Page 31 - July 2016

FORGING A LEGACY
Cattle have paved the road to Quarter Horse racing for
Pete Scarmardo and his family
by Diane Rice
Some people travel through life as free spirits, never knowing or caring where the winds will take them — simply enjoying the journey. Other people lay out a life plan while young
and work steadily toward a singular goal. Still others set out doing what they know and love, and live the old adage of, “If you love what you do, you’ll never have a ‘job.’” They work hard day in and day out, embrace traditional values such as honesty and integrity, seize challenges as opportunities, and eventually build a life that, in their youth, they’d never have dreamed possible.
Pete Scarmardo embodies the latter. “I was just a day-working cowboy, working these cattle auctions,” he says of his early days trying to get a foot-hold in the cattle business in his hometown of Caldwell, Texas.
Forty-plus years later, he’s built several successful cattle-based businesses, bred some
nice, winning Quarter Horse runners, and partnered with living legend owner/breeder Johnny Trotter of Hereford, Texas, in both
cattle ventures and in buying Granada Farms
in nearby Wheelock, Texas. Not bad for a day- working cowboy who attended just one semester of college.
MAKING A START
While Pete was growing up, his dad had yearlings and a few cows, and it was the yearlings that interested Pete the most. After high school, he attended Texas A&M in the fall of 1970 but by spring semester, knowing he was about to get drafted, he joined the U.S. Army Reserves and went into active duty.
When he returned, he met Texas A&M student Jo Pollard on a blind date, and they married in 1973. “I promised her mom
she’d graduate, so I worked while she got her degree,” says Pete. “She loved horses, and
she still runs barrels today.” While Pete had ridden ranch horses in the course of working cattle, he wasn’t able to pursue much else involving horses while trying to make a living for his new bride.
In 1975, lacking the money to buy a place of their own, Pete leased some cattle pens and in three years’ time, accumulated enough capital to buy land and build his own pens near Bryan in Caldwell, Texas, now home to Scarmardo Cattle Company.
When their kids started coming in 1978, Jo stayed home to raise them. “She didn’t get to do much barrel racing while she was raising the kids, but she was teaching them to ride,” says Pete. All three boys — Scott, Craig and Ty — rodeoed in both high school and college.
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