SiblingsTrent and Morgan Field and their friend Courtney Renee Blackman came out on top in team penning at the first finals of the the 2008 AQHYA World Championship Show on August 1. The team had a time of 39.867 and three cows in the preliminaries. Coming right back beneath the Gateway of Champions about an hour later for the finals, the team was sitting in first place. Seventh in the draw and the last team for the first herd, the three penned their cattle in a time of 58.021, giving them a total time of 97.888. Through the next eight teams, the time held and they ended up taking home the coveted "golden pony." The Journal caught up with Trent, Morgan and Courtney by the warm-up pen in the Super Barn to talk about their winning run.
Q. Tell me about your preliminary run tonight. How did that go?
Trent: It was a pretty good go. We had two up one end and one out the other.
Morgan: It was pretty hard. The cows weren’t very good. There were a lot of blow outs.
Q. Your team was the last one in for the first herd in the finals. Was that an advantage?
Trent: Not really. It works against you. You’ve got everybody else in there running through the herd and messing them up. When they’ve got the herd riled up and they are running everywhere, the cows get rattled.
Morgan: They ran through the herd pretty hard tonight.
Q. So it’s better to be earlier in the draw?
Trent: Yes. Like first or second.
Q. Trent, you and Morgan are brother and sister. How does Courtney fit in?
Trent: She’s a friend. We’ve been riding together for a long time. We’ve won quite a bit together. We ride in about six different associations.
Q. Morgan, tell me about your horse, Ms Royal Hickory Rey.
I’ve had her for a while. She just had a baby. She’s won before. Two years ago she won in team penning at Youth World.
Courtney Renee Blackman, Trent Field and Morgan Field won the 2008
Ford Youth World championship in team penning.
Q. Trent, tell me about your horse, Annacanapana.
We actually just bought him a couple of months ago and been trying to finish him up and got him qualified. I figured I’d bring him down here and give him a run. He’s done real well. He’s a 4-year-old. He’s got a lot of National Cutting Horse Association money earned. He did good.
Q. Courtney, tell me about your horse, Hickory Joella.
We bought her a couple of months ago, too. She’s just barely learning this game, actually. She’s been a cutter and had NCHA money on her, too. She’s doing really good. I’ve won a lot of money on her this year.
Q. Do you have a lucky number in team penning that you liked to be called out?
Morgan: Seven. That’s always been my lucky number.
Trent: She does, I don’t.
Courtney: Me neither. When they call the number you go get it, basically.
Q. And did your team get a seven called out tonight?
Trent: We had four on the second run and on the first run we had one. So four and one were pretty good for us tonight.
Q. Is there anyone you would like to thank?
Morgan: My dad and God. God helps us.
Trent: Yep, my dad and mom. They travel us everywhere.
Courtney: My dad and mom.
BETCHA DIDN'T KNOW
Although Trent, Morgan and Courtney have been a team for many years, this is the first Ford Youth World championship for two of them. Morgan has two Youth World championships -- 2007 in ranch sorting and 2006 in team penning.
