Cover

On The Cover

 

Ask Jimmie Allen about his fellow Missouri Cowboy Stu Townlian, and he’ll tell you that Stu is a handy man to have around.

 

Add to that: snake killer. Allen and Townlian were in Wyoming in June when a six-foot snake came at them. “Stu dispatched it with a scoop shovel to the head,” says Jimmie.

 

A balloon doesn’t stand a chance.

So the bottom line is that Stu Townlian is a man of many parts. And he’s needed them, considering the roller coaster life he’s been on in his 38 years. That includes mounted shooting.
 

Too Many Tasks, Too Little Time

Before we get into the back-story, here’s a few things you need to know about Stu.  He’s been married to Sherry for 14 years, and they have two kids, Scott (12) and Sarah (8). The whole family is involved in mounted shooting.

 

For the last 10 years, Stu has owned a masonry firm in western Missouri. He has two farms, running cattle and 10-12 head of horses that he trains and sells. He and Sherry (who works for the railroad) also take care of some other real estate properties they own.

 

And he invests time in his kids: “I take them to their baseball games and gymnastics and their practices and swimming and everything else. And my wife travels quite a bit, so I’ll feed ‘em at night. We’re pretty close.”

 

It’s obvious that Stu is well organized and has his priorities straight. That explains why he’s only hit 10 to 15 shoots per year in the last few years. It’s a change for a guy who was once at the top of the Cowboy Mounted Shooting ladder.

 

But that’s part of the roller coaster life of Stu Townlian.

 

The Back-story

Stu’s a Missourian, born and bred, who grew up on his grandfather’s farm just east of Springfield. He still remembers the first time he was on a horse, when he was five or six: “I was a little timid, a little cautious.  But I definitely liked it.”

 

His dad roped in competition, and Stu joined him in that as he grew a little older.  It was a good time, and kept the two Townlian men close.

 

But the good times came to an end when Stu was 18. First, his older brother was killed in a motorcycle accident. Five days later, his father died. The young man gave up roping and concentrated on being the man in the family (he has an older sister, too).

 

When you’re 17-18 years old, you think you’re grown up and that nothing can bother you,” Stu says today. “But there were a few tough years there. We made it through. But it was pretty tough.”

 

Things started to change when he married Sherry in 1995. They moved to Kansas City for a job. But the big city wasn’t a good fit, and they moved back to the farm a year later.

 

“When we moved back, I got into training some colts. And I’d go to the horse sales a lot,” Stu remembers. “And around 1998, I was at a horse sale, and Danny Plaster and Gary Hannah said, ‘You need to come by. We’re wanting to show mounted shooting and get you involved.’”

 

It was a good idea—except Stu wasn’t turned on by the sport. “I thought this isn’t really something I want to do. That don’t really appeal to me too much. So I started taking some young horses down there and getting them used to the gunfire, thinking it would be a good way to sell them. And one night I got on Gary Dabney’s horse and shot some. And I thought, ‘You know, it is kinda fun.’ So I got going to their practices and just kinda got into it.”

 

On the Upswing

At the time, Stu was going to local shoots, with nary a thought about moving up. Until mid 2000, that is. “Probably a month or two before the Worlds, we had a shoot in Nixa, Missouri. I wasn’t going to Worlds,” he says. “And Gary Hannah got me up behind the barn and said to me, ‘You know, you can ride as good as anybody and better than most. And you’ve got a horse that will do it—if you’ll just go do it.’”

 

So he went—and won his class (see Townlian Trophies for more of Stu’s accomplishments). He repeated that feat in each of the following three years—and each time, he was just a hair away from winning the overall title. He couldn’t do much better.

 

But Stu was a bit disappointed that he hadn’t gotten the really big buckle. Besides, by this time he had two small kids, and after losing his own dad, it was even more important that he be there for them. The masonry business was requiring a lot of time, as were the farms. “I thought I’d kinda lay off a little bit. And I changed horses.”

 

And Down Again

The new horse was named Skip, and he and Stu went to quite a few shoots over the next four or so years. But that partnership ended tragically last November. Townlian left Skip at home and went to the Worlds in Amarillo.  While he was gone, in a freak accident, Skip broke his leg in a pasture; the horse had to be put down. 

 

It was back to square one.

That square was (and is) a sorrel named Billy (see Stu’s Steed). It’s not been the smoothest of rides thus far. But Stu seems bound and determined to make things work—even if he doesn’t have much time to work Billy. It’s frustrating for a guy who is pretty quiet on the outside, but who has the competitive fire on the inside: “I’ll get out there and try as much as anyone does, but you’ve got to have that horse that whatever you ask him, he turns and gets back around.”

 

But we’re not going to end this on a sour note. Stu enjoys the camaraderie and fellowship that’s so unique to mounted shooting—especially with his traveling partner Jimmie Allen. That’s what’s kept him in the game, he admits, especially when things aren’t going well.

 

And he thinks that in a year or two, he’ll be able to up the number of shoots he attends—and he looks forward to that.
So for this Missouri handyman, the roller coaster is headed back up. Don’t be surprised if he once again hits the top of Cowboy Mounted Shooting.
 

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