History of Pandolfo Ranches

The Pandolfo family has been in the livestock industry since the early 1960s, started by Rod and Paula Pandolfo. Originally a cow-calf outfit, the program now encompasses a 1000 head cow-calf yearling program that also retains ownership to the finished stage. The Quarter Horse program started in the early 80s and is in its 3rd generation of ranch-raised production. The Horse program is under the control of Dan Pandolfo, the youngest son. Dan started in the horse business the way a lot of folks do ... using the horses on the ranch and in the feedlots of Pandolfo Ranches.

Inspiration of Quarter Horse Program

Originally Dan started with broke horses and moved into buying younger prospects and training them himself. This was to be the fundamental reason to push the ranch into a horse production program. Dan found that in the 90s that the pool of stock available to purchase and train was changing; there were many horses but most were from bloodlines that were of a specialized nature. The industry had turned away from the production of the all around horse and moved into creating specific genetic profiles that had the aptitude and physical ability to do one thing well and only for a short duration of time. This of course would be a problem for anyone that would want a horse to do a variety of jobs, stay sound, and not get hot and want to buck you off every time the wind blew or it got a little frosty. Often it is neccesary for a using horse to last all day and be there for you when you called upon him to finish the job and lock the gate ... all these particular things are what has inspired this program to exist.