Sorting Fun

The picture above shows some of the excitement of the team sorting contest from last year's local fair. There are actually two sets of pens in the photo, the riders in the foreground are just warming up. The current action is in the far pen, and you can sense the fast-pacedness of it.


Now where I came from in Kansas, I enjoyed watching team penning at the county fair there. A team of three horseback riders goes into the arena. There's a herd of steers at the other end, and a small pen with a gate in the middle. As the riders go in, the announcer gives them three numbers, which correlate to three steers somewhere in the herd. The riders work to cut out those 3 steers from the herd, then *attempt* (with varying degrees of sucess!) to move them into the small pen and shut the gate. It's a timed event and very exciting. The steers often want to go back to their "buddies," or just when you get them to the pen, they might go right on by, etc.


So ... we move down here to Oklahoma. At the local fair, there's this event called "team sorting." I'd never heard of that, and for who knows what reason, I didn't even go for the first few years we were here. Well, about three years ago, that changed. We checked out the sorting on the last night of fair. Hey ... this is interesting! Different from team penning, but just as exciting! Let me describe team sorting:


There are two connected round pens in each set, with an open gate in the middle. Sort of a "figure-8" configuration if you will. There are ten steers in one pen, numbered 0 through 9. Then there is one, or sometimes two or so, "trash steers" that have no number (blank). Riders work in pairs to bring the steers through the gate in numerical order, without letting the "trash steers" through. When the time starts (I think it's a minute and a half, and boy does that go fast!!), the announcer gives a number, such as, say, "4." So the team will start with number 4 steer and sort him out and send him through the gate. Then number 5. Then 6, and so on. The goal is all ten, but that's pretty difficult to do in that short of a time! If a steer goes through the gate out of order, or one of the blank steers goes through, it's a "no time." As long as you even get a few steers through in order, you're fine.


Sometimes the riders will stick with one job - one rider will work the gate the whole time while the other rider does all the sorting. But other times, in a more advanced way, the riders will switch jobs with each steer, and wowee, that is poetry in motion! Just like clockwork! Beautiful to watch! So here in a month, we'll get to see this again, and I sure look forward to it. Next post ... I'll tell about my own "sorting adventures." :)