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Here is a new event: shooting guns while riding a speeding horse. Whoa Doggies, sounds like a winner.
"DENVER — Mike Parsons held his two pistols under the hand dryer in a public restroom before competing in the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association’s debut last Sunday at the National Western Stock Show.
Denver police had asked competitors to keep their Old West-style .45-caliber single-action revolvers under lock and key — even though competitors shoot just black powder blanks.
The Berthoud resident hoped to get his revolvers warmed up under the dryer after fetching them from his car trunk on a day that closed with subzero temperatures.
One of his guns malfunctioned anyway during his second-round ride on Querida — his 13-year-old paint mare named “Sweetheart†in Spanish.
So, the event’s $1,000-plus purse and four buckles went to other riders.
Despite his frustrations, Parsons, 46, will be back.
Established in 1994 to re-enact gunslinging during the 1800s, the CMSA won a spot this year at the 105-year-old Stock Show for its growing appeal among folks such as Parsons and his wife, Elizabeth “Eli†Parsons, 35.
“I said, ‘Hey! That sounds like fun — guns and horses and speed. Let’s go!’†Mike Parsons said of his competitive foray in 2008 after attending a CMSA-sponsored clinic in Greeley.
During events, called “shoots,†a rider gallops a horse through a course of 10 poles and fires at the colorful balloon fixed to each one. The blast from the revolvers can pop a balloon up to 15 feet away.
A draw determines which pattern of the 50-plus variations available will test the horse and rider’s ability to make sharp turns and accelerate while the rider shoots at the first five balloon targets.
The last five balloons always follow the same pattern, called the “rundown,†to allow the horse and rider a stretch of forward motion with targets set at 36-foot intervals.
Riders, some dressed in vintage clothing, compete against the clock and get 5 seconds added to their time for every missed balloon or for dropping a gun.
All riders in the men’s, women’s and senior divisions enter the sport in class level one and progress to the next level after winning once at level one, twice at level two, three times at level three, etc.
Only about 50 riders compete at the sport’s top spot, level six.
The Parsonses both compete at level two.
“It’s just as competitive as the barrel racing event. It can come down to hundredths of seconds,†Mike Parsons said.
As owners of Your Entremanure, a Berthoud manure removal business that takes the livestock byproduct to composting sites along the Front Range, this couple spends lots of time around people steeped in a Western way of life.
Attending CMSA events, occasionally even those held out of state, tightened their sense of this community.
“The people are so friendly. They chip in to watch our three kids. And if you don’t ask (for baby-sitting help during events), you get in trouble over it,†Eli Parsons said Sunday, after being eliminated from the first round in the women’s division.
“But it is competitive. Some say it under their breath. Some say it out loud, but there’s cussing every time someone misses a balloon.â€
