The 20 seconds or so Angie Pope is aboard her horse for a cowboy mounted shooting competition are like no other, she says.
“It’s a real adrenaline rush,” said Pope, 55, of the De Soto area. “There’s something about riding as fast as you can on a horse, and turning and shooting, that I can’t describe. I do have to remind myself before it starts to remember to breathe.”
Pope and her husband, Erik, 54, will be among the 85 or so contestants entered in the sport’s state championship for Missouri, which is set for July 16-18 at the Reflection Arena Event Center, 1500 David Manor off Hwy. 61, south of Festus.
Spectators are invited.
Competition will begin at 4 p.m. Friday, July 16; at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 17; and at 9 a.m. Sunday, July 18. The final day will be capped by an awards ceremony.
While there are entry fees to compete, spectators will be admitted for free.
The event is sponsored by the Big Irons Missouri group.
Both the Popes are members of the nonprofit group, and Erik Pope, a manager at Sheet Metal Contractors Inc. in
De Soto, serves as the organization’s vice president.
Angie Pope said the group was formed about 16 years ago and includes 82 members, quite a few of them Jefferson County residents.
How the sport works
For cowboy mounted shooting competitions, each rider is equipped with a pair of .45-caliber single-action revolvers in holsters. The rider is given a set pattern to direct his or her horse to follow – as rapidly as possible – while the rider shoots at balloon targets, the first five with one revolver and the next five with the other.
Speed, accuracy hitting the targets with blank ammunition and being able to stay on course are the keys. Time is added to a final score for failing to run the course correctly, dropping a gun or falling off your horse.
“You get five seconds for not hitting a balloon, so accuracy is probably a little more important than speed, but they’re both important,” Angie Pope said. “It’s a very challenging sport.”
She said it took her some time to get used to the weight of the guns.
“It was also tough to bring the hammer back each time while you’re also riding your horse,” she said.
Variations involve substituting the revolvers with shotguns and rifles.
The Popes
Pope, the personal property supervisor for the Jefferson County Assessor’s Office, said friends got her and her husband involved in the sport seven or eight years ago.
“We’ve been married for 33 years, and we’ve been involved with horses all that time,” she said. “We competed in rodeos, and when our daughter, Jessica (now 30), was young, she did the junior rodeo circuit – barrel racing, those kinds of things. We’ve been very involved in horses. But this is the most challenging sport I’ve ever done on a horse, and we’ve been blessed to do a lot of different things in our lives with horses.”
The couple own five horses on their small farm south of De Soto, two of which are ridden by the Popes in competitions.
“Not every horse can do this,” Angie Pope said. “A horse has to be quick and has to adapt quickly to what’s going on and, of course, doesn’t mind shooting going on around them. Quarter horses tend to be the best for their agility and quicker starting and stopping ability.
“It takes about a year to work with a horse and get them up to speed to compete,” she said.
Competitions, which are sanctioned by the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association, classify contestants by ability, with six classes for riders ages 16-49, and another six for those 50 and older. Women and men compete against each other.
“I’m a Level 3 senior, and Erik’s a Level 4 senior, so he’s one up on me,” Angie Pope said. “I can tell you, I never thought I wanted to turn 50, but when I did, it was nice not having to compete with people who are 16 years old. But there are plenty of good competitors at the senior level for sure.”
A separate division for children – wranglers, they’re called – allows youngsters to train for the sport by riding patterns with cap pistols. They also can shoot at the balloons with the same revolvers with blanks as the adults use, but while standing on the ground, with a parent at their side.
Both Popes have had their share of success, winning past state championships. Angie Pope captured a national championship in 2017 in Tunica, Miss., and both she and her husband qualified for the world competition that year held in Amarillo, Texas.
“We didn’t place, but it was an honor just to get there,” she said. “There were maybe 400 or more contestants there.”
She said she and her husband usually compete in 15 or 16 meets a year held around the Midwest and South.
“If you wanted to go, and you had the finances to, you could compete every weekend,” she said.
The Popes don’t compete against each other often, but it occurs occasionally, Angie Pope said.
“Neither one of us cares who wins, as long as at the end of the day, we get to cash a check for our winnings,” she said. “But I can tell you when it comes to this sport, there’s no whining around our house. Neither one of us wants to hear that something is just too hard. You just have to get up and do it. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Both the Popes’ jobs involve a lot of mental acuity, so cowboy mounted shooting is a respite from that, she said.
“I keep saying it’s challenging, and it is, but when you’re on that horse – 15 seconds, 20 seconds whatever – there’s no time to think. You have to go out there and know how to guide your horse through the pattern while shooting at the targets.”
Pope said there is no typical cowboy mounted shooting competitor.
“They come as young as 6 years old, and there are some competitors who are over 70 who are just phenomenal,” she said. “And this may surprise you, but it’s absolutely 50 percent women and 50 percent men.
“But what I would say is that No. 1, the competitors have a love of horses. It’s much more about horses than it is about guns, but of course, you’d have to be comfortable handling a gun.
“For me, I would never want to use a gun to kill an animal in my life, but I don’t mind shooting at balloons all day.”
For information about the state competition or the Big Irons group, call Mitchell Kramer, the match director, at 314-780-7704, or the arena at 314-501-0565.
Details also may be found on the Big Irons Missouri Facebook page or at smsaevents.com.