She was obsessed and happy to admit it. Pam Capurso devoted a big part of the past seven years of her life to the champagne horse. But unlike other horsewomen, she did not spend it in the saddle or show ring, but on the phone and computer.

Long before Google was a verb, Pam searched for and found the equine geneticists who would prove the color champagne wasn’t just so much fizz. She rallied a series of hardworking doctoral candidates at the University of Kentucky to clock hundreds of hours over five years developing a test and pinpointing the gene that makes a horse glow with a metallic sheen called champagne.

“Pam was always encouraging and willing to do the leg work,” says Dr. Samantha Brooks, now an associate professor in the department of animal science at Cornell University. Brooks was the first of many Kentucky grad students to work with Pam.

“It’s an incredible amount of work, and it was always nice to get a cheerful and upbeat e-mail from Pam,” said Brooks.

“Pam was the driving force,” proclaims Deborah Cook, the Kentucky University graduate student who located the champagne gene and developed the test for it. A paper of her work will be published later this month.

While the geneticists did their work, Pam petitioned horse associations to recognize the color. She scoured Maine for champagne horses and sent blood samples to aid in the research. She attempted to raise funds for the cause.

“I asked everyone: Bill Gates, Stephen King … anyone,” said Pam, who replied with a slight blush and “no,” when asked whether her requests were granted.

Pam soldiered on. The most devoted, be it to paperweights, fly rods, “golden-age” comics or Kewpie dolls, understands: Champagne horses are just her thing.

Pam will tell you that actually it’s her mare, Glory, a horse of a different color she brought home the day after Sept. 11, 2001. The weanling filly was a welcome sign of hope to the Blue Hill community, where Pam lived and ran a florist shop. A number of unhappy reversals had affected her deeply and the little champagne horse was what she called her “heart mender.”

When Pam learned that the American Paint Horse Association would not register Glory as champagne, she had a cause.

On May 30, APHA finally reversed its no-go stance and agreed to register as champagne those horses that pass the $40 blood test.

“The test, which identifies the champagne gene, gives our members a more informed way of making breeding decisions,” says Allyson Pennington, APHA director of registration.

And to Pam Capurso a way to mend a broken heart. Today she has the relaxed air of a woman who has scaled her Everest. Living on the Brooksville farm where her family has always summered, Pam weaves colorful baskets she sells at the new local farmers market. Her sister has the family cottage, her 93-year-old father and 91-year-old mother celebrated their 65th anniversary July 3 in the original farmhouse on the property, and Pam and her new husband are building a new home in between.

She is surrounded by family and love and – of course – lots of horses. On Good Night Farm she breeds and sells paint horses. The new grulla foal’s frisky antics catch a visitor’s eye. But a champagne foal by Glory has yet to appear. No hurry, it seems. If it happens, it happens, is the attitude.

“Champagne is the up-and-coming designer color,” she says with pleasure in her voice. It’s is very rare, says Pam, and much in demand in Europe, specifically, France.

“Isn’t France the place for champagne?” asks Pam with a twinkle in her eye.

The October 2008 issue of Paint Horse Journal will feature an article on the newly recognized champagne horse. The Brooksville Farmers Market is 9-11 a.m. Tuesdays at the South Brooksville Community Center.