EAGLE POINT, Ore.– A newly formed organization is bringing a bit of the Old Wild West to southern Oregon. Strapping on saddles, loading guns, and mounting up, this mounted shooters club is capturing a bit of the feeling of being a cowboy for young and old.
Located at the Salt Creek Arena in Eagle Point, the growing sport of mounted shooting is expanding with the formation of the State of Jefferson Mounted Shooters club. Once associated with Oregon Mounted Shooters Association in Portland, the members in southern Oregon decided to form their own group but still remain tied to the national organization, Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association.
This sport isn’t just about shooting a gun. While it has been shaped by the romance of the Wild West and legends like Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid and Buffalo Bill, for the sake of safety, real bullets aren’t used. Instead, the club makes their own black powder blanks which when fired burns the powder and causes the balloons to pop. No projectiles at all.
Besides that, the main focus is keeping the tradition alive and sharing a bond with each other and the horse you’re riding with.
“The big part of it is the people,” said Rob Boucher, a member who came down from Eugene. “I would have loved to have started this sport when I was about 20 years old. But I actually started it at about 60 years old.”
Riders take a lot of time to train their horses and prepare them for competitions. Boucher says some horses can’t handle the gunshots and are not eligible for the sport. But those that can are made sure they’re kept in perfect shape and even given earplugs to protect their hearing.
“We ask them to go full speed and make turns at the same time we’re shooting off of them and putting all this pressure on them,” said Boucher.
Even still – horses are large beats and accidents can happen such as being bucked from your saddle.
“Horses will get a sore back just like we do and then we go out and we don’t buck but we might limp around,” said Boucher. “Like I said we have to keep our horses in tremendous shape.”
It’s a different kind of rush for thrills seekers – and in this sport, it speaks to young and old. Twenty-two year old Halie Walker from Central Point joined the sport in 2018.
“I’m an adrenaline junkie so this stuff is – I love it,” she said.
Walker has been riding horses all her life and like several other girls in the club, found her way to the sport after barrel racing. Walker credits her move to the sport thanks to club president Dan Raybould who convinced her to try it out. She instantly fell in love.
“Mounted shooting, everyone is your friend,” said Walker. “You go to a shoot and people come up and introduce yourself that you don’t even know and you meet people from across the country.”
Walker has already competed in several competitions and placed for her efforts. It’s still a male-dominated sport with a culture to boot but Walker says there are many famous female mounted shooters that help push her to be her best in the sport.
“For me, it’s like the more guys that I can beat, I think it’s awesome,” she said. “It’s kind of a goal.”
The community is what keeps these riders coming back again and again. Tradition in hand, it’s a love for a simpler time and freedom found with the rush of the wind and dust in your wake. As Boucher would say, “the cowboy way is a good way!”
The club says it’s expanding its membership to anyone from Eugene to Siskiyou County, California. Members from the club will be competing in the Oregon State Shoot at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond this weekend and will be open to the public.
*This story has been updated to describe the type of explosives are used for the sport
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