Saturday’s most-experienced shooter was riding a horse that was trying to ignore the firing of a Colt .45 revolver its first time in competition.

Drew McMillan of Bogalusa, La., brought Napoleon to Saturday’s Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association event at the Vicksburg Riding Club Arena off U.S. 61 North for the horse’s first competitive experience running through barrels while his rider fired special blanks to pop balloon targets.

McMillan and his wife, Laura Stewart, were two of 14 riders in Vicksburg’s first CMSA-sanctioned competition in the growing sport.

The event was organized by the Vicksburg CMSA club, Southern Crossfire, whose president is Kerry Southern. Vicksburg has had an organized group of mounted shooters for about three years, and Southern Crossfire members practice at the arena on Thursday nights.

McMillan said he has been riding and shooting in such events for about five years, off-and-on, probably longer than any other rider at Saturday’s competition.

He said he practices with his horses at his home and that the time it takes horses to get used to the sound of gunfire varies.

“I’ve had them take right to it immediately, and I’ve had them take six months,” McMillan said.

Riders in the competition are given 10 cartridges – one for each balloon target – for each trip through the barrels and are penalized by having seconds added to their times for each balloon they fail to pop. Each shooter carries two single-action revolvers with five cartridges and other miscues, such as dropping a pistol, also result in penalties.

Southern and Southern Crossfire’s vice president, John Morson, posted times of less than 13 seconds, among the best in the competition’s first round.

Napoleon was responding “best as could be expected” considering that “everything there was new and different” to him, McMillan said.

Southern had hoped for a turnout of 20 to 30 riders but said Saturday’s event still qualified by CMSA standards by having at least 10 shooters participate. Among the horses that had been expected was one that was injured when a horse charged another through a fence in North Mississippi earlier in the day, Southern said.

The event included three other family groups, including two from Southern Crossfire. Morson’s daughter Amy Bottin also participated in the shooting competition and her 7-year-old daughter, Shelby, rode through the barrels without shooting. And Paul Lynn and his wife, Stephanie, of Vicksburg, both shot and rode.

Paul Lynn said the couple has two daughters who are also members of the club and that the family often attends practices together.

Also competing were horse trainer Mike Wolfe and his son Matt Wolfe, both of Abbeville.

Traveling the farthest may have been John Gilchrist of Chunchula, Ala., near Mobile.

Riders are required to dress in the style of a late-1800s cowboy and bring their own pistols, which must be actual or replica Colt .45s designed before 1898.

Lynn said he and his family took up the sport only about six months ago.

“I’m doing OK,” he said of the skill level he has developed so far. “I need a lot more practice.”