Mounted Justice Celebrates 2011 Successes and Welcomes New Season in 2012

By Katz Jackson

Mounted Justice (MJ) members celebrated accomplishments and victories from 2011, and made plans for 2012, at the Annual Awards Banquet held on January 14, 2012 at the Baraboo Clarion Hotel and Conference Center.  Highlights for the evening centered around Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association (CMSA) sponsored events, and included a delicious meal, along with presentations of a wide variety of awards, a fund-raising auction, some fine Karoake singing and some swinging dancing on the wooden dance floor.  

Awards were given to the top Overall Cowboy and Cowgirl point winners, with special prizes for Top and Reserve Cowboys and Top and Reserve Cowgirls.   Amongst the top ten cowboys were Clay Vesperman, Paul Bollig, Rick Farnsworth, Tom Bamford, Mark Brave, Kelly Leahy, John Roach, Loren Adrian, with Tim McDonald winning Top Cowboy and Vern Vesperman winning Reserve.  Overall Women Point Winners included Karri Moodie, Katz Jackson, Rachel Chilson, Sandra Baird, Jill Grindeland, Nicky McDonald, Sara Stahmer, Cathy Klecker, with  Jennifer Miller as Top Cowgirl and Tosha Barthel as Reserve Cowgirl. 

Tim McDonald also won top award in the Rifle division.  His championship was followed by Vern Vesperman in Reserve, and Loren Adrian in third place, Rick Farnsworth in fourth place, and Sara Stahmer in fifth place. 

As more awards were given, Rachel Frye won both Most Improved Cowgirl and Best Dressed Cowgirl.  Larry Michael won Most Improved Cowboy for 2011, and Rick Farnsworth won Best Dressed Cowboy.  Best dressed couple went to Brian and Karri Moodie.  The prestigious Horsemanship award went to Jill Grindeland for her stellar performance at Ladies Senior 5 national competitions.  Jill competed successfully for the 2011 World High Point Champion Senior Cowgirl.  Her husband, Bruce Grindeland, who also fared very well in the national competitions in both Rifle and Men’s Level 5 Pistol, composed a heartfelt-and humorous-special tribute to Jill that was shared with all present.  Other special awards and much gratitude were given to Ellen Adrian, Jennifer Brave, Sandy Melvin, and Deb Vesperman for their indispensible efforts as announcers and timers throughout the year.  The Horse of the Year award went to Tim McDonald’s horse, Wizard, for his outstanding performance and talent in carrying Tim to his championship victories in both the Pistol as well as the Rifle divisions.     A total of twenty-seven shooters also earned “Clean Shot” awards in 2011, which means they shot all targets at one or more events.  Several shooters moved up in their shooting level and earned Move-up buckles for their efforts.  The “Rookie of the Year” award went to Dawn Farnsworth, a first year shooter, and she will also receive a beautiful buckle of her choice.  Keep up the good work, Dawn.

The first MJ shoot of the year 2012 was held on February 18 at the wonderful facility, The Horsemen’s Outfit, Inc., in Arena, WI, where a total of nineteen shooters competed for Top Cowboy and Cowgirl.  The weather cooperated beautifully, and traveling was smooth and uneventful for all, which is always a plus in wintertime.  Following his 2011 tradition, Tim McDonald led the way, winning Overall Cowboy in the Pistol division, followed closely by John Roach in Reserve and Loren Adrian in Third Place.  Sara Stahmer was Top Cowgirl, followed by Katz Jackson in Reserve, and Jennifer Miller in Third Place.  Speed and accuracy was the name of the game and a total of three individuals shot clean for the day, which was a great way to start off the year.  The old saying of “Smooth is fast.” surely paid off on that day!

