Ranch Sorting - A Great Way to Flaunt Your Cattle Working Skills

Ranch Sorting photo courtesy of hughpickens.com

The sport of Team Penning is becoming hugely popular in Australia, with Clubs growing fast and events scheduled almost every weekend across the country.

Now another cattle working sport from the US, which is growing in popularity in that country, is emerging as a great way to have fun with horses and cows - Ranch Sorting.

The Team Penning Australia Inc website calls the sport Arena Sorting and is predicting that it's going to take off in Australia as it has in the USA. The website lists judges who are accredited for Team Penning and Arena Sorting.

Both Team Penning and Ranch Sorting evolved from the work that cowboys and cowgirls do every day on the ranch — separating cattle into pens for branding or doctoring, rounding them up for transport by truck or train, or simply moving cattle from one pasture to another. 

In Ranch Sorting, the work is performed in a figure-eight layout of pens about 100 feet long. The narrow spot at the middle is about 10 feet wide.

The competition starts with 11 cattle wearing large numbers on their shoulders in one of the pens. A team of two riders sorts the animals, beginning with the number called out by the announcer, and herd them into the other pen, one at a time and in numerical order, all within a certain time.

If two cows squeeze through at once, or one slips through out of order, or the allotted time elapses with one or more animals still in the starting pen, the team's set is disqualified with the call, “No time!”

It will be interesting to see if Ranch Sorting, or Arena Sorting as it seems to be called in Australia, does take off here and become as popular as Team Penning!

Check out these samples of the action from the AQHA World Show...