Features

Talking Senior - This Ain’t No Kid Stuff!

It’s better to burn out
than it is to rust…
Neil Young, “My My
Hey Hey”

 

Neil Young never met Wayne Riggs—I don’t even know if Wayne has ever listened to Neil Young—but that line fits him to a “T”.

 

Wayne is 67 years old, 68 come August, and he was an airline pilot until mandatory retirement at 60.  He was in good health and not anxious to go sit in a rocking chair on some porch, watching life pass by.  “I’ve seen it so many times with my former colleagues at the airlines.  They didn’t have any hobbies, and they went home and sat down. I think if you work to 60, the average age an airline pilot passes away is at 62.  That’ll give you a little motivation.”

 

So when his partner, SL5 Lynne Merrick introduced him to mounted shooting some six years ago, well, he was rarin’ to go: “I like to be competitive, and I like riding.  And all my life I’d been a hunter, so I had some pretty good gun skills. But you’ve just got to put them all together.  And once you’ve got them working for you, it’s a lot of fun.”

 

A lot of older folks—men and women—have found that fun in mounted shooting.

 

The Numbers
CMSA created the Seniors Divisions back in 2000—“We had enough competitors that it made a lot of sense to level the playing field a bit,” remembers founder Jim Rodgers. 

 

• The requirements, then and now: men must be at least 55 years old, women 48.
  
• Competitors don’t have to join the Seniors when they reach that age.
  
• As of the end of May, there were nearly 7700 CMSA cardholders.
  
• Of that total, 1863 qualified for Seniors status.
  
• Less than half of them—727 riders—actually compete in the Seniors Divisions.
  
• The Seniors is growing fast, partly because riders are reaching the age requirement and partly because more older folks are just discovering mounted shooting.

 

The Backgrounds
Mounted shooting Seniors come from various backgrounds. Many, like SM6 Roy Cox, grew up with horses and started riding when they were three or four years old.  A bunch of them competed in roping, barrel racing, or other equestrian events. Often, they still work with horses, raising and training and buying and selling.  Some, like SM6 Rick Deckena, come from a different place: “My wife and I bought our first set of horses about seven years ago, just to have something to do when the kids left the house.”

 

Why Do They Do It?
The Seniors are attracted by a number of factors. Many are like Lynne Merrick: “My husband died and I just needed to do something and fill my time up.  I wasn’t going to just sit back and grow old.”  Senior shooters are looking for a fun way to keep busy and fit. Most have a competitive nature, and mounted shooting gives them a chance to feel the adrenaline rush of riding hard and shooting fast.

 

Of course, as SM3 Marty Luffman notes, it’s a chance to experience the cowboy fantasy, galloping fast and shooting a gun. “We remember the good old days of the Old West on TV.  And our heroes come from those days—the ‘30s, the ‘40s, the ‘50s, the ‘60s—and we’re reliving it doing this.  We’re dressing the part.”

 

Then there’s the mounted shooting community. It’s a group of folks who don’t hesitate to loan horses, guns, whatever to competitors in need. SM5 Dan App says, “I’ve been in quite a few equestrian things, and you just don’t see the camaraderie and the family atmosphere that you see in this sport.  It’s just amazing.”  And he should know. App had a heart attack at a recent shoot (see sidebar), and he was overwhelmed by the cards, letters, calls and emails of concern that came from his friends in the sport. A week later, just talking about it brought tears to his eyes.

 

It’s a family-friendly environment.  And many seniors attend shoots with children and grandchildren—sometimes they compete against them.  More of than not, they can share their experience and wisdom with the younger generations, which is all too rare in the modern world. It’s true quality time, something that older folks can really appreciate.

 

And there’s the pleasure that Seniors get just by competing, according to SM4 Gary Wilson. “When you get to my age, I’ve only got to satisfy one person. If I come out of there, and even if I miss or whatever, if me and my horse put on a decent presentation then I’m happy inside.  I don’t have to be first; I can be a hundred and first.”

 

The Obstacles of Age
The Seniors are quick to admit that they face some challenges that younger riders don’t. Rick Deckena says, “The younger riders are more agile.  They can turn and spin.  Their reaction time is probably twice as fast as ours. They’ve definitely got an edge.  Steve Wilson and Chad Little, they can turn 180 degrees in the saddle and shoot a target behind them, and we’re still thinking about it.”

 

Lynne Merrick—who’s 65 and been in the sport for nine years—says she doesn’t have the stamina she once had.  “To go to a match and do three stages, and then run the Pro, and then run in the Eliminator, to ask for that adrenaline five times during a day, I can feel that. It’s not easy.”

 

And as Roy Cox notes, there are some aches and pains that come with getting older: “I take a handful of ibuprofen every morning.  And I’ve had people say, ‘How many of those things do you take?’ And I tell them that if you have to count them, they don’t work.”

 

But Cox adds that some of those disadvantages aren’t so bad when you’re competing against folks of your own age.

 

The Older Advantage
And most of the Seniors say there’s actually some advantages.  Greater patience. Maturity. Knowledge. Jim Rodgers says it’s a wisdom that comes from having been there before: “I’m not the athlete like Chad Little or these other younger guys, so I have to use my assets.  And my assets are experience and being able to think it out and take advantage of it.”  Obviously it works for Jim, who at age 65 is still one of the top riders in the sport.

 

Burnt Out? Not Yet
Most of the Seniors aren’t even contemplating an end to their competitive careers.  When Jim Rodgers says, “I figure I’ve only got about 35 good years left of mounted shooting,” he’s speaking for a lot of his colleagues.

 

Heck, most don’t even regret getting older.  “I’ve never heard one person wish they were young again,” says Marty Luffman.  “We respect the younger folks, we look up to them, we applaud them for what they do.  But I wouldn’t trade my age, my lifestyle, or anything I’ve got right now for youth.  I thought I was happy when I was young.  I’m euphoric now.”

 

Hey, Neil Young—are you listening?
 

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