Looks like we will be awarding nice plaques for the State shoot for all classes. There will also be overall buckles for mens and womens, so make sure you put the State Championship shoot on your calendar for September 25-26.
Our next event will be held at Osage, Iowa during the county fair. We will be camping in Mike Wertz hayfield once again, just like last year. There will be a potluck on Saturday evening after the shoot, so bring a dish to share and a big appetite. This is a great shoot, with our camping just a few blocks away from the Fairgrounds where we will be shooting both days. Put July 31, and Aug 1 down on your calendar for your next weekend of riding and shooting.
The event at Marshalltown on June 26-27 was really nice. If you weren’t there, you missed a fun one. The indoor stalls and covered arena showed their best sides as we had rain off and on during the whole event. Everyone enjoyed a good time riding on dry ground while it was raining. Our clinic went off really well with lots of new riders and new horses in attendance.
Border Wars, held at Montfort Wisconsin for the second year in a row was a huge success for the 2010 year. Thanks so much to Tim McDonald, Vern Vesperman and lots of the Wisconsin club members for working so hard to make our Border Wars shoot a well run one with lots of local sponsors. If you didn’t attend you missed a good one. It’s worth the drive to Montfort just to dine at the bowling alley/resturant that’s just a mile or so down the road from the arena. I had a fillet steak for $13, and it was mighty tasty, and only paying about half of what you would normally pay for a great meal made it all the better. Make sure to put Border Wars over Memorial Day for 2011 on you places to go list. A meeting of the minds was held and it was decided that since everyone liked the Border Wars concept so well and Mason City has such a great facility, we are going to have a fall Border Wars in Mason City Iowa for 2011. It’s up to us Iowa clubs to get out and make it a good one by getting sponsors and doing the advance legwork to make it all happen. We have a leg up in that there is a HUGE farm supply store just a stones throw from the Fairgrounds in Mason City, with a Super Target right next door. This is our chance to produce a larger scale type shoot in our state.
Our shoot in Mason C ity in May was a great one. Weather was so nice everyone decided to ride and shoot in the outdoor arena rather than go inside. We drew shooters from surrounding states, probably due in some part to them all knowing we had an indoor arena at our disposal if we needed to use it due to muddy conditions. Looks like we will be having a couple of events at Mason City at the Northern Iowa fairgrounds for the 2011 season. It’s got all the stalls and electrical hookups for camping we could ever ask for, as well as showers and flush toilets on the grounds.
2010 Horse Fair is in the books~~~WHAT GREAT WEATHER~~~everyone enjoyed the warmth and fun, results can be viewed on this site under the results tab. We had lots of interest at our booth that Brenda Viers took care of while we were shooting and most of the rest of the weekend too. Congrats to Neil Spoden for winning AND shooting clean both Saturday and Sunday at the Horse Fair, wear your buckle with pride Neil. Marlene Harizal took top honors for the ladies buckle, but not without a fight. Sara Stahmer was in the lead going into Sunday, but had some tuff luck with misses. All in all the ladies race was very close. Congrats to Marlene for having her very first clean shoot on Sunday. Our target setters were the best, thanks to Mike Wertz for lining them up.
Officers for the 2010 year are as follows.
President~~Jim Gates
Vice President~~ Mike Wertz
Sec-Treas~~Ann Juel
We have tentative dates for the 2010 year as well
April 10-11 Iowa Horse Fair~~DesMoines, Iowa
May 15-16 Mason City, Iowa
May 29-31 Border Wars at Montfort, Wisc where we will host on the 29th
June 26 New shooter/horse clinic in Marshalltown Iowa
June 26-27 Gotcha covered shoot at Marshalltown
July 31-Aug 1 Osage Iowa
Aug 21-22 North Central Regionals at Albert Lea, Minnesota
Sept 25-26 Iowa State Championship at Marshalltown, Iowa
October 9-10 Covered Bridge Festival, Winterset, Iowa
Eastern Iowa club’s dates so far are Schone’s in Milan Ill on July 3-4 and Aug 14-15, Lightners at Monticello Iowa on June 5-6 and Oct 2-3. The Eastern Iowa club may add some more later.
Lots of our members joined for the 2010 year at the meeting. If you were unable to make it, please join as soon as possible. Also anyone interested, PLEASE take the rangemaster test. It’s only a $25 one time fee, and it’s a great way to learn more about mounted shooting. I think if you take the test, it will make you more secure and confident at all the matches, as you are more aware and certain of all of the CMSA rules.
The CMSA is undergoing some major changes. Now is the time for us to support our organization and help them thru these changes the best we can. I do believe they are trying to make it better for all of us.
Eric Viers CMSA# 3990~~~IACMSA publisist