A new event has been added to the Old-Time Music, Ozarks Heritage Festival repertoire, festival organizers announce.
The annual two day festival celebrating Ozarks music and culture will take place from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday in downtown West Plains, with music set to begin at noon.
The new event, team sorting, is a western-style equestrian sport that evolved from the common ranch work of separating cattle into pens for branding, doctoring or transport, festival organizers explained. Sorting is an event that pits a team of two riders on horseback against the clock. Teamwork is the key with both riders working in harmony to cut out the correct cattle and drive them to the pen while keeping the wrong numbered cattle back. There are several variations of ranch sorting with one, two or three riders on the team, but all require sorting the cattle from one pen to the other in the correct order. Teamwork is the key to success.
Alex Morrison and B&M Sorting will give demonstrations of the sport at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday, and again at 11 a.m. Saturday. Events will take place in the pens located at Curry and St. Louis streets. There is ample space on the bleachers for viewing, organizers noted.
While the sport evolved from work-related tasks, today’s competitions feature a fast-paced event that gives a team of three riders on horseback 60 to 90 seconds to separate three specifically-identified cattle from a herd of 30 and put them into a 16-foot by 24-foot pen through a 10-foot opening at the opposite end of the arena.
Cutting dates back to a time when ranchers in the American West hired cowboys to work herds of cattle out on the open range. Certain horses specialized in sorting and separating individual cattle from the herd when needed. Cutting moved from the open range to modern arena competition, often held indoors. Some sanctioned events at the national and international level offer added million-dollar purses.
Cutting horse competition is primarily governed by the rules and regulations established by the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) located in Fort Worth, Texas, with affiliates in Australia and Europe. Other events may be governed by different sets of rules, such as those of the American Cutting Horse Association, or limited to a single horse breed and sanctioned by a breed association. The NCHA may approve independent events upon request, provided the classes offered meet the qualifications and adhere to the rules established by the NCHA.
The Old-Time Music, Ozarks Heritage Festival is West Plains’ signature event and seeks to celebrate, preserve, pass on and nurture an appreciation of the old-time music and folk life traditions distinctive to the Ozark Highlands. Admission to all festival events is free.
2024 festival partners include the West Plains Council on the Arts, the City of West Plains, the Ozark Heritage Welcome Center, West Plains Civic Center and Missouri State University-West Plains. Partial funding for the event is provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. Additional support has been provided by Missouri Humanities and Missouri Department of Tourism.
For more information on the festival email info@westplainsarts.org, visit the website at www.oldtimemusic.org or follow @old.time.music.festival on Facebook.
