Peppy's History:
A Horse Story Full of Heart
Little
Peppy Concion was sired by the great all time leading cutting sire,
Peppy
San Badger, whose offspring have earned over $22,000,000. Peppy San
Badger
had LTE of $172,711, and is an NCHA Hall of Fame member. King Ranch,
Inc.
bred Peppy San Badger to a mare who was an own daughter of Mr. San
Peppy.
(Mr. San Peppy was a two time inductee into the NCHA Hall of Fame!)
Since
Peppy San Badger was also sired by Mr. San Peppy, this breeding was
cooked
up a bun in the oven to be line bred! And he hit the ground in 1989.
Meanwhile,
in a very small town in Mississippi, big things were about to
happen!
A partnership between a professional cutting horse trainer and a
nonprofessional
cutting horse rider was formed. A large herd of mares along
with
2 stallions were purchased, one of which was "Peppy." The nonpro was
the
financial backbone of the partnership and thus had control and say so
over
training and such. He particularly liked "Peppy" and chose to train him
at
his own place. (The other stallion was sent to Texas and trained by Ben
Emison.)
One
month before the Southern Cutting Horse Futurity in Jackson, Mississippi,
the
nopro decided he should hire an outside trainer to show "Peppy."
So, he
went
outside of the partnership for a trainer and allowed the horse to be
shown
in the open class of the futurity as a three year old. Well, with
only
one
month of professional training the outcome was predictable, "Peppy" was
run
over by the first cow! The trainer was fired on the spot, and someone
was
hired to haul the horse back home.
Guess
what happened next? "Peppy" was turned out to pasture! Yes,
this fine
King
Ranch bred stallion was, from 1993 to 1997 in charge of his own band of
mares,
and had no further training and no chance of being shown in age
limited
events!
Finally
in 1997 the nonpro approached his historically silent partner, Ralph
Little,
and implied he needed to dissolve the partnership. He then offered
Ralph
an opportunity to buy him out and included several mares along with
"Peppy"
in the deal. In an effort to pay off his debt Ralph began selling
the
mares one by one. All the while he was training "Peppy," hauling
him,
but
limited his showing for lack of funding. He knew the horse was great,
and
knew for him to have a chance of showing his heart, grit, and talent more
funds
were needed.
In
1998 Ralph got together with a few other believers and "Peppy" was
syndicated.
However, this occurred in May, FIVE months into the season!
Despite
this, Peppy was hauled every weekend as a true weekend warrior, and
was
able to advance into the top ten standings in the $3,000 Novice Pro
class!
He
finished 6th in the world for that class in 1998!
Meaning,
he had to win a check in nearly every show in which he competed,
after
having such a late start.
Who
gets the credit? I asked Ralph once
how in the world he could manage
taking
a pasture raised stallion and in one year do everything he did. I
expected
some bragging, what I got was honesty. I quote Ralph: "That
horse
did
it on his own, not because of me, but because he has it inside, in his
heart."
