Little Cowboys in a parade for 2017 Rodeo Houston on March 4, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

HOUSTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Guns aren't holstered long as horse-mounted cowboys or cowgirls sight their targets and hurtle through obstacles at break-neck speed, pulling back the hammer of single-action .45 pistols, revolvers or rifles, taking aim and firing multiple rounds on their jagged path to enthusiastic applause.

At the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the world's largest of its kind, the Cowboy Mounted Shooting -- one of the newest events to hit the rodeo circuit and a spectacle rivaling classic Western movie scenes -- is rising in popularity with audiences and contestants, just as it is across the nation.

The Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association calls the event the fastest growing equestrian sport in the nation. Contestants in Friday's competition of the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association) Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association World Championship at Houston's rodeo agree.

It's a family-friendly event, say the teenagers and adults who have come from around the country to compete.

In this test, they say, guns fire blanks only and the targets to be blown apart per ride are a series of six red or blue balloons floating on an obstacle course.

The only enemy is time, and to leave all 10 balloons in plastic shreds while maneuvering a horse to complete the course in 10 to 13 seconds takes skill, agility, speed and horse sense, said Bo Buss, age 15.

"I've spent most of my life on the back of a horse," said Buss, a home-schooled high school sophomore from his family's ranch in northern Oklahoma. "But when you go into the arena, you start thinking about all the things that could go wrong."

There are more than 80 possible courses, with varying levels of complexity, but only three in Houston's competition for all skill and age ranges, amateurs to select and teenagers to seniors.

Buss competed in Friday's Youth Division against his 17-year-old brother, Taylor, and 14 other teens for first- to fourth-place goodies -- jackets, trophies, silver and gold belt buckles -- and cash prizes of 492 to 1,968 U.S. dollars.

Bo's father, Jacob, 52-year-old owner of a 2,000-acre Oklahoma cattle ranch, father, came to watch his sons compete. As with other contestants, the Buss entourage included bringing horses the riders had trained in the sport, as well as personal weapons with specially made blank cartridges.

Jacob Buss said cowboy mounted shooting started in 1991 and the first official competition was held the following year, with the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association beginning in 1994.

"Love of horses is one thing that makes people like this, and it's really popular. You like the horses, like the shooting and the guns, and the good people involved in this sport," Jacob Buss said.

Winning, he said, is a collaboration between human and equestrian.

"You've got to get the horse trained, with the guns firing and the balloons popping it can be a distraction," he said. "And you've got to have a horse with a good handle, one that turns easy."

Martha Hallman, 58, has competed more than eight years as a cowboy mounted shooter and has reached skill level three, in the exact middle of the spectrum.

"It goes up to level six," said Hallman who divides her time between homes in Houston and a rural Texas horse farm. "You have to win four competitions to advance to the next level. Level one is like beginners and level two is much faster. At level five, though, you have to win five to move to level six."

Hallman said she and her husband both enjoy competing in the sport.

"I like it because it is very family oriented," she said. "And I like to ride horses and I like to shoot anyway."

Bobbie Brown, 67, owner of Rio Foods vegetable farms, said that like Jacob Bass, he also came to cheer on his participating family member, his 26-year-old daughter Cassie Brown who has won several world championship buckles and trophies from cowboy mounted shooting groups, as well as English and Western riding competitions, said her father.

He proudly showed his iphone screen-saver photo of 3-year-old Cassie smiling from the back of a horse.

"The cowboy mounted shooting has contests for little kids," Brown said. "They have little ponies and plastic (water) guns... It's a great sport for the whole family."

In the top range of competition, open to all teens through seniors and all skill levels, where a first-place win nets 3,205 U.S. dollars, it's still the love of the sport that keeps contestants frequently honing both their riding and shooting skills in practice for the next event.

"You certainly don't do it to get rich," Brown said. "Even if you win, you only, maybe, make back some of your expenses. These people, they don't do it for the money."