Jep learned to work on his family’s ranch at an early age. Once, when he was seven, he and sister Verla trailed a herd of horses that had been running on the desert, moving them forty miles in a day. Jep came by his love of horses naturally. His father, Ebb, loved his horses, so he had lots of them. At one time, Ebb had about 200 horses on the desert. In the spring, about the first of June, he would gather the mares he wanted to breed. He would put them in with the two studs. He had a saddle stud and a work horse stud. Jep and brother Norm’s interest in rough stock started at an early age riding calves and their bronc riding started as soon as they sat on a Richie horse. They entered their first rodeos at the ages of 21 and 19. Jep and Norm traveled the country rodeoing for many years. Their dad, Ebb died in 1955 and the Richie boys slowed down their rodeo career to run the family ranch. Their love for rodeo continued and they became very active in the Sublette County Sporting Association. The Richies furnished a majority of the bucking horses for the rodeos and cared for all the associations’ horses for 20 years. Their horses were rank, and while Jep Richie considered them saddle horses, most of the cowboys who climbed on them in the rodeo arena did not make a full ride.
Jep Richie
