Sorting & Penning Sporting Event

In Penning, teams of three horse and rider combinations use their combined athleticism, horsemanship and general cowboy knowledge to humanely separate cows and herd them into the penning area in under 60 seconds. Time is of the essence, making this challenging sport even more exciting! In seconds, the most skilled horses and riders can find their specified cow, separate it from the herd and move it to the penning area.

Ranch sorting requires that two riders move a herd of ten cattle in numerical order from one round pen into a separate adjoining pen in sixty seconds or less. There is a twelve foot opening between the two pens, and also two un-numbered cows that are mingled throughout the herd. In both penning and sorting, the numbers do matter – so any cow that crosses the line, either out of order or carrying the wrong number, will result in a ‘no time’ for the team.