A commitment to push herself out of her comfort zone drew Judy Wright to the sport of cowboy mounted shooting
KENDAL, Sask. — At age 68, some are looking for ways to slow down.
Not Judy Wright. She is looking for ways to speed up.
The Regina psychologist gets on a fast horse several times a week, straps a loaded gun to her waist and shoots black-powder blanks off that horse’s back.
“I’m going to keep going until I can’t. I have no end date,” says the grandmother of two, who not only rides but competes and was the 2022 senior ladies II reserve high-point Canadian champion awarded at the Canadian finals in Stettler, Alta., this fall.
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Wright grew up in Moose Jaw and only started riding at age 55. She decided to make her life-long dream of owning a horse a reality when she came across an older mare named Jolie.
“I had no idea where to put this horse or how to ride,” says Wright, giggling at the thought of how little she knew about horses when she started out in 2009. “I was even terrified to get the horse from the pasture.”
Those early years of trepidation slowly transformed into confidence as Wright learned to catch her horse, put on a saddle and ride with proficiency. The desire to keep growing as a rider led her to Cain Quam Performance Horses in Kendal, Sask., in 2010, where she thrived under the tutelage of accomplished Canadian horse trainer Cain Quam.
Both Quam and Wright fondly remember those early years.
“She’s just so stubborn,” laughs Quam of Wright’s learning style. “She has lots of resolve so when she decides she’s going to do something, she gets ahold of it and she gets it done.”
After two years of mastering the basics of riding, Wright was ready to move up to a more accomplished horse. In 2012, she bought a tall, athletic cutting horse named Jasper from the Quam herd.
“I remember coming out here and thinking, ‘oh my God, I’m so terrified to get on, I’m so terrified to trot, I’m so terrified to lope’,” said Wright.
Despite her fear, her commitment to push herself out of her comfort zone was always greater — an attribute she says comes out of her career as a full-time psychologist at her practice Gateways Counselling.
“Getting over my fears in the barn helps me identify with my clients’ struggles and helps me to teach them that their limiting beliefs or thoughts shouldn’t stop them.”
Once Wright had succeeded at loping consistently with Jasper, she knew she could take on cowboy mounted shooting. Wright’s doubts about being able to shoot a gun from Jasper’s back were swirling in her mind as she learned to load her first .45 single-action revolver in training.
“I remember that during my first clinic I was shaking and for the first two years, I just trotted the patterns,’” says Wright, pointing out that Quam was the one who convinced her she could actually be competitive in the sport.
‘It was a perfect storm that came together — the right horse, the right rider with the right mindset and the right trainer just all kind of lined up,” says Quam.
Wright now covers a 10-balloon pattern at a lope in about 20 seconds, having won numerous titles in her age category over the years.
While Wright takes credit for her perseverance, she says she owes much of her success to Jasper, Quam and to her husband, Dave Beriault. Beriault used to ride until health issues sidelined him so he can now be seen saddling Jasper, volunteering at shoots and taking care of feeding Wright and her support team on any given day.
“I’m the ground crew,” laughs Beriault, age 72, adding that travelling to training sessions and shoots has become a way of life for the couple.
They’ve faced the highs and the lows together, one of the lows being when Jasper stepped in a wasp nest at a shoot, receiving more than 50 bites but not bucking until a fellow shooter pulled Wright from the saddle. Emergency veterinary treatment was required for Jasper, but he made a full recovery.
Quam says not every non-rider could do what Wright has done.
“To have somebody come in later in life to learn something so complex and so involved and be so good at, it’s just inspirational.”
