This is going to be my year!! Yes boys and girls, I hereby vow to do my best to get to the Cowboy Mounted Shooting World finals in 2013. I figure if I put it out there on the interwebs it has to come true, right? Anyway, here is my story.

I recently took up the sport of mounted shooting.  It was actually about a year ago that I took my first shot and ever since then, I have been hooked!  Mounted shooting involves horses and a closed course of 10 balloons. Contestents follow a course, shooting balloons with 45 caliber guns loaded with black powder blanks, causing the balloons to pop.  They have to wear cowboy clothing including hats, jeans, chinks, and long sleve cowboy shirts or period clothing.  Whoever makes it through the course with the lowest times, wins.  Penalties are assessed for missing a balloon, knocking over a barrel, losing your hat, or dropping your gun just to name a few.  Lowest score after all the penaties wins. Sounds like fun, right?  Well, it is.

Now, being that I am 56 years old, I compete in the Senior Ladies 1 Division.  That means I am one of the oldest, slowest, cowgirls in the arena. As you can imagine, the fame and glory for us old gals doesn't exist. All the glory, magazine covers, product endorsements, and autograph seekers go for the young cowgirls and cowboys that compete.  They are fast and pretty! Who wouldn't prefer them?  Hell, I prefer them!  But that doesn't mean that I don't need some motivation! Hence, this blog. Who can you cheer for if you can't cheer for yourself?  So, a warning. If you can't stand self promotion stop reading now. I'm a big believer in "if you say it, it will happen" so I'll be saying it.... a lot! 

This year I will be competing on two horses.  Drums Tough Kid aka Wiley, my 11 year old buckskin paint and Tisa Dream aka Dallas, Dreamer, Jr. D. or whatever. Dallas is a 7 year old paint that I've had for about 3 years.  I've had Wiley since he was six... He's a good boy and has taken me into the sport without killing me, which is always a good thing.  He's got a little buck in him, but never with me.  I just took him out of my backyard and started shooting off him. He took right to it... as long as I don't try to make him run too fast. He is not a fast pony. In fact, I think he is downright lazy.  Maybe he would even buck on me, but I think he thinks that would be just too much work. My trainer, Diane, says we can get him running faster... we'll see.  But we have been getting better.  When we started I had trouble with my guns and Wiley was a little reluctant.  If I got a score in the 50 second range, I was excited.  Now I'm getting down into the 20 - 30 second range.  I feel like I'm flying!  But, I'm not... I'm slow. But the relevant point remains that I am in the Sr. Ladies 1 Division... We're ALL slow!  That's the beauty of it.  I just have to be a little faster and more accurate with a bunch of other old ladies!  I can do that!  In fact, I watched the Sr. Ladies class at the 2012 Worlds last weekend... They were all slow. May I be so bold as to say I believe I can be a contender!  Next year.  Especially with my secret weapon.... Dallas!

Dallas and me have a history.  I bought him as a "project" right after I retired.  He was a project alright.  That project was a bolter.  He would run straight at a fence and take a sudden left turn, leaving me tangled in the fence. Three broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a concussion and a punctured lung later, I sent him to my trainer, Diane. She has made him into the perfect gentleman and me into a much better rider.  The thing about Dallas is he is faaaaast!  He will help me beat all those other, slower old ladies... All I need to do is hang on and shoot straight... right?  Not right.  Dallas needs to be introduced to shooting and due to the uptight city I live in and the bat crap crazy lady who lives near our equestrian center, I can't fire my gun often enough to get him used to it.  That is why, next week, Dallas is going to mounted shooting horse training with a world famous mounted shooter named Kendra! I'm hoping she will get him used to guns and running at the same time... and, of course, the all important stopping when we're supposed to.  This will be our story, hopefully cumulating at the 2012 Worlds!  Here we go!