What is Team Penning and Ranch Sorting?

 Team Penning is a western equestrian sport that evolved from the common ranch work of separating cattle into pens for branding, doctoring, or transport.

Today it is a fast-paced and exciting event that gives a team of three riders on horseback from 60 to 75 seconds (depending on the class or the sanctioning of the event) to separate three same-numbered cattle from a herd of 30, and put them into a 16' x 24' pen through a 10' opening, at the opposite end of the arena.

The sport features 30 head of cattle, typically yearling beef cattle (mature cows or bulls are not allowed), with numbers affixed to their back, three each of each number 1 through 0. A run starts once the line judge has dropped his flag as the lead rider's horse crosses the foul line. At that time, the announcer gives out a randomly drawn number, such as "Your number is seven". The riders then know that they must cut out the three head of cattle that are wearing the number "7" and push them to the opposite end of the arena, and put them into the pen, and call for time.

Teamwork is the key with all three riders working in harmony to cut out the correct cattle and drive them to the pen while keeping the wrong numbered cattle back.

Ranch Sorting is performed in two round pens that are 60 feet in diameter with a twelve foot opening between them.

At the beginning, there are 10 calves with numbers on their sides for identification and 1-2 calves without numbers at the end of one of the pens . The judge raises the flag and when the riders cross the gap between the two pens the clock starts and the competition begins.

The team of two riders have to move the cattle one at a time from one pen to the other in numerical order, starting with a random number called by the judge. The fastest time wins. If a calf gets from one pen to the other out of order,  or should one of the unnumbered cows pass through,then the team is disqualified.

Once the correctly numbered calf goes through the gate the team moves on to the next calf. The fastest time to get the 10 numbered calves from one pen to the other wins.