Eight cowboys took on the additional challenge of the Rifle class.  When all shots were fired and all times tallied, Loren Adrian took top place, followed closely by Tim McDonald and Gary Jackson.  These cowboys engage the first five balloons with their six shooters and the second set with rifles.  It’s quite a skill, even perhaps an art, and new contenders like Clay Vesperman and John Roach will be actively participating this year, which will add new challenge for the other more experienced Rifle shooters. 

Future events are highlighted on the Mounted Justice website schedule at www.mountedjustice.com.  New shooter clinics will also be listed as they are added throughout the year.  We hope to see many of you this year!

Mounted Justice Shooters Wrap up 2011 Season by Katz Jackson It’s over! The last shoot of Mounted Justice’s (MJ) Cowboy Mounted Shooting Club took place the weekend of October 8-9 at Heartland Stables in Custer, WI. A total of thirty-five Pistol shooters participated in the final event of the year for our club, along with eleven Rifle shooters. It turned out to be a perfect weekend weather wise, with warm temperatures and clear skies throughout the two-day event. Overall, it finished off a great year, where several clinics were offered for new shooters and a total of nineteen shoots were successfully carried out. Only one had to be cancelled due to inclement weather. As the year wrapped up, overall top Pistol Class shooters emerged: Tim McDonald on “Wizard”, Vern Vesperman on “Reo”, and Loren Adrian on “Brittany”, followed closely by John Roach on “George”, Jennifer Miller on “Red”, and Tosha Barthel. Cathy Klecker was third in the women’s division, riding her ever-faithful gelding, “Wyatt Earp”. Pretty much everyone had some smokin’ hot stages and times they were mighty proud of as they reviewed the final results for each shoot and the cumulative results. Along with our veteran shooters, newer shooters also experienced much success as they honed their own and their horses’ skills. Guys like Russ Sleight came from “way up Nort’”, and did very well riding his big black and white part-draft Pinto gelding, “Whiskey”. Reggie Howell made huge strides in her riding and shooting throughout the season as she and her favorite mount, “Little Jo”, got themselves synchronized on the ever-changing stages. She’ll likely be moving up a level or two in the New Year. Experienced shooters like Joan Lightner and Mary Pierson worked with new horses this year, “Jet” and “Stan the Man” respectively, and made smooth transitions working together. Cheryl Frye brought out a new horse for the weekend, and she spent valuable time introducing the beautiful Paint mare to the scene, including some shooting of live rounds off her throughout the eight stages. It’s a reminder to us all of the time and effort required to train a shooting horse, when we see members working with new prospects. Even bringing a new horse to the scene and riding him/her around the other horses and the grounds helps build a positive working relationship as a team. Rachel Frye showed huge improvement this year on her favorite horse, “Jellybean”, and now that she’s longer and taller and has grown into those rather heavy .45 caliber single action pistols, will be someone to watch carefully next year. Her dad, Ray, also had some smoking hot runs on his stallion, “Rowdy”. What a way to finish out the season! Eleven individuals participated in the Rifle division this year, and the top three shooters emerged the same as for pistol. The lone lady rifle shooter was Sara Stahmer, riding her new horse, “Cooper”, and coming in fifth overall in rifle. Nice job, Sara! New kid on the rifle scene was Clay Vesperman, doing extremely well for first time rifle shooter at our events the last weekend. Watch out, Dad, cuz he’s gonna be hot on your-and everyone else’s-trail next year! Another highlight of the Custer Shoot weekend was the presence of Dan Small, of Outdoor Wisconsin, a weekly PBS Program, who, along with his crew, filmed shooting highlights on Sunday and also interviewed several members of Mounted Justice. All are anxious to see the program that will be featured sometime in the next six months on Public Television. Dan even got to ride a seasoned shooting horse and try a stage on his own with loaded pistols-that was pretty exciting both to watch and to experience, for sure. As the season winds down, preparations are being made for events in 2012. To begin with, the annual banquet is planned for January 14, 2012, and all are encouraged to check out our website at mountedjustice.com for additional information on results and activities to follow. Hope to see you at some of our shoots and clinics!