Mounted Justice Shooters Wrap up 2011 Season
by
Katz Jackson

It’s over! The last shoot of Mounted Justice’s (MJ) Cowboy Mounted Shooting Club took place the weekend of October 8-9 at Heartland Stables in Custer, WI. A total of thirty-five Pistol shooters participated in the final event of the year for our club, along with eleven Rifle shooters. It turned out to be a perfect weekend weather wise, with warm temperatures and clear skies throughout the two-day event. Overall, it finished off a great year, where several clinics were offered for new shooters and a total of nineteen shoots were successfully carried out. Only one had to be cancelled due to inclement weather.

As the year wrapped up, overall top Pistol Class shooters emerged: Tim McDonald on “Wizard”, Vern Vesperman on “Reo”, and Loren Adrian on “Brittany”, followed closely by John Roach on “George”, Jennifer Miller on “Red”, and Tosha Barthel. Cathy Klecker was third in the women’s division, riding her ever-faithful gelding, “Wyatt Earp”. Pretty much everyone had some smokin’ hot stages and times they were mighty proud of as they reviewed the final results for each shoot and the cumulative results.

Along with our veteran shooters, newer shooters also experienced much success as they honed their own and their horses’ skills. Guys like Russ Sleight came from “way up Nort’”, and did very well riding his big black and white part-draft Pinto gelding, “Whiskey”. Reggie Howell made huge strides in her riding and shooting throughout the season as she and her favorite mount, “Little Jo”, got themselves synchronized on the ever-changing stages. She’ll likely be moving up a level or two in the New Year. Experienced shooters like Joan Lightner and Mary Pierson worked with new horses this year, “Jet” and “Stan the Man” respectively, and made smooth transitions working together. Cheryl Frye brought out a new horse for the weekend, and she spent valuable time introducing the beautiful Paint mare to the scene, including some shooting of live rounds off her throughout the eight stages. It’s a reminder to us all of the time and effort required to train a shooting horse, when we see members working with new prospects. Even bringing a new horse to the scene and riding him/her around the other horses and the grounds helps build a positive working relationship as a team. Rachel Frye showed huge improvement this year on her favorite horse, “Jellybean”, and now that she’s longer and taller and has grown into those rather heavy .45 caliber single action pistols, will be someone to watch carefully next year. Her dad, Ray, also had some smoking hot runs on his stallion, “Rowdy”. What a way to finish out the season!

Eleven individuals participated in the Rifle division this year, and the top three shooters emerged the same as for pistol. The lone lady rifle shooter was Sara Stahmer, riding her new horse, “Cooper”, and coming in fifth overall in rifle. Nice job, Sara! New kid on the rifle scene was Clay Vesperman, doing extremely well for first time rifle shooter at our events the last weekend. Watch out, Dad, cuz he’s gonna be hot on your-and everyone else’s-trail next year!

Another highlight of the Custer Shoot weekend was the presence of Dan Small, of Outdoor Wisconsin, a weekly PBS Program, who, along with his crew, filmed shooting highlights on Sunday and also interviewed several members of Mounted Justice. All are anxious to see the program that will be featured sometime in the next six months on Public Television. Dan even got to ride a seasoned shooting horse and try a stage on his own with loaded pistols-that was pretty exciting both to watch and to experience, for sure.

As the season winds down, preparations are being made for events in 2012. To begin with, the annual banquet is planned for January 14, 2012, and all are encouraged to check out our website at mountedjustice.com for additional information on results and activities to follow. Hope to see you at some of our shoots and clinics!