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Shooting
Stars
Competitors find camaraderie
in cowboy mounted shooting
By Laurence Heinen
Photos Kristin Braun
T o say that the sport of cowboy mounted shooting can
be a family affair is a bit of an understatement.
When Lisa Mitchell first saw a mounted shooting
demonstration at the Ponoka Stampede in 2013, she was
immediately intrigued.
“My family’s always been an outdoor family with horses and
guns,” explains Mitchell, who hails from Breton. “All of a sudden,
we saw this event that combined everything and it was pretty
much like, ‘We need to do this. How do we get involved?’”
Along with her parents Linda and Bruce McKenzie, and her
sister Heather McKenzie, Mitchell decided to take up the sport
which combines elements of Wild West Show exhibition shooting
along with the skills of barrel racing and horsemanship.
Using two .45 caliber single action revolvers loaded with
black powder blanks, competitors compete against the clock and
ride through a variety of challenging courses while shooting ten
balloon targets. The rider with the fastest time and the fewest
missed targets wins.
Open to all levels of rider and all breeds of equine, members
enter the sport at Class Level 1 and move up as experience and
wins are achieved.
“The class system works really well for new shooters and
growing the sport because you can enter at a lower level,” says
Mitchell, who serves as an Alberta Mounted Shooters Association
(AMSA) director and is always willing to lend a hand to welcome
new competitors. “You’re not directly competing against the top
right away, so it’s really inviting for new shooters.”
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Alberta Bits Fall 2025