Another adventure!

Okay so we're trying another adventure with Booker.  Cowboy mounted shooting!  So far we've only just started getting our feet wet.  Booker's injury has given us a chance to get him used to a lot of things he wasn't appreciating before (like a hose and flyspray). And he seems to be learning really fast.  So last week we put him in the arena and smacked a couple 2x4s together to see what he'd do.  It was the only thing I could think of that would imitate gunfire without actually shooting a gun.  Obviously it's not as loud as gunfire but I think it was a decent test.  And of course he passed.  Twitched his ears a few times and that was about it.  He wasn't too happy when the scary noise was happening toward his left flank but the most he ever did then was take a couple steps on the forehand to move and see what we were doing.

So I ordered some cap guns from Amazon.  Partly to practice with the noise and partly to just practice handling a gun while riding.  I'd rather drop a 20 dollar cap gun in the dirt than a 500+ dollar Colt.  Plus I don't imagine the barn owners would look too kindly on us running around shooting off guns (without inviting them first of course).  So we fired the cap gun from the ground and Booker looked at us like we were crazy (we might be).

Of course the cap gun isn't very loud but it's a new sound so we fired all around him on both sides etc and he really didn't care one bit.  So N got on and fired a bit on both sides of his head and toward his rear etc and he really didn't care once again.

So we set up some poles to mimic an actual shooting course.  That got him a little excited.  But recall he was a game horse for a little while so he thinks poles/barrels/etc mean GOGOGOGO!  So he got the tiniest bit hot going through the poles with the cap gun but nothing scary or horrible.  When we finished off the last round in the cap gun N rode him at the walk and trot through the poles to just make sure he knew slow and calm were A-OK with us.

The pictures are pretty bad but it's just a bit too dark in the arena to photo a moving horse with my phone ;)  Anyway, I haven't given it a go yet but I know I'll need practice riding one handed and firing with the other hand.  And N is left handed so she needs to figure out how to shoot right handed and ride with her left hand.  We have some work to do.  Not to mention fashioning some sort of makeshift holster for our awesome cap guns to practice drawing.

And Booker, we'll have to see what he thinks of balloons and popping balloons. And maybe find some blanks for our .22s to get some louder noises going on (after we talk to the barn owners of course and not in the arena - ouch).  When we get all that figured out then maybe Booker will have to attend a shoot or a practice shoot just to get exposed to real .45 gun fire.  Hopefully we can get into a beginners clinic this coming spring or something.