07/24/2026
Longtime member Joyce Pearson passed away Sunday, July 19, 2026. Joyce was a pillar in the Cowhorse community; her dedication to the sport, love of horses and very successful breeding and showing programs is truly remarkable and she will be missed. We are sending our deepest condolences and sympathies to Anne Reynolds and their family.
Joyce’s memorial will take place September 27, 2026 in Stanley, Idaho. Further details are listed on the website posted below:
Obituary
Joyce Muriel Wunderlich Pearson
March 6, 1933 — July 19, 2026
Joyce Muriel Wunderlich Pearson, 93, of Hailey, Idaho, died peacefully in her sleep on the morning of Sunday, July 19, 2026, at St. Luke’s Wood River Hospital in Ketchum, following a courageous battle with lung cancer.
She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 6, 1933, to Martin Clemens Wunderlich, who emigrated from Denmark in 1906 with a third-grade education, and Evelyn Muriel Otterness, whose family carried proud Scandinavian heritage. Joyce was the oldest of four — her brother Robert and her sisters Oril and Alys — and in time she outlived them all.
Martin built a thriving excavation business in Minneapolis, at one point running more than 300 horses and mules to move dirt. He loved horses, and Joyce inherited that passion from him.
The family moved to Denver, where Joyce and her sister Oril began a lifelong love of riding, and then to Palo Alto, California, where Joyce graduated from high school in 1950. She studied animal husbandry at UC Davis, and there she met and married Gordon Eric (Ric) Reynolds. Their daughters, Anne and Jill, were born in 1954 and 1957. The family lived in the Sacramento area until 1961, then in Redwood City and Woodside. Joyce and Ric’s marriage ended in 1965.
From 1962 to 1972, Joyce ran a horse boarding facility in Woodside at the remarkable Folger Estate, a property her father had bought as a possible development project. Martin later donated the thousand acres to San Mateo County for a park — known today as Wunderlich Park.
It was there that Joyce met Bradbury Dodge Pearson. They married in 1970 and two years later moved to Moore, Idaho, trading the crowding of the Bay Area for the western life rural Idaho had to offer. Armed with Joyce’s degree and her experience in the horse business, they took on a newly purchased thousand-acre ranch and 600 sheep — an almost comical adventure. The sheep had to go, and Brad and Joyce settled into the less exciting cow business. Their son, Jesse, was born in June 1973. During these years Joyce played in a small band and gigged in towns around Idaho. In 1978 they moved to a horse ranch in Bellevue, Idaho; the marriage ended in 1981.
Joyce loved horses. She competed in nearly every discipline — gymkhana, jumping, fox hunting, roping, three-gaited, five-gaited, fine harness, cutting, reining, and reined cow horse. She bred exceptional Quarter Horses from the early 1950s on, raising some of the most highly esteemed reined cow horses in the industry and earning national recognition for them. Her eye for good horseflesh was unmatched, and her compassion for horses and her insistence on excellent horsemanship were unequalled. Her influence on the reined cow horse world will be felt for years to come, through her bloodlines and through the people those horses touched.
She loved the mountains and wild country nearly as much as she loved her children and her horses, and she was devoted to preserving and protecting all places wild and unspoiled. Stanley, Idaho, was her favorite spot on earth.
Joyce held to one unshakable rule: you water and feed every animal, every day, before anything else. Hers was a house where you learned to fix what broke and figure out what you didn’t know — “because that’s what you have to do.” That self-reliance became her children’s and grandchildren’s inheritance. She had time only for the truth, could sniff out bu****it no matter where it came from, and was undeniably fair in every circumstance. Her word was her bond.
And Joyce was a traveler — the fearless kind. She floated the Nile and walked the streets of Cairo, watched whales off Baja, explored the Galápagos with her grandson Wilder, and cruised from California through the Panama Canal, all while cheerfully insisting that she hated flying, because on a boat “at least you’re still floating.” When an itinerary came with armed guards, she treated it as no big deal. She had been everywhere, and she intended to keep going.
In her final weeks, Joyce was where she always was: at the head of a full family table, telling stories that ran from Cairo to Cabo to the ranch, making everyone there feel like the most important person in the room. That is how her family will remember her, and how she would want to be remembered — surrounded by the people and animals she loved, still planning the next adventure.
Joyce is survived by her three children, Anne Muriel Reynolds, Jill Laurel Reynolds Curran (Timothy Michael), and Jesse Clay Pearson; her four grandsons, Hollister Martin Jones, Wilder Eric Jones, Austin Eric Curran, and Taylor Michael Curran (Savannah Molina); and her two great-grandchildren, Jack Henry Curran and Fay Rose Curran. She was preceded in death by her parents and her three siblings, Robert Wunderlich, Oril Wunderlich, and Alys Wunderlich Bachlor.
https://www.celebratejoyce.com/?fbclid=IwdGRjcATQra5wZG9mBWZkaWQWULLOQZ20Uo0DeQVKWWHX-eLt63Uc7WV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7hcXlPrtg-yjB5gV-iSQFPe55TT0Y5AV3qlv69WEOcBF-IeFvhmm1vHJElXQ_aem_-6zdceBUBKGAbI0PI3NbxA
