The Arena

Rock Clark in Action

Now a mounted-shooting veteran, Rock Clark is coming off his best season in the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association. So far, this year hasn’t been too shabby either. But he’s got just one goal in mind for 2009, and that’s to win the world championship in Amarillo, Texas, this November.

Q: How did you get into the sport?
A: A buddy of mine came to me one day to look at a horse. He told me about mounted shooting and took me to a little backyard where they were practicing the sport. They put a set of guns on me and that’s how I got started. I’ve ridden horses all my life—ever since I was able to get to a stump or a fence post and climb on. I’ve hunted all my life, so the guns and horses kind of came naturally.

Q: What about the sport is most appealing?
A: I’ve never done any type of a sport that was this much fun and yet challenging at the same time. I’ve done barrel racing and pole bending, but this one is really humbling. I might be on top of my game this week, but the next week I can’t hit the broad side of a barn. But what I really like is my family does the sport with me. My 15-year-old son, Cody, is one of the top shooters in the nation. My wife, Terri, shoots with us too.

Q: You won the Eastern and National Championships in 2008. What goals do you have left?
A: I’m still after that world championship. I’ve been close several times, but it’s always been a little bit of bad luck that kept me from getting there—a missed balloon here or a dropped gun there. It’s just got to be your day to win against so many talented shooters. So I’m after the world championship. There’s no question that if I can go in and ride my ride, I’ve got a horse I truly believe no one can touch. He’s solid, fast and pretty special.

Q: What can you tell me about your horse?
A: Joker is a 9-year-old Paint. I’ve had him for two years now. His raw time is always in the top five at national events. There aren’t many horses that can run with him. He is so catty, which can be a problem if I’m not careful. He’s so catty that if I cue him just a touch, he goes. He is 16 hands or so, but very athletic.

Q: Does he work better in bigger arenas?
A: It’s funny you say that. I had a horse before him named Dragon who’s about a 15-hand Paint. I also won nationals and eastern on him. Joker is actually a better all-around horse than Dragon was. There are some smaller pens that Dragon should have excelled in and Joker is actually better in those pens than Dragon. Joker is better all-around horse than smaller horses. The patterns that have us running into the wall at an angle, he has problems with those. He doesn’t want to run into the smaller corners. But other than that, he’s rock solid.

Q: How much effort does it take to acclimate a horse to gun fire?
A: Learning the shooting part comes pretty easily. I ride them and they start trusting me. When I do train a horse to gunfire, I consider the horse and not me. When I ride a horse into the arena for the first time, I couldn’t care if I hit one balloon or all of them. I let the horse adapt to the gunfire, the balloons disappearing and the smoke. All my horses seem to have taken to it pretty good.

Q: How long before your son catches up to you as level 6 shooter?
A: The way he’s going right now, within the next year or two he should be a level 6. Everyone shoots in their own class, but everyone is also in the running for the overall title at our matches. He has won overall at some events and beaten the top guys. So in a sense we are shooting against him right now. As far as shooting against him, I look forward to it. I love watching him ride, love watching him shoot. I’d just as soon watch him as do it myself. This is our family time and our time together. As long as we’re able to do it, we’re all going to keep doing it.

Q: Did the top shooters intimidate you at your first national finals?
A: I remember thinking I was pretty good when I got to my first nationals. I quickly found out I was a very small fish in a big pond. There were guys outrunning me by two or three seconds per stage—not per match—per stage. It was a real eye-opener. So I had to sit back, watch and learn. I’ve learned little tricks from a lot of these guys through the years.

Q: What was the toughest part of learning to compete in mounted shooting?
A: Course management. I’ve been around horses and guns most of my life, so putting the two together wasn’t that difficult. But I couldn’t understand how to run the courses. I was running the course the same direction as the top shooters, but I was two or three seconds behind them. I soon found out there are ways to take each course that require a few less steps. Once I got that down, things got easier for me. It’s amazing that a stride here or there can make such a difference in one stage. Even today after so many years in the sport, I can run a stage and then watch someone run it a different way after me and wonder why I didn’t think of that. Little things you wouldn’t think of can make the difference between winning and losing.

To learn more about mounted shooting, visit cowboymountedshooting.com.