s horse because Spur was a shooting school dropout. Kelly was able to get a few shots off of Wrangler before he had a little meltdown that seemed more due to the smoke of the gun and the mud in the arena.
After that, we progressed to shooting balloons!
Needless to say, we’re both hooked. I don’t think it would take much for Wrangler to get comfortable with shooting, it was just difficult to bring him back from a (fairly minor) meltdown in a clinic setting and not get in anyone else’s way.
I intend to continue exposing Spur to gunfire because he is going to need to be comfortable with me shooting off of him in case we are ever in a life or death situation. That old saying that “you can shoot off any horse once” is not what I want for me and Spur. I would like a chance at survival.
However, I know that Spur is not a horse I will be able to haul to events and compete on. It would be hell for us both, but it would be especially unfair to him. He does not have the disposition that would enjoy being around large groups of people like that. So… I’m going to be patient and wait for Ronnie.
One thing that all the instructor’s said was that there’s no rhyme or reason for a horse taking to gunfire or not. Some do, some don’t. Some can be acclimated to it, some never will. I think one of the reasons I’m most drawn to the sport is the amount of horsemanship involved… even at the top level, you don’t see horses racing into an arena, rearing and fighting the bit. You see controlled horses who love their job, run their pattern (there are like 40 different patterns!) and be calmly brought back down and out of the arena.
Anyway, all this to say… I can’t wait to jump in!
