Saddle up for the Fort Dodge Versatility Ranch World Championships this month.

Jacey Watt and Watts Twisten Badger competed last year.

Sixes Pick and Peppy Chex Your Gun were the first two.

Who will be the second two?

At the Fort Dodge Versatility Ranch World Championships on January 14-15, able ranch horses and their exhibitors will gun it out for the top spots in open and amateur versatility.

To be eligible to compete at this month’s championships in Denver, open horses had to earn four points, and amateur riders had to earn one. The horse-and-rider teams will compete in ranch conformation, working ranch horse, ranch riding, ranch trail and ranch cutting.

The show will run in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show.

From the AQHA Regional Experiences to the World Championship shows, the Journal’s got you covered. Stay up to date with a subscription!

In 2008, Terri Cooper of Otis, Colorado, rode her sorrel stallion Peppy Chex Your Gun to the amateur title.

“It’s unbelievable,” Terri said after her win. “Any of the exhibitors could have done it. He was just the only one who stuck it in the top three in all five classes. Everybody else had a bobble somewhere. He just stayed with me.”

Betty Lou Valdez and Little Bell Pepper were reserve champions, while Holly Major and Love A Little Devil placed third, making another bit of history because the top three were women.

In the open category, Sixes Pick, ridden by Chance O’Neal for the Burnett Ranches’ Four Sixes Ranch, took the first title.

The 1998 stallion won the ranch trail class and the ranch conformation class. His second place in ranch cutting, third in working ranch horse and fourth in ranch riding clinched his world championship.

This year, even more horses and riders are expected to compete for the title. Just like last year, the American Quarter Horse Journal staff will cover the event thoroughly at AQHA’s Web site.

The Fort Dodge Versatility Ranch World Championship results will be featured in the March issue of the Journal. Subscribe today so you won’t miss out on coverage of this exciting event and so much more.