Shooting for Old West Feeling

Jerry Tarantino, looking like he walked off the screen of a Roy Rogers movie with his metal spurs and wide-brimmed cowboy hat, rode his horse slowly around a dusty arena Saturday afternoon to get the mare used to the sound of gunfire.

The shots were blanks, but they made such a racket that uninitiated horses--as well as people--would jump back in fright at the sound.

Tarantino’s horse probably won’t be able to compete this weekend in a round of cowboy mounted shooting because she hasn’t gotten used to the noise.

Cowboy mounted shooting, for greenhorns unfamiliar with Wild West culture, is a competitive event that combines two aspects of many children’s sporting fantasy: racing horses and shooting guns.

Riders, decked in frontier-era clothing, weave their galloping horses slalom-style around a course of barrels while shooting at red and white balloons. Any missed balloon adds five seconds to the total. The rider with the fastest time wins.

Tarantino, who was competing in this weekend’s event at the Arroyo Simi Equestrian Center, won the 1996 world championship in cowboy mounted shooting, held in Scottsdale, Ariz., every December since the sport’s founding six years ago.

“It [the sport] started because there were so many people into Old West target shooting on the ground,” he said in an interview between rounds. The addition of horses was a natural outgrowth, and the balloons make the event a fun, family oriented affair, he said.

Twenty states have cowboy mounted shooting clubs, and the sport is growing quickly, officials said.

Children under 17 can compete in several junior divisions, and there are women’s divisions as well.

Every competitor uses a show name that corresponds to the cowboy era in some way. “People can escape their own reality and get into this as if they are in a movie,” said Tarantino, sporting curly hair to the middle of his back and a gray-flecked, pointed mustache.

Tarantino, one of 27 competitors at the Simi Valley event this weekend, said the role playing and historical focus enhance the game’s basic test of the coordination it takes to ride and shoot at the same time.

Many mounted shooters research their names, watch John Wayne and Roy Rogers films and read magazines from the 1880s and 1890s.

Tarantino, who took James Butler as his alias “because I look like him,” read his memoir and said Butler was well known in dime novels as the best marksman in the West.

Twelve-year-old Joe Carver, alias Li’l Duke after several John Wayne characters, was riding in his third competition this weekend.

After his second round, where he missed one balloon, Joe swaggered up to his mom--who was filming the event--wearing round, 99-cent sunglasses, a slim-jim style belt that his brother had made for him and a vintage cowboy shirt from a thrift store.

“I like it because it’s rough and thick and looks like the Old West style,” Joe said of his red-and-white-striped western shirt.

Joe, making frequent use of his alias, said he was pleased with his performance and said he liked the sport because of its competitive nature.

“In barrel racing you just run your horse around, but this has more challenge,” he said. “I get to show off my horse skills and spend time with my horse.”

Joe, whose goal is to become a world champion, said he isn’t afraid of the guns but had to take a certification class to legally use one.

“Every time I touch a gun I check it to be sure it’s not loaded, and I won’t take a gun from someone I don’t know,” he said.

The competition continues today when riders will go through three final rounds of competition from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The public is welcome to attend. The center is at 2900 Royal Ave., near Sequoia Avenue. Call (805) 581-5772.