My first spring in MN in 2005 took Al and I to a lot of horse sales. We loved looking and shopping for horses. At the time we had no kids and could train/sell some locally. Make a few bucks, give a horse a future: win/win.
We came upon Renegade as an unbroke 4 year old stallion running in a pasture. He belonged to a friend of Alan's and we met the horse when we trailered another of the guy's horses as a favor. He was blue roan and stood roughly 15 hands and for a stallion he was gentle enough. Good breaking prospect.
So Al and I got to talking, that led to talking with the owner, which led to a few hours later: Us buying, loading the stud and bringing him home. (If you know us, that's no big surprise)
I began working with the roan shortly after he arrived and he clearly lacked manners. In the roundpen he would rear and try to climb out. After a few lessons with Al he got the right idea and I was able to work with him. He was bright, learned quick. Before long he was stopping easily on the lounge line and then progressed to ground driving.
After a few more ground lessons we were ready to try riding! I hadn't started many horses before this and getting on stallion to boot was a little unnerving. It's really the ultimate test of "Did you do your homework right?".
After a few hesitant trips around the roundpen at a walk, Renegade had proven he would accept me as his rider. Soon we were trotting and a while later were out of the ring entirely.
We also decided to have him gelded. He would sell better that way and could find a better home. We kept him the entire winter and early spring advertised him on DreamHorse.com. After a few false leads a family with a teenage girl came to look at him.
They liked him, paid us and started to load up Reny. He hesitated a minute before loading into the trailer and looked right at me. I told him, "It's ok Ren, you can go. This is your new family." With that, he stepped right in. I know they say horses can't understand, but I swear he knew exactly what was going on.
I still think about Renegade from time to time and I hope he is happy and doing well. We took him from unbroke stallion and made him into a trailbroke gelding (gave him employable job skills). If you think about it, it's kind of like putting him through horse college. I know we can't keep them all, but they still leave a special place in my heart.
Renegade @ 4yo shortly before being sold.
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