By Danielle Dullinger
Murphy News Service
Two St. Michael, Minn. brothers made history when they won the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association overall world title and overall reserve world title in October.
The world competition took place in Texas and featured almost 400 competitors riding horses through courses and shooting targets. Chad Little, 26, was named world champion in the event. Younger brother Charlie Little, 24, received second place honors.
Cowboy mounted shooting is gaining popularity nationwide and is becoming increasingly popular in Minnesota, the Littles said. Cowboys ride on horseback during the timed competition and shoot at targets which are balloons on PVC pipes, Chad Little said.
Two .45 caliber single action revolvers are used. Single action means you have to pull the hammer before each time you shoot, Chad Little said.
The Little brothers compete in 20 to 30 competitions a year, Chad Little said. Since the brothers began in 2000, Charlie Little has won overall world champion title once and overall reserve world champion twice, Debbie Little, the brothers’ mother said. Chad Little has won overall world champion twice and overall reserve world champion once, she said
Through five stages, Chad Little’s total time was 76.232 seconds, and Charlie Little’s total time was 76.631. The lowest time wins, and they each beat out the third place winner by almost two seconds.
“It was their weekend,” Debbie Little said.
The brothers are competitive, but insist they want the other to succeed.
“It was good my brother won the overall [world champion title],” Charlie Little said. “If it would have been anybody else, I would have been disappointed in myself. Any time you walk out with one and two, it doesn’t matter who gets it.”
Chad Little has the same views.
“We always look at it as it gives us two chances to win,” Chad Little said.
The Littles compete and train and sell horses as a full-time job, they said. The brothers own The Little Ranch which houses approximately 40-70 horses at any given point, they said. They sell 30-50 horses each year. At a recent competition with 45 horses, only 15 of the riders were not riding Little horses, Charlie Little said.
In addition to selling horses, the Littles provide lessons, clinics and “just about anything in riding,” Charlie Little said.
Danielle Dullinger is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.
For more information on The Little Ranch, visit http://littlesperformancehorses.com/