By: Reginald Tiangha
The Canadian Team Cattle Penning Association will be holding their National Finals at the Stampede Corral starting today throughout the long weekend, and if you’re able, you should come down to Stampede Park and watch as this will be your last chance to see a competition of this caliber in Calgary until Stampede 2010. Plus, this weekend you’ll get to see people of all ages compete for over $380,000 in cash and prizes, so it should be exciting.
Now, as you loyal Stampede Blog readers might recall, I had written a Spotlight piece on Team Cattle Penning for Stampede 2009. If you’re unfamiliar with the sport of Team Cattle Penning, I present to you a revised version of what I wrote back in June, complete with a new video to show what one run in a competition looks like. If you like what you see, why not bring the family and visit this weekend for a little while and check it out? Admission is free.
The sport of Team Cattle Penning (sometimes abbreviated to Team Penning for short) is one of the Stampede’s best kept secrets when it comes to fast paced and exciting events appropriate for all ages.
Here’s how it works: Horse and rider teams of three have 60 seconds to separate three specifically identified cattle from a herd of 30 on one side of the arena, and maneuver them into a 16′ x 24′ pen at the opposite side.
It sounds simple in theory, but in practice can be very difficult.
You see, most of those heifers have attitudes. Sometimes, a penning team might manage to separate out two of them from the herd, but the third one proves to be problematic. Or, the particular cow that they’re trying to separate out has made friends and they may have to deal with a wrong-numbered cow that may follow it out. Or, their friendship may be so strong that the team simply can’t separate any of them out and are forced to watch helplessly as the timer runs down and the cows silently mock them.
What makes it fascinating and exciting to watch is that success really boils down to teamwork and strategy. The team has to work together in tandem in order to outsmart the cows, and sometimes may have to choose to settle for two cows instead of three.
To further illustrate how the competition works, here’s some really amateur video (complete with shaky cam action!) I shot with my digital camera of one team’s successful run at the Calgary Stampede:
As you can see, this is a timed event, and the team with the fastest time will win. However, if they can’t get it done in 60 seconds, then the team is disqualified.
That’s all you need to know about the sport of Team Penning. Easy to follow and fun to watch, Team Penning is a fun spectator sport for all ages. So what are you waiting for? Come down to Stampede Park and check it out!
Tags: Spotlight
