Fifty-four ranch sorting teams competed at Oklahoma City’s inaugural 2008 Ford AQHYA World Championship Show.  The preliminaries begin Friday night and the finals concluded early Saturday morning. Trent Field and Courtney Renee Blackman walked back through the Gateway of Champions with their second set of gold trophies in hand. The pair was also part of the world champion team penning trio. The Journal caught up with the twice-crowned world champions soon after the awards ceremony.

Q:How does it feel to win two world championships in one night?

Trent:  Pretty good. (he said with a big grin)

Courtney: It feels awesome.

Q:What was your strategy to sort all 10 cows in the final round?

Trent: She stayed in the hole because her horse is a little better in the hole and she can scream louder than I can, so I figured I’d stay in the herd and pull them and if anything came at her she’d scream.

Courtney Renee Blackman and Trent Field won the 2008 Ford Youth
World championship in team penning.

Q: How do you ride differently in team penning and ranch sorting?

Trent: Not a whole lot.

Courtney: You are more precise on your cow and you have a smaller area to work with in ranch sorting, so that kind of helps. 

Q: Where are you going from here?

Trent: We have a United States Team Penning Association regional show that we have to go to.

Q: How long have the two of you been doing ranch sorting?

Trent: About six years. Something like that.

Q: Who would you like to thank?

Trent: My dad and my mom for hauling me all over the country and buying me all of the horses that they did.

Courtney: My mom and my dad, and Jared Lesh for all of the horses that he’s found us.

BETCHA DIDN'T KNOW
Trent's gelding, Annacanapana, has $3,100 in NCHA lifetime earnings, and Courtney's mare, Hickory Joella, has nearly $20,000 in NCHA lifetime earnings and almost $7,000 in USTPA lifetime earnings.  Both riders have owned their horses for just a few months.