GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Nearly 200 riders in old-style western garb and a pair of holstered six-shooters competed for the title of Cowboy Mounted Shooting State Champion at the Cattleman’s Arena last weekend.

The competition proceeded with the Fourth Annual Warmer Winter Pastures, New Year’s Double Shootout on Dec. 31 and ending on Jan. 1.

Mounted contestants competed in this fast-action timed event using two .45 caliber single-action revolvers, each loaded with five rounds of specially prepared blank ammunition. Contestants completed a course marked by orange traffic cones. On top of each cone is a balloon.

The object of the game is to shoot 10 balloon targets while riding through a variety of challenging courses. It’s a timed sport in which the competitor who rides the fastest with the least amount of missed targets wins.

Unlike most equestrian sports, Cowboy Mounted Shooting requires multiple skills, as it relies not only on the horse’s speed and rider’s horsemanship but also the rider’s shooting skills and accuracy, making it a multi-level challenge. Mounted shooting has divisions for men, women, seniors and youth. There are subcategories within those divisions by skill level, from one to six.

Competitors advance by winning a specific number of competitions at each level. The overall results were posted on New Year’s Eve.

Stephen Harris, Men’s Level Four was named State champion with the best overall time of 50.932. He was followed by Senior Men’s Level Six, Dave Kennedy, with a time of 51.534, and Women’s Level Six, Morgan Swanson, with an official time of 51.638.

Eric Anderson, one of the sport’s leading competitors and multiple CMSA world championships said the sport is alive and well since the association started in 2004. As time progressed throughout the years, it has continued to grow, inviting members from all over the world.

“Florida has the No. 1 club in the whole country. This is the number one club- the Florida Peacemakers. That club designation came from Pan Handle Peacemakers, one of the clubs that we conglomerated when we started this club. We have several world champions. We have several world champions. We have international champions. We are the most successful club in the nation, and that’s documented,” Anderson said.

“Normally, the Peacemakers try to have an event every month. Our facilities are at Lady Lake, but there are events that we do with other clubs. We do a regional shoot in March,” said Reilano “You actually have to have sponsors to host the regional tournament, but because we are the largest club in the country, we won the right to host the shoot.”

The Spring Shoot will be held at the Georgia Fairgrounds in Perry.

“Our shoots locally usually range between 40 to 60 people. It depends on the season, the weather.”

However, this particular event, the Florida CMSA championship, is one of the bigger shoots that the CMSA holds, he said. “It’s been going on for about three years, and it’s getting larger every year. This shoot here has right around 200 people. It’s just a great shoot.”

Riollano only expects to see numbers rise.

“There is actually a plan to renovate the fairgrounds, and one of the renovations is to tear down the cover of this arena, the barn. They are uncovering this and making one bigger cover, combining barn A and barn B into one. We were limited to the size of our time to how many stalls there were, so if this happens, we can accommodate more people and more horses,” he said.

The open barn will create more versatility in the future.

“If you have stalls, you are limited to livestock. If you leave it open, you can put anything in it. It can be a car show. It can be vendor space. That’s going to allow for huge versatility for the fairgrounds,” Riollano said.

For future competitions, visit the Florida CMSA website.