In the spring of 2021, our area saw an influx of failed bronc horses. It was a strange thing. I have personally been involved in the english riding community and horses for 30+ years and had never come across one and now my news feeds were littered with them. There were young ones, older ones, broodmares…. You name it there was a failed bronc version of it.

Cecilia Richardson, was on the hunt for a new steed in a very competitive, high priced, post Covid horse market. She had what previously would have been considered a healthy budget, but with horse prices skyrocketing it wasn’t going to purchase what she had hoped. After a frustrating search we opened our newsfeeds and sent each other the same cute little blue roan with a big rodeo brand on his butt. He came with a disclaimer of being a failed bronc, and had no handling. He came home, and Aragon’s story began.

He was a young little ugly duckling when he arrived, shaggy, in need of more than a good groom, and was pretty much completely feral. After phenomenal success gentling him and starting him with basics, Cecilia knew he needed time to grow. So the hunt began for another horse that she could get going. That search was equally frustrating until we both, yet again, stumbled upon an ad for a horse named Jellybean. Jellybean had the familiar rodeo brands on his hip and bum. After reaching out to his current owner we found out that he had indeed been on the same shipment as Aragon and had been initially purchased from the same broker with the name Whiskey- we even found his original ad! Another failed rodeo bronc- who doesn’t like horses that don’t buck! While his current owner had certainly started the gentling process and had made good progress she didn’t have the time he needed. He was a couple years older than Aragon (coming 5 was our vet’s best guess) and Jellybean came home with us in August of 2021 and was given his new and final name, Marlee.

In September of 2021, Marlee was broke to ride with thankfully no bucks! He was put on a forage first diet with free access to hay in the winter months, and pasture in the warmer weather with an additional ration balancer twice daily and 30mls of Smart Earth Camelina oil twice daily. He started to bloom. He was placed in a program appropriate for his age consisting of learning to use his body effectively and efficiently, and was started over ground poles. Within 30 days he was absolutely excelling and he ‘graduated’ to small cross rails. He spent the winter showing schooling level in a cross rail division learning the ropes of being a show horse.

Early in 2022 we were thrilled to see a new division had been added to the Trillium Hunter Jumper Association’s class list- a 2’3 open hunter. Cecilia made it her goal to have Marlee ready to go try his hand in the 2’3 ring in the summer of 2022. What a pipe dream right!?!? A failed rodeo bronc that had run through an auction making it to the rated hunter circuit within a year. But it happened, and not only did it happen he started getting some good ribbons.

In August of this year (2022), Cecilia and Marlee qualified for the championship show hosted over seven hours away. What an accomplishment! After some discussion, the decision was made that they would come with the team from our farm with no expectations. He had never shown that far away from home, had never been stabled at a venue overnight, let