On Saturday Michael and I spent the day with the Peach State Mounted Shooters Association at one of their competitions. We were there to watch Michael’s friend Ron compete and we had a wonderful day with he and Nina and we so enjoyed watching the fantastic competition.
This is how the competition works……
A series of poles and balloons are laid out in the arena in a specific pattern. The shooters ride their horse into the arena. They shoot five balloons with their first gun, then switch to a second gun and shoot another five balloons.
The contest winners are based on time with a 5 second penalty being added for each balloon that is missed, procedural error when the pattern isn’t shot in the right order or when a or a gun is dropped.
Here is a short video of Ron making his best run of the day….this time using a pistol for the first 5 balloons and switching to a rifle for the last five. Notice that he is not even holding the reins on the final run…..
It was a wonderful day full of horses…….
Cowboys in full costume……..
Guns…….
Greasy food……..
And FANTASTIC shooting……
I was also encouraged to see that people other than quilter’s bring along a LOT of paraphernalia…..
And each with their own personality ……
I loved that everything was pink….even the rake for the stall…
They start their riders early……
….and dont kid yourself….this little girl knew how to ride. She always had someone walking beside her but she knew how to control the horse all by herself.
One of the coolest things of the day was when a young boy with developmental challenges was led into the arena. He happily rode on his horse and shot at the balloons with his toy gun. After each shot he would raise his gun in celebration!!!
It was a wonderful day!!!!