our pets: PAPPY PEPTO
Kerry Tate finds a New Pet
after a Chance Meeting
By KRISTINA REILLY
T
76
Serendipity on the Ranch
here are pet lovers, and then there are the
“other people.” Kerry Tate is one of those
other people.
For the past nine years, he has owned and
operated Tate’s Total Training on Elm Street, just
off the Weatherford Square. He isn’t accustomed
to big feelings when it comes to four-legged
animals. His life in the animal kingdom has been
primarily spent on the shoreline of rivers and
lakes, or out in the gulf, terrorizing the fish as one
heck of a fisherman. Tate’s a busy man, too busy
to own a dog, and he doesn’t breathe all that well
with cats around. Occasionally, a client will bring
their dog to the gym, which he welcomes whole-
heartedly, but overall, pets have not been synony-
mous with Tate’s lifestyle.
Having the good fortune to train numerous
equestrian clients, one day one of his clients
finished their workout and invited Tate out to his
ranch.
“It was just a casual invite, you know, just to
go out and ride the trails,” Tate said. He obliged
and was surprised at the size of the horse he was
set to ride. “The last horse I rode was a ‘hood
horse,’ a Shetland pony named Sandy. I didn’t
know they made performance horses that looked
so different, did you?” he said. The horse was an
11-year-old quarter horse named Pappy Pepto that
Tate describes as a “pretty serious horse.”
Tate continued going out to the ranch to ride
the trails, always with Pappy.
“But when the Cutting Horse Futurity started
and everyone was so busy, I figured I needed to
fade into the background, stay out of the way until
it was over. I went back to fishing,” Tate said.
Once the competition was over, he went back
to riding the trails and then his buddy asked if
he wanted to try the flag. Being of a competitive
nature and having no expectation at all, he left
the trails behind and went into the barn to try the
flag. The two of them did so well together, it was
not long before Tate decided to take it to the next
level and enter a small-town cutting competition
in Paradise. They took second place and Tate