Old West aficionados will be in store for a treat in August when the Freeborn Country Fairgrounds will host the North Central Regional mounted shooting competition.

Mounted shooting is a competition fashioned after competitions that took place in the 1800s. Riders will run a course and fire at 10 balloons using blanks from .45-caliber single shot revolvers.

The event will be held Aug. 21-23 at the fairgrounds as participants will compete in shooting events much like those from the 1800s.

The entire event will have an 1800s-feel as participants will dress in western attire and fire replica guns from that era.

Riders are scored on time and accuracy with a five-second penalty for dropping a gun, a 10-second penalty for not running the course correctly and a 60-second penalty for falling off the horse. A typical pattern can run from 15 to 35 seconds.

The North Central Regional is an event for participants to gain points toward moving on to the world competition in November, held in Amarillo, Texas.

“I really expect in Albert Lea to have a lot of people coming and going,”said Kerri Steinbrecher, who is the Minnesota Mounted Shooters Association vice president. “I think people really do enjoy to watch it.”

Albert Lea was chosen as the site because of it served as a central location for competitors from Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Minnesota boasts some of the country’s finest shooters like Chad Little, who holds five world records, Steinbrecher said.

The Regionals will be limited to 85 main match riders and will begin Aug. 21 and end on Aug. 23.

On Aug. 21 there will be a Hollywood shootout while Aug. 22 will serve as the main competition day.

Beginning at 8:30 a.m. there will be two stages of rifle competition and three stages of pistol competition.

On the final day there will be Cowboy Church with Randy Gunn of Gunn Point Ministries beginning at 8 a.m. The three final stages of the pistol competition will follow at 9:30 a.m. with awards following.

Though there’s probably not much competition, mounted shooting is the fastest growing equestrian sport in the nation, according to the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association Web site.

Cowboy Mounted Shooting was first conceived by Jim Rodgers, a life-long appreciator of Colt Single Action Army revolvers.

Although mounted shooting competitions have existed since the time of the Wild West, the first Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association competition took place in 1992.

There are three divisions and six classes in each division. There is also a Wrangler class for children 11 and under.