Horseback shooting question

[Diesel40]

Hello,

My father-in-law is about the biggest cowboy I now.  He has been riding and roping since he was a small kid.  He has been thinking about trying some CAS stuff and is mostly interested in shooting horseback.  He asked me if I could find out how to reload some loads for him for this.  He said that he spoke with someone not too long ago that told him he make blank loads for this with half a charge and a piece of cardboard cut a little larger than the shell.  He said he cuts the cardboard from soap boxes.  This was all the info he really new and is obviously not enough to make a load from.  Do any of you have experience with this or know where to point me to find out about it. 

He has a 38 revolver that he got from a friend and wants to start breaking his horses in just by doing some shooting around the barn.  He knows not to start to close.  He has some awesome horses and mules and mostly uses them for pleasure riding, roping, and has 3 different teams that he pulls an assortment of carts with.   He said that even if he doesn't get into the shooting from horseback that he still wants to break them in with a pistol because a few weeks ago while driving on team the neighbor was in the back shooting when he drove by and the horses spooked a little.  He wants to add this to his routing for breaking his horses/mules. 

Thanks.

[kid buckskin]

my papa calud broke his horses of spookin  he started with a a 22 and got them used to that and progresed to the louder stuff slowly then got horse back and with the 22 again shot off the back, progresion is the key!

[Sir Charles deMoutonBlack]

I havn't been aboard a horse for about 25 years, but I understand that CAS mounted competition is always done with .45 Colt revolvers and blanks supplied by the host club.  Your question is about starting horses getting used to the noise and I understand that the key is progression.

[Dee]

Some take to it better than others, but most can be broke. When a kid I used to find a fresh plowed field with nothing yet planted in it. That way, if I actually got thrown, it didn't hurt much. After not too many rounds the horse usually accepted the new addition to the routine and all was well.
My friends and I found that we could bend a little over the saddle, and ride right up on a pond of geese and or ducks. And we started killing a lot more geese and ducks with that tactic. I not sure what the game warden would have thought about it though. This was back in the 60s and early seventies, long before action shooting, but I doubt horses are any different now.

[Diesel40]

Does any of you know about how to load these loads?
We are aware of the fact that you have to use progression.  His animals are some of the best broke animals that I have seen.  One of the processes that he uses, and this is not with all of them, is that through a series of steps the animal is introduced to the sound of a bull whip.  The animal is Never Touched with the whip but the whip is used to make that pop noise around them to introduced them to load noises like that.  The way that this is preformed without going into a ton of detail does not puts the animal in any  harms way possible. 
I am mostly curious about the load.  Thanks

[hillbill]

my dad and mom do cowboy mounted shooting. it is where you shoot blank 45 colt at baloons mounted on stiks about 4 ft high in a specific pattern.the black powder in the blanks breaks the baloons and it is a timed event. yea i know souns kinda crazy but ive tried it and it aint that easy.shooting off a horse at top speed at anything is not easy.a good horse can run so fast that just cocking the revolver between targets is quite a challenge.my dad is near 80 and is very competitive in the senior division, wich i beleive is everyone 50 and over.he won a saddle just the other day at a finals shoot.anyway. on a well broke horse he just starts shooting and holds on, you would be surprised how well they take it.on more skittish colts they start with 22 blanks.understand tho, my dad is a old time cowboy that can make a horse do things yu or i cud never.he loads his own practice loads by half filling a 45 colt shell with black powder and shoveing a card wad down on it with a wood dowle rod.he cuts his own wads with a hardened punch he had a machinest make.if i remember, he also drills the primer pockets out to 1/8 in i think.he does action jobs on his vaqeros and uses the bisley hammers for quicker cocking.as far as putting the horse in any harm, yu do have to be carefull to not shoot yur horse in the neck with the blanks and he does use two balls of sheep wool on a thong stuk in the horses ear for their hearing protection.holler at me if ya got any questions.

[guzzijohn]

I think it was on Guntalk on the radio a couple of weeks ago that they had a horse trainer on that specializes in CAS training with horses. He stated that progression of the noise is important but the most important thing is always have the horse eating grain or some other favorite food while shooting around them, then progress to riding after the horse is comfortable with the noise.
GuzziJohn

[Rickk]

You can accomplish miracles with large animals while their face is buried in their supper. For some reason, breakfast is touchier. I think that at suppertime they are more tired and just wanna eat and go relax.