Have you ever heard of team penning? A lot of people haven't. Its a very fun western sport that involves cows.
Team penning is when you have a group of cows at one end of the arena. Typically the herd size is about 30 head of cattle. At the opposite side of the arena is a 16' by 24' pen. Each cow has a number on their back from 1-9. Some cows are called "no tags" and have to numbers on their back. You and your other 2 teammates enter the arena when the other team has finished settling the herd. When you walk into the arena and have crossed a line, the line judge will drop his or her flag and your time starts. For most team penning events, you have 90 seconds to get your cows.
After the line judge drops the flag, the announcer will call out a number. You and your other 2 teammates have to then cut out the cows with the number that was called. After you cut the cows out of the herd you then have to drive the cows down to the end of the arena and get them to go into the pen. It sounds easy, but its actually really hard! Once you get the cows into the pen, you raise your hand to call time. The person with the most amount of cows in the fastest time wins!
After your time is up, you get the cows you penned and return them to the herd. You make sure that the herd is centered in the arena and that no cows are wondering around. This is called settling the herd. When the judge thinks the herd is settled, he or she will call "your cattle are ready". This is your signal to leave the arena and the next team will start.
While it all sounds fun, there is some rules. A lot of events have a "no roughing" rule. This means that you can't raise your hands and flap them around to get the cows to move. You can use your voice though. Another rule is that if you get a cow you don't want across the line judges line, you have to get the "dirty" cow back across the line before time can be stopped. You are not allowed to have more then 3 cows cross the line judges line for most events. If you do, you get a no time.
Some tips to team penning is to have a horse that is "cow savy" meaning that the horse has been around cows and know how to work them. Having a horse that can run quick is helpful too as the cows can run pretty fast.
The key to team penning is team work. If you don't work as a team, you are not going to get any cows into the pen. You have to work as a team to get things accomplished.
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