Ride-by shooting
Cowboy mounted shooting to be showcased at this year’s Cape Breton County Farmer’s Exhibition
Cowboy mounted shooting coming to Cape Breton County Farmers Exhibition.
Cowboy mounted shooting, an exciting combination of horsemanship and marksmanship, will be featured at the 100th anniversary of the Cape Breton County Farmer’s Exhibition in August.
Cowboy mounted shooting is a timed event where contestants compete using two .45-caliber, single-action revolvers, each loaded with blanks.
“I met Jim Rogers, the guy who founded the sport and it was like meeting Jacques Cousteau,” said Ken Jardine, who is relatively new to riding horses, but has had a long career as a scuba diver. “My wife Jean and I were at the quarter horse congress in the United States a few years back and I saw these people walking by carrying guns and wearing cowboy gear.
“I thought they were shooting a movie. That was the first time I witnessed cowboy mounted shooting and I was totally hooked.”
Since that time Jardine and Gary Latimer founded the Highland Highwaymen Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association.
“It’s the fastest growing equine sport in the world. If you can ride a horse, you can compete. Before this the most exciting horse racing I ever saw was barrel racing and pole bending,” he said. “This is like barrels and poles on steroids. In mounted shooting there are 60 different patterns and you can run every pattern about four different ways.”
Jardine has been shooting for about three years, primarily in the United States.
“It’s all through the states and half of Canada,” he said. “It’s amazing how many people are into horses, but once you see this you can’t help but be hooked.”
The object of the sport is to shoot 10 balloon targets while riding through a variety of challenging courses using specially loaded blank cartridges fired from Old West style single-action pistols. It is a high-speed, timed spectator sport and the competitor who rides the fastest with the least amount of missed targets wins.
“We are doing a clinic on Aug, 5, 6 and 7 at the Cape Breton Exhibition Grounds in North Sydney and that will give folks a really good look at the sport,” said Jardine, who competes at the senior level two, along with his wife, champion barrel racer Jean Dugas.
Along with horsemanship, speed and accuracy, the couple loves the idea of dressing up in Western period costumes from the 1870s.
“Our association has a sponsor, Hnariuk’s Outdoors, located on the mainland, which takes care of gun safety training for the province, and looks after our insurance, which is the only way we could operate,” he said. “Even though we shoot blanks, you have to have both the possession and restricted firearms courses to belong to the association.”
Last year the association did four demonstrations across the province, two of which were for the RCMP Musical Ride.
“This year we are doing 10 all over Nova Scotia, and two clinics,” he said. “This is an engaging sport that is exciting to watch. Every time you go into that ring it’s you, your horse and the timer.”