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From www.bridleandbit.com National
The Mounted Shooters of America 2006 Arizona State and World Championships kicked off at the Mohave Crossing Event Center/ Avi Casino Resort in Laughlin NV on Friday September 29, 2006 at precisely 10am. Situated directly adjacent to the Colorado River, the brand new state of the art facility proved to be a perfect location for the MSA event. In fact, the arena was so great they are already booked for at least two more MSA events, including the MSA 2007 World Championships. The National Anthem was beautifully sung by the very talented Kimberlee Kiewel of New River Arizona. Competitors came from across the country to compete for the MSA Arizona State title on Friday, mainly as a warm up for the MSA World Championships held Saturday and Sunday. The coveted MSA World Championship title earns the respect of peers, buckles, and cash. The MSA Overall Points Champions for the year won saddles in each division and second place won gun rigs. The sport of mounted shooting combines top equestrian skills of riding with lead changes, rating your horse to the speed you need, making tight turns around barrels, and being able to strategize the best route within a pattern ’s requirements based on your and your horses ability; all of this while shooting a single action six gun. Guns are loaded with a special black powder blank that breaks a balloon at about 10 to 15 feet. Only 5 chambers in the gun are loaded and competitors are required to shoot the first five targets in a pattern then change guns to engage the second five targets. This is an art in itself. Try holstering a gun at a full gallop and pulling another gun as you lead your horse around the barrel. It’s tougher than it looks and those balloons come up on you fast as you gallop the rundown towards the timer. It requires a combination of top equestrian skill and precision shooting. Top competitors can turn in times of 11 seconds! Just try pulling your gun and clicking off five shots, reholstering and pulling the second gun and shooting five. Can you do it hitting all ten targets about 10-15 feet away in under 11 seconds? Now try sitting on galloping horse while you do it! You really have to respect these competitors for the work they put into training to come this far. The Top Five in the MSA 2006 World Competition included Royce Anderson, Faye Leerssen, Don Day of Texas, Brian Bausch of Cave Creek AZ, and Kristen Barnes. The MSA 20X Eliminator is one of the most exciting events in the sport of mounted shooting. The first and second runs are open to anyone who wants to enter. The times for the two are averaged and the final run is down to the top 10 in each class. On Sunday, during the Final Stage of the 20X Eliminator the tension was intense. Competition was close and the winners were, Royce Anderson of Incline NV on Caleb with a time of 11.15 seconds in the Men’s Open Division, and Tony Romano of Scottsdale AZ on Buffalo Bill with a time of 11.89 in the Men’s Limited Division. The Ladies Open Division was led by Kristen Barnes of Scottsdale AZ with a time of 12.36 on Raven and Kimberlee Kiewel in the Ladies Limited Division on Alexis turning in a time of 13.32.
Barnes, Kimberly Kiewel, TC Romano and Tony Romano. Top Points Champions are determined by competing over the course of a year, and consistently winning to earn more points than anyone else in your division. It was exciting to see father and son win both Men’s divisions. Second place won gun rigs from Cactus Saddlery, Drover’s Supply and Chisholm’s Old West Leather. Friday night activities included games with an exciting three-leg race and prizes for everyone! Saturday night was time for a great bbq dinner in the luxurious skybox overlooking the arena. Awards for the MSA 2006 Arizona State Championships were handed out as well as recognition of various MSA supporters who received beautiful Cabella’s custom embroidered jackets for their hard work. Recipients included new club organizers James and Sandy Duke of Oklahoma, the Redos of Arkansas, Mary and Barry Hart of the MSA Board of Directors, and LeeAnn Sharpe Mounted Shooters World Editor. MSA 2006 Arizona State Champions were Overall Men’s Champion Don Day of Texas and Ladies Champion Paula Bausch of Cave Creek AZ. Both the Mohave Crossing and Avi Casino had plenty of exciting opportunities for additional evening entertainment which competitors and their families took to full advantage, some until the wee hours of the morning! Enthusiasm for new club start-ups reached a peak when Karl Bauer announced the new MSA New Jersey affiliated club, the Cowboy Legends. Karl and wife Deana are accomplished quarter horse trainers and run a ranch in NJ with a beautiful top-notch covered arena perfect for holding MSA competition. All of you Northeastern cowboys get ready for a whole new batch of competitors with honed riding skills! Sunday as the awards were being announced Kathy and Johnny Hendricks announced they will become an MSA affiliate with their California club and have already negotiated an event to be held at the Mohave Crossing Arena in the coming year! The crowd response was ecstatic as the location is so convenient to competitors in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. Kathy and Johnny are so well respected for their history in the sport and delightful personalities and camaraderie. Their newly MSA affiliated club is sure to be a great success as they already maintain a large following with their SASS club. MSA challenged SASS to a friendly shoot-off with a traveling trophy to the victor. MSA World competitors who are SASS cardholders could declare their allegiance for either team. It looked as though the deck was stacked in SASS favor when former world champions TC Thorstenson, Royce Anderson and Brian Bausch all declared for SASS. But in the end the average time of all MSA competitors beat out the SASS competitors by less then 1 second to win the MSA-SASS Challenge Trophy for 2006. SASS competitors vow to return in 2007 to take the trophy away from MSA! You might consider dumping multi-time world champions and MSA President TC since his 20 points in penalties may have been the key in this year’s loss. TC’s penalties were the result of a funky pattern of premature gun change that seemed to infect about 4 other competitors on the same 5 dice course. Paula Bausch also suffered from this psychological twister that encouraged shooters to change guns after only 3 shots then go into the rundown with a partially spent gun and lots of confusion. This is just one of the challenges that can make even a world champion fumble. Mounted Shooters of America clubs are springing up all over the country and the club nearest to you can be located online at www.newmsa.com or call MSA at 602-319-0079 or 602-565-5785. www.bridleandbit.com |
