GILROY
– Old Buckaroo was sitting in a tent along with Rio Bigg,
Outback Annie and California Girl at the annual trail championships
in April of 2000 when the four old west aficionados came up with an
idea to start up a local horseback club.
GILROY – Old Buckaroo was sitting in a tent along with Rio Bigg, Outback Annie and California Girl at the annual trail championships in April of 2000 when the four old west aficionados came up with an idea to start up a local horseback club.
After a drive up to Placerville to watch another club’s practice, the foursome returned home with some ideas of their own and started up the first practice of the Gilroy Range Riders in neighboring Morgan Hill.
“It’s an 1880’s type old west (club). It’s a re-creation of the old west with two single action revolvers. We use blanks of course,” said Steve ‘Old Buckaroo’ Holland, the club president.
“It gives us a chance to live out our fantasies. We all remember the days of watching old movies of the wild west. We wanted to do something that we were only able to watch when we were kids.”
Starting with only four members, the Gilroy Range Riders – who practice bi-monthly on Dryden Road in Gilroy on the first Saturday of every month and in Lahunda on the third Sunday of every month – are now 34 members strong.
“We’re growing,” said Old Buckaroo, who was voted best dressed cowboy in the trail for two years running. “It’s mostly fun and a few guys are above average and really compete. Most of it is fun, though.”
In a little more than two years since the club’s inception, the accolades are already rolling in with four world champions and three top-3 riders at the April 9-13 Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) World Championship in Norco. The SASS has 50,000 members nationwide.
The Gilroy Range Riders compete in mounted shooting competitions – while there is also ground shooting events.
The riders must shoot 10 balloons using two six-shooters. They are on horseback and must weave through different courses. To place, a rider must shoot all the balloons and complete the course. The new sport combines both speed and shooting accuracy.
“It’s actually quite a feat to pull this off,” said Gilroy Range Rider board member Jim Bloomquist, whose son Benjamin was one of four world champs. “There’s so many tangibles.”
The 13-year-old rider, called ‘Buffalo Ben’, competed at the junior level for ages 13-16. There are five basic levels for riders to compete in.
In Men’s 1s, Dan ‘Frisco Bob’ Milliken won the world championship, while Range Rider teammate Geof “Kid Dilligaf’ Goldstein took third place.
In the Ladies’ 1s, Gilroyan Sharon ‘Blackheart Bell’ Johnson placed third.
In the Ladies’ 2s, ‘Outback’ Annie Secoy, of Gilroy, brought home the world title with Judy ‘California Girl’ Stewart, of Gilroy, placing second – which is called the reserve champion.
The fourth champion came in the Men’s 2s as Greg ‘California Confederate Kid’ Garcia, of Half Moon Bay, was the top rider.
“Just about anybody can do it, but it’s not too often you bring home four world championships,” Bloomquist said.
Although most of the riders competing were from the United States, there were participants from Australia and England. There were six courses run through at the tournament. All the times are added together to determine the winners. Time is added for missed balloons and veering off the course.
The six-shooters contain black powder that is strong enough to pop the balloon from 18 feet away.
“It’s the same thing they use in the movies,” Bloomquist said. “We use theatrical powder blanks. It’s 100 percent, perfectly safe.”
Along with the riding and shooting, each participant dresses up in authentic old west gear and has a nickname to go by so the events give a total cowboy feel.
The Gilroy Range Riders try to compete in at least two matches per year – although the sport is expanding with each new club that starts up. The local group has its own Web site at gilroyrangeriders.com.
