Shoot the horses

While I could easily accept the idea of a gunfighter coming back from the dead and, why not, reading minds, I can't accept the idea of 25 or so hired killers shooting 200 times at the logs protecting Steve Forrest. I presume they would have shot one of the horses who would have fallen and brought the whole team down, catapulting Steve Forrest onto the roadway and breaking his neck properly. Must have been hard to get good help in those days.