Mounted Shooting Demo at 4 Winds

 

As part of the fun Equine Game Day, my friend Colleen invited a friend of hers over to 4 Winds to do a demo on Cowboy Mounted Shooting, and to also gauge interest in doing some future Mounted Shooting Clinics there at 4 Winds, too.

Ta-Willow Romero is a World Champion Cowgirl. She is also the End of Trail SASS Mounted Ladies World Champion and the New Mexico SASS Regional Mounted Overall Champion, a category that includes men as well as women.

Ten years ago, Romero moved to a remote ranch several miles west of Estancia, NM, not far from where I live. She had been involved in horse sports for a long time and she decided 4 years ago to take up Cowboy Mounted Shooting.

This is her favorite mounted shooting horse, Dually. She acquired him as a baby 18 years ago. He sure knows his stuff….and for an 18 year old horse is still as fast as lightning and brings her the buckles!

Shooters in the sport use replicas of late 1800s Wild West single-action six-shooters. Romero's favorite model is a Cimarron, a replica of an old Colt pistol, but competitors can use other brands.

For safety reasons, shooters start out with one empty chamber in each gun; the other five chambers contain bullets. In competition, they shoot at a total of 10 balloon targets — five with the first gun, five with the second.

The cartridges are .45 caliber Long Colts, loaded with black powder like that used in the 19th century. The blank will burst a balloon up to 15 feet; live rounds are strictly prohibited.

 

Ta-Willow let everyone handle her guns and bullets and then showed us the special ear plugs that horses wear to muffle the sounds of the shooting. Dually made the perfect model.

Cowboy Mounted Shooting is structured on six levels. Like all beginners, Romero had to start at Level 1. She has now reached Level 3. To progress, participants have to win a certain number of competitions and beat a certain number of rivals.

 

Ta-Willow ran several rounds showing us how fast and accurate you and your horse have to be in Mounted Shooting.

 

 Man! These two were fast! I had to be quick with my camera and set up shots before they even happened, by setting up my camera where I knew they would be, a few seconds later!

 

Here are some of the spent bullet casings.

 

Then Ta-Willow brought a new horse she had worked with for a few weeks. That horse sure did compliment Ta-Willow’s flashy, blingy cowgirl outfit and tack.

Speaking of which, Ta-Willow makes most of her cowgirl clothing and tack, including her chinks.

 

This horse is stilling learning the Mounted Shooting ropes, and while he did pretty darn good, she had to take a few minutes to school him during the demo, which was pretty cool to watch. It was like auditing a clinic.

(Over behind Ta-Willow, is my friend Karen with her horse Rio. She was desensitizing him to gunshots close-up…..more on that later)

 

This gal really knows how to ride, and it was awesome to see how she handled this horse’s confusion or naughtiness. She was always calm and all about teaching the horse and sticking with it until he got it.

 

I crawled back underneath the awning when the heat got unbearable, and was thrilled to visit with my friend Allison and her adorable little cowpoke.

 

After Ta-Willow’s demo, she invited anyone who wanted to, to come out and learn some of the basics of Cowboy Mounted Shooting.

 

It was much easier for me to shoot photos of these beginners, because the fastest anyone rode was at a trot.

 

My friend Linda getting the low-down.  

 

I didn’t get anymore photos of Linda shooting the balloons because I had walked over to Apache’s pen and brought her over to the arena, so I could desensitize Apache to gunshot, like my friend Karen was doing with Rio.

Apache raised her head and flinched the first time the gun went off, but after the first couple times of pop-pop-pop of the gun, Apache basically went to sleep.

 

My friend Dita is a retired police officer, so she was in her element.

 

And all that police training paid off, because she didn’t miss a shot!

 

My friend Allison boards her horses at 4 Winds, and after she saw Karen and I with our horses, on the edge of the arena, she went and got one of hers to see how he’d do with the gunshots.

 

On the other side of me was Karen and Rio…and after Rio calmed down from spooking at the gunshots, I thought it would be perfect timing to ask them to pose for a photo. Isn’t this sweet?

 A couple more people tried their hand at Cowboy Mounted Shooting….

 

And while I took photos of them shooting…………. Apache slept.

 

Next up: Boulder Holder Treasure Hunt!!!