Aug 15, 2009

Thanks to everyone that came out for this sorting. It was a great time and we enjoyed seeing some of the folks that had not come out yet during the summer months - Kevin Walters and his family, Todd Boger (even though his daughter didn't make it - LOL), & Lawrence Nott, and some of the folks

that didn't make the last sorting on August 1st - Greg Smith, Teach, and of course Kenny and Jeannine Price also ventured out again sorting with everyone. Thanks to Bill (Kenny Price's Uncle - it was his 1st time sorting), and the Baker's, Penny, Simon & Sierra for stopping in (they have a nice 3-year filly for sale BTW) for the first time to RK ARENA, it was great to see everyone again and thanks to all for coming out to play.

A lot of people tell Kitty and I that our sortings are so fun and competitive because of what we do to put these sortings on for everyone, but the fact is, the RK ARENA sortings are fun because of the people and riders that come out to have a good time and just relax and have some fun, plus what makes our sortings fun is also because of the great friends and folks that come out to help us put them on. We really appreciate the setup help form Dana Buell, Todd Boger, Brent Beaman, Marty Carnes, Brad Clippinger, Big Dave Lavelle, Mercedes, Debbie Brown, Jared Lusk (the flag guy), Vic and Buffy Cook, Donnie Leiss (fantastic electrician if anyone needs some electrical help), Rick Dicus, & the stock guys that ran the cattle pens, and sorting gates-couldn't have done it without you all!

RK Arena helped put on the Champagne Country Fair Team Sorting held on Tuesday, August 11th at the Urbana fair grounds. It was a blast to see all the new 4-H youths riding on cattle, many of which did it for their first time. It's great for the sport of team sorting to see new folks working on cattle. One thing we learned while helping with the event is that we need to give the younger riders more incentive to compete at RK ARENA sortings. So, all youth riders, 18 and under run their practice runs at a reduced rate of $3.00, and in the open novice classes they will from now on only pay $5 per run, and in Jackpot class they only pay $10 to participate. Hope this helps out the families with kids that come out to sorting at RK ARENA.

The next sorting is August 29th - given the heat, we'll start practice at 6:00 PM instead of 5:00 PM. In efforts to give more riders more qualified times, and try to get everyone home early, we're going to also trim down the size of the sorting pen (again) a little (don't worry to the folks that like a larger pen - it won't be too small), probably make it closer to 75' x 75' which will speed things up a bit. Additionally, we're going to run a new "TEST" class which combines sorting (the riders will sort three cows from heard in numeric order instead of 9 or 10 cows), and then also pen the 3 sorted cows in separte team penning pen, before calling for time. We'll run this class just to try it out and see of the riders like it or not - 3-person teams, entry fee will be $5 per rider (for open novice), $3 for youth riders, with a 30% payback. This class should be fun, and easy enough to sort your 3 cows from the pen, but a new experience for those riders that have not "penned" cattle as you do in TEAM PENNING. We'll give it a try, see what happens - just something different and new to keep you and your horse working and thinking about how to work cattle. Don't foget about the RK ARENA GOLF SCRAMBLE on SEPTEMBER 12th at 2:00 PM - everyone is welcome to play. Flyer attached at the bottom of the page. We have about 26 players signed up already.