Lil Ruf Hanna 

(Lil Ruf Peppy x Smart Little Hannah by Smart Little Lena) rok nar. 2004

LIL RUF PEPPY

 After becoming a National Reining Horse Association $2 million sire in 2009, Lil Ruf Peppy has now become the ninth NRHA $3 million sire, with official NRHA offspring earnings of more than $3,006,100. This puts Lil Ruf Peppy alongside the likes of reining legends Hollywood Dun It, Smart Chic Olena, Shining Spark and Gallo Del Cielo.

The 1991 stallion is by American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame sire Peppy San Badger and out of Rufas Peppy by Mr San Peppy. Now owned by Green Valley Ranch in Aubrey, Texas, Lil Ruf Peppy was bred and raised by the legendary King Ranch of Kingsville, Texas, an AQHA 70-year Legacy breeder.

Lil Ruf Peppy sports $28,000 in NRHA lifetime earnings, which includes his 1995 NRHA Derby limited open championship, earned with trainer Tom McCutcheon in the saddle.
 
The stallion’s offspring have also made a splash in the AQHA show pen. On the AQHA side of things, Lil Ruf Peppy sired three-time AQHA world champion Lil Ruf Catalyst, the very first AQHA ranch horse pleasure world champion. Lil Ruf Catalyst, out of Foxy Catalyst by Taris Catalyst, also earned the 2010 and 2012 AQHA Versatility Ranch Horse open world championships.
 

SMART LITTLE LENA

As a sire, Smart Little Lena was outstanding, with money-earning foals in every performance discipline. In AQHA competition, his offspring earned 9,744.5 points and 22 world championships, along with $216,387. In the National Reining Horse Association competition, his foals earned $686,470. In the National Reined Cow Horse Association, they earned $973,136.95

But Smart Little Lena’s foals were primarily destined for the cutting pen and NCHA, where they earned $34.9 million.

As a maternal grandsire, his grandget earned 14,979.5 points in AQHA competition and $567,224. In NRHA competition, they earned $1.8 million; in NRCHA competition, they earned $2.56 million; and in NCHA, they earned $50 million.

Smart Little Lena was euthanized in 2010, but that wasn’t the end.

At the 2014 NCHA Futurity, 23 of the 25 open finalists – including the winner – carried the fighting blood of Smart Little Lena with them into the pen for their own duels in the dirt. The tiny stallion’s fighting legacy lives on.

Smart Little Lena was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2015.