This is the first in a series about several different horse riding disciplines! Today, I’m going to be talking about sorting, a western sport. It was one of the first — if not the first — thing that I got into outside of just riding around, and I’ve really liked it ever since, even though I haven’t gotten to do a lot of it!
What is it?
There’s a pen shaped like a figure eight, and where the two circles would connect, there’s an open gate. On one side, in one circle, there are ten cows with numbers (one through ten) painted onto their backs. You have to get the cows from one side of the gate to the other one at a time, in order — but you only have one minute! The announcer will call out a number, and that’s the cow you have to move first. After that, you move up the numbers from the one you started with. So, if the cow the announcer called was number five, the next cow you have to get is number six. If the first cow was number ten, then the next cow will be number one.
You have a partner, and usually one of you will guard the gate from unwanted cows and one of you will single out the needed cow from the herd and move it into the other pen. Some teams switch roles with every cow, and some have set roles where one always guards the gate and the other always sorts cows. It’s really a matter of preference!
What do you need?
All you need is you, western tack, and a horse that goes where you ask! Your horse doesn’t need to be a fancy cow horse (though that certainly helps, of course); he just needs to do what you ask when you ask and go in the direction you point him in! Some helpful skills to practice are turning on the hindquarters, moving off of leg pressure, and rollbacks. Cows move fast, and you’ll want to make sure you and your horse can react accordingly! Also, making sure your horse isn’t scared of cows is important. It’s always helpful to have a friend to practice and/or compete with, but some competitions draw partners out of all the entrants — divided into skill levels, to make sure that someone who’s never done it before isn’t paired with a pro (unless the pro agrees to help, that is!).
Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever tried sorting (and if so, what you thought!), or what disciplines you want to see in the future!
I haven’t ever tried sorting, but it sounds fun!
It is, at least to me!
I loved Gillian Bronte Adams’ other series, and Of Fire and Ash sounds great too! I’ll have to read it! 🙂
I hope you like it!