Breakaway Roping

Kent Youngblood takes gold with Docs Dual Peppy.

by Christine Hamilton
The American Quarter Horse Journal

Coming into the August 30 breakaway roping finals at the 2012 Adequan Select World Championship Show, Kent Youngblood was already on a roll. He set the fastest qualifying time on Docs Dual Peppy, with a 1.919, and the third fastest time on Seven S Peppy Zan with a 2.350.

Docs Dual Peppy had already carried him to three previous Select breakaway world championships – in 2007, 2008 and 2009. But anything can happen in the roping.

Second in the go on Docs Dual Peppy, Kent caught in 2.291.

“The start wasn’t so good,” Kent said, “and I was late. He kind of squatted in the box a little and let me be late, but it was my fault.”

He wasn’t sure that time would hold – there were a slew of past Select roping world champions coming up in the go order. Chris Jensen of Lance Creek, Wyoming, had caught in 2.358 on Master Hot Chex first in the go.

Seventh in the go with Seven S Peppy Zan, “I missed,” Kent said, and “it wasn’t his fault.”

But his time on Docs Dual Peppy stood to the end, giving him yet another world championship.

“He’s a nice little horse,” Kent said in his Journal Winning Run interview. “He’s my kids’ horse.” Kent has 7-year-old twins, Colt and Madison. “He’s probably the only horse I’ll ever have that I may not get to sell. He’ll stay there for a good while.”

Docs Dual Peppy is a 2000 gelding by Docs Dual Pep and out of Peppy Lita San by Peppy San; bred by Sandra and Buddy Richman of New York. Seven S Peppy Zan was bred by Terry Stuart Forst of Waurika, Oklahoma, and is by Tejons Peppy Doc and out of Zans Diamond Sugar by Zans Diamond Joker. The Stuart Ranch was the 1995 Pfizer AQHA Best Remuda Award winner.

Kent farms and ranches in La Mesa, Texas, and this Select world championship is a bright spot in tough times for him. The drought that has ravaged the southwestern United States has hit him hard, just three hours south of Amarillo.

“We’ve had no rain lately, no cattle and no crops,” he said. “I’m team roping right now, is what I’m doing. We’re droughted out right now.”

But he enjoyed coming to the Adequan Select World since 2007.

“I don’t know if I will (come back) in the next few years or not, I’m going to a lot of team ropings now,” Kent said. “It’s a lot of fun to be here. I don’t like the qualifying to get here; going to all (the smaller shows), but I really like this show. It’s one of the best ones you can go to.”

The biggest reason is the ropers who come here to compete, he said.

“You get to see them every year. I get to see people (here) that I don’t get to see any other place. ... It’s a lot of fun.”