Soli said:
Wouldn't shooting that rifle right next to the horses ears cause serious damage, or am I not fully understanding the concept of mounted shooting?
For training a horse to the gunshot from is back is a question of time,first I start just having the gun in holster on your belt than he can notice clearly that you're wearing something unusual on you and go in his box and doing thinks normally,brushing his hair,feeding etc.. when he get's familiar with the objects that you are wearing,then you start to pull the gun out of the holster and show him this objet and let him smell it and reholster and keep doing your work around him,when he get familiar with the action of drawing and holstering you start to rub his body with it,when he get's relaxed with this action you start cocking and dryfire, then he will try to escape from this action,because a horse in is nature is to run and go away from a danger and check after when he's at a safe distance,you do these action on both side of the horse, horses has to be trained on both side,when you're on right side his left eye does'nt see what the right eye is seeing,when your horse is very easy with all of these action , your start mounting him and set up a patern with traffic cone with a PVC plumbing tube in it 4 feet long that you attach a balloon of 6 to 9 inches diameter to the tip and you start training your horse doing the pattern,going around the barrel and taking you as close as possible to the balloon,you interchange the course of cone and barrel to train him on left and right hand,when you are satisfied with his training ,you start to draw the revolver and point the balloon with the muzzle at about 45 degree with his head, if you take the time that your horse need to understand and after learn,he will take you where the revolver muzzle aim,after all this is done,you sit comfortably in the saddle on your horseback,that's where the training start,you draw the revolver from holster and #### it,you will feel all the moving parts of your gun into the body of your horse by natural reflexes,you #### and retain the hammer,#### and retain the hammer untill he's calm then you start dryfiring,when he's easy with all these action,install your cone and balloon and start to ride your horse and point the balloon and #### and dryfire when your are at the distance you want,when all this goes OK,install the barrel and start a course of fire with 10 balloon and 2 revolver holstered
and now you begin to train yourself,when a horse is perfectly trained,the problem in Cowboy Mounted Shooting competition comes from the rider,the horse usually is to fast for the rider,so you have to train yourself to your speed and skill,then you train yourself and your horse to a speed that both can manage,don't forget,you have to shoot 5 balloons in a random pattern and 5 balloons in a straight line,this mean that you have to draw,shoot 5 round,holstered the first revolver,draw the second revolver and shoot 5 more rounds at the maximum speed that you can handle,in competition the scrore is established by the time you do the course of fire and you have 5 seconds penality for each balloon missed or stays inflated and penality for missing a cone or not doing the course correctly.When all this training is done,you start to train him to the gun blast,I use only primer in the beginning,I start loading the revolver with one loaded chamber and one empty chamber,you can go in random or alternate one or two blast or no cartridge,the important thing is that you will notice that your horse doe'nt anticipate anymore the primer blast,when he's calm with the primer noise,you start doing the course of fire with primed brass,sometime you will blow the balloon with just the primer if you're close enough ,when this go well you start to train him to the earplug,I use cat toy,it's a cotton ball of about 1 1/2 diam.you attach them together,so you can pull'em out from your horse's ears and if he shakes his head to take them out, it's normal,it's feeling is like a big fly in his ear,if he cannot get used to it,just install on is head a flynet,this will keep the plugs in his ear even if he shakes his head to get rid of them,after he get used to the earplugs load your cartridge with 10 grains of blackpowder,I use FF or FFF and with time you increase your load untill your case is fully loaded.
The only firearms used in Mounted Shooting are revolver single action in 45 Colt caliber manufactured before 1898 or replicas of these guns,you have to be dressed like 1860 to 1900's epoque,saddle and tacks from this era are very appreciate.After all this training is done and you have few competitions
in your back,you will have your best hunting partner's,I own an Arabian pure breed,when I bought her,it takes me 10 days to take her in a trailer and she was runnig about half mile away at the noise of a chain saw,now I do competition with her and when we go partridge hunting she tell's me where the partridge are before I can see them,it's just a question of time,I own this horse since april 2000 and I did the first competion in june 2005 and she still learning she's 8 yrs old and I have Quater Horse and a Paint horse in training for the moment.
