'LITTLE PEPPY' PRODUCED SOME OF THE HIGHEST EARNING PERFORMANCE HORSES
 

The great cutting horse sire Peppy San Badger was put down Friday, July 8, 2005 in his paddock at King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas.
Because of the stallion’s advanced age and deteriorating health it was time to euthanize the great horse.
 

Little Peppy began his cutting career by winning the 1977 NCHA Futurity. He was champion of the 1978 NCHA Derby as well as the 1979 NCHA reserve world champion. He also won the 1981 NCHA World Finals. He retired with lifetime earnings of $172,710.
 

The NCHA Chatter reported his last public appearance was in 2004 during King Ranch’s 150th anniversary celebration. It was on that occasion that Little Peppy was reunited with his long-time trainer and rider Buster Welch.
 

“It’s like we’ve never been apart,” Welch told The Chatter. “He was the greatest horse I ever threw a leg over. He was so unusual in the fact that he had so much dignity, and he had the highest intelligence I ever saw in a horse. He was a pleasure to do anything with.”
 

He then went into the breeding shed and was soon the top choice for many mare owners.
 

He sired 2,323 foals including 1,202 performers in mostly cutting, reined cow horse and reining. Of the 19 crops registered, which the last was in 1996, 173 went on to receive their AQHA Register of Merit awards. In the National Cutting Horse Association, his get earned almost $21 million while in the National Reining Horse Association, his offspring earned about $400,000. In the National Reined Cow Horse Association, his get earned about $110,000, and in AQHA world shows the earnings top $72,000.
 

Little PEPPYS bloodline remains predominant among the King Ranch’s horses.
 

“He was gift,” Cody Crider, manager of the King Ranch Quarter Horse division, told The Chatter. “You can plan and breed all you want, but you won’t get a horse like this on purpose, even though we will all keep on trying.”
 

Little PEPPYS grave marker will stand at the King Ranch headquarters among those of other great King Ranch horses including his sire, Old Sorrel and Thoroughbred Triple Crown champion Assault.