Montana Cowboy School

Have FUN and learn real-life cowboy skills at Montana Cowboy School

Lake Koocanusa Arena

Eureka, Montana

Ranch Sorting

Cattle/Ranch Sorting Class - Working Cattle On Foot

While participating at Montana Cowboy School, you'll have a chance to learn about one of America's fastest growing recreational and FUN competitive sports.  This part of Montana Cowboy School will also be something that you can take with you and continue to participate in long after your initial class.

Ranch Sorting, in its basic form, is successfully sorting/cutting cattle out in a specific order and moving them from one cattle pen into another in teams of two.  Everyone in the group will get a chance to help set the cattle up by running them through the cattle chutes and placing numbers on their backs (Cow 0 through Cow 9).

You can see the two ranch sorting pens below - they are anywhere from 50 feet to 60 feet in size and have an open "gate" in the middle that's 12 to 15 feet wide.  All of the numbered cattle (0 through 9) are settled into the back of one of the pens along with two un-numbered "dirty" cows (just to make it all very interesting when sorting) and the team of two will approach and enter from the other sorting pen.  Once one of the horses noses breaks the imaginary barrier at the "gate" the judge will drop the flag and the timer begins counting down (anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds) and a cattle number will be announced.

Number 6, Number 6 (the beginning cow number is called out in random order until all numbers are used and then there's a herd change of the cattle).

From this point (for the next 60 to 90 seconds) the team of two will work together and begin to sort and move the cattle (beginning, in this case, with Cow 6) and move Cow 6 from the herd and through the gate to the other sorting pen.

Keep in mind that one person on the team of two will guard the "gate" to make sure that cows that have already been sorted don't cross back into the herd (where they really want to be with all their buddies) and one person proceeds to "sort" a specific number cow out of the herd.

In sorting, you begin with the number called out first then followed by the next number and so on...In the case above, you would sort Cow 6, then Cow 7, Cow 8, Cow 9, Cow 0, Cow 1, Cow 2, etc. until all the cows are sorted successfully in this specific order or until you run out of time and the buzzer sounds.

Normally, each member of the team will sort a cow and then move into the position of guarding the gate and the person previously guarding the gate will move to the herd and sort a cow.  This continues to happen until all cattle are sorted within the time limit, time runs out, or a team is disqualified.

You can be disqualified if any of the cows break the gate barrier out of order, if any of the cows already sorted break the barrier while trying to return back to the herd, or any of the dirty cows break the barrier.

Your success rate is based on how many of the cows you sort (cross completely into the next sorting pen) before time runs out and you have not been disqualified.  The highest number successfully sorted in the lowest time wins!

If you haven't experienced ranch sorting, you won't believe what you're missing....It is an absolute BLAST!

You don't need any experience to have FUN at ranch sorting.  In the pen below you can see where the participants are learning first how cattle move while working them on foot.

At Montana Cowboy School you'll learn ranch sorting basics in the classroom first, then you'll move to working the cattle on foot, and then you'll move to working them on horseback.

The picture below shows the class is getting ready to work on horseback!

Now Lets Have Some FUN Ranch Sorting at Montana Cowboy School!

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This page last updated Monday, January 21, 2008 10:06 AM.  Copyright Lake Koocanusa Arena, LLC 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 © All Rights Reserved.  Website Design and Updates By Keith Taylor.  Questions/Comments please e-mail us at mtbound@aol.com or feel free to contact us by phone at 406-889-5181.