Cowboy Mounted Shooting Assn to bring World Championship to Amarillo

Release Date: October 17, 2007

Cowboy shoot-em-ups, from chasing outlaws off the ranch to the Showdown at the OK Corral, are the stuff of legend. We see them in old western movies and television re-runs. And they always get our adrenalin pumping. And the current version, the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association’s (CMSA) World Championships, is coming to Amarillo in November 2008.

Picture a cowboy or cowgirl, dressed in authentic western garb, riding the length of an arena as fast as possible while shooting small targets with either a revolver or a rifle. Well, that’s the sport of mounted shooting. Simply, the fastest, most accurate competitor wins.

The 2008 CMSA World Championships will be at the Amarillo National Center November 18-23, 2008. Early days will be preliminary rounds of competition and the finals are Sunday, Nov. 23 at 10 am. More than 400 competitors are expected for the annual event with a total attendance, including family and friends estimated at 1,500.

“This is an equine event, because you come to see the beautiful horses. And it is a Western event, because it celebrates the cowboy lifestyle of the late 1800s and early 1900s. But it is mainly a spectator event, since the sport is so fast and so exciting,” Frank Turben, CMSA president, explains.

Mounted shooting is a timed-event with each competitor firing up to 10 shots at 10 balloon targets arranged in a specific pattern. Based on a competitor’s experience, a single run will vary between 10-20 seconds. No live ammunition is used; special blank target ammunition, designed to reach the target and no further, is used by all CMSA competitors. As the competition advances through higher rounds, leading to the finals, the target patterns change and the runs get faster, all a tribute to the competitors’ ability. 

The result is a very fast sport with the sound of the gunfire and the smoke from the ammo adding to the excitement Matthew and Tammy Sronce of Westhoff, TX, are the reigning 2007 CMSA World and National Champions. They were in Amarillo at the Oct. 17 press conference to demonstrate the speed, excitement and accuracy of mounted shooting to local media.

“We are always pleased to attract a new equine event to Amarillo. But with the CMSA World Championships, we also attract a great piece of entertainment,” Jerry Holt, Vice President of the Amarillo CVC, says.

“CMSA is very excited to produce its World Championship in Amarillo. We see a bright future in this new partnership,” Turben adds.