| FFA Nation

New Mexico FFA member is a world champion in cowboy mounted shooting

Jessica Mozo | 06/27/2011 |

Kathy Hollmann is not your typical high school athlete. Instead of balls and nets, her sport involves horses and handguns.

The 18-year-old FFA member from Hagerman, N.M., began competing in the equine sport of cowboy mounted shooting at age 7, and in 2010, she snagged the world champion title at the Single Action Shooting Society’s world championship in Edgewood, N.M. She is the third woman to ever win a mounted-shooting world title.

“I started shooting at age 2, riding horses at age 3 and shooting real bullets in competition at age 7,” says Kathy, who graduated from Hagerman High School in May and is attending Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell this fall. “I love horses and shooting, so by the age of 10, I was hooked.”

Kathy excelled at the sport under the watchful eye of her father Jim Hollmann, a seasoned mounted shooter and longtime law enforcement officer.

“We have two sons 10 and 11 years older than Kathy, and whatever we boys were doing, Kathy wanted to do it too,” Jim recalls. “I’ve been in law enforcement 33 years and in firearms training most of that time, so I figured if anybody could teach a 2-year-old to shoot, it would be me. The first time Kathy went to shoot in an action match, she was 7, and people were amazed at her trigger control – she didn’t miss a target.”

Since then, Kathy has been traveling with her dad and mom, Chaleeporn (a native of Thailand), to 20 matches each year in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. She competes at Single Action Shooting Society events as well as those organized by the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association, which was formed in the early 1990s and has 95 affiliated clubs across the country.

“SASS and CMSA mounted shooting are both going strong, and cowboy mounted shooting is the fastest-growing equine sport in the nation, perhaps the world,” Jim says. “Depending on what skill level you compete at, it is an extremely fast and exciting family sport. Both organizations have multiple scholarships for shooting members and each year.”

When competing, participants are required to dress in traditional or old-time western clothing, including long-sleeved western shirts, five-pocket blue jeans covered by chinks or chaps, western boots, and cowboy hats. They can use any horse or mule, but the animal must be comfortable with shooting, turning and running fast.

Kathy competes on a 9-year-old quarter horse named Roy.

“I’ve had Roy for five years, and I trained him myself,” she says. “It can take two to four years for a horse to be ready for shooting. You have to let them run the courses and then dry-fire to let them hear the click of the gun.”

Cowboy mounted shooting is a fast-action timed event. Riders use two .45-caliber single-action revolvers, each loaded with five rounds of specially prepared blank ammunition. As the timer ticks, a participant rides a predetermined pattern with the goal of shooting 10 balloons in a certain order. Riders are scored on time and accuracy, with penalties for missed balloons, dropped guns, incorrect run of the course, and falling off their horse.

“We’re split up in different classes,” Kathy explains. “The kids under 12 are in the wrangler class, and they run the same course as the adults and get timed for it, but they shoot toy guns.”

Teens and adults compete in six classes each of the men’s, women’s and seniors’ divisions. The prize for the best overall score transcends both age and gender – it’s not uncommon for moms and dads to compete against each other and their kids.

Safety in horse training and gun handling is a top priority, and many CMSA clubs sponsor clinics for new shooters to learn the basics of safe riding and shooting.

“It’s a great family sport,” Kathy says. “It’s pretty well-known worldwide, but I’m the only one from my school of 400 kids who does it.”

Before winning the SASS World Champion title in 2010 at age 16, Kathy won the SASS Ladies World Champion title in 2008 at age 14. The two women who won world titles before Kathy were both in their 30s, making Kathy the only female teen to ever be named champion.

“We meet the nicest people in this sport,” Kathy says. “I love it because it puts the two things I love most together – riding and shooting.”

Kathy is majoring in business and plans to become a high school welding and agriculture instructor. Eventually, she hopes to have a career as a full-time horse trainer.

To learn more about Kathy’s sport, visit her website at www.morningdoverides.com.