On April 21st, I attended the Legends of Ranching horse sale at Colorado State University. It’s an awesome program that I’ve been a part of since its inception, as a member of the Advisory Board for CSU Equine. For the LOR program, legendary ranches and QH breeders donate yearlings and 2 year olds in the fall, which the students prep for sale and train, and in the Spring they are auctioned off as 2 and 3 year olds (the proceeds go back into scholarships and the equine program). I was actually there to help my friend Helen buy a horse, and we found an awesome 4 y/o gelding for her. But as luck would have it, I fell in love with one of the colts, proving once again that I cannot sit on my hands at a horse sale. To me, there’s nothing more fun than that—the hunt, the find, the buy—it’s all incredibly exciting (did you see the FB live post?).

So meet SCR CD Peptoes, a 2016 QH gelding from the Spur Cross Ranch in Montana, who came home to my ranch on April 23rd. He’s by Peptoes, an own son of Peptoboonsmal, out of a Doc Olena bred mare. This boy’s bred to be cowy! But what attracted me to him the most was his conformation and his temperament. He’s athletic and fast—I like that in a horse! But he’s freakishly calm and thoughtful—nice traits in a “hot” horse. He’s a lot of horse—highly sensitive and with a very big motor—but I like that in a horse! He reminds me a lot of Dually when he was young and I am super excited to have a new project.

The first business of order was to find a good barn name for him since SCR CD Peptoes doesn’t just roll off the tongue (and no, Jeff, I am not going to name him “Toes”). We had many great suggestions for names, and we tried a few on for size, but when Dr. Potter examined him the other day for the first time and we had to start a file for him, his nickname became his official name—Pepperoni! It fits him well—he’s got lots of Peppy San Badger and Dual Pep in his pedigree, he’s the color of red pepper (Cayenne was one of the names we considered) and he’s spicy! I like the names Pep, Pepper, Roni (did I mention he’s red roan?) and my favorite pizza is pepperoni!

For now, Pepper is just having some time off. He’s had a hard few months leading up to the sale and was being ridden pretty hard for a two year old. Now it’s time to rest up and be a youngster. Dually has already taken him under his wing and has become somewhat possessive of him. I won’t ride him for a while, but he had a great start from the CSU student that trained him, Makayla Dahley, so I am not in a hurry. Makayla is from a ranching family here in Colorado and is truly a “top hand,” in my opinion. I watched closely how she handled him and rode him and I would not have bought him if I had not been so impressed with the work she has done on this colt. By this time next month, I’ll have more of a plan in mind for Pepper, so stay tuned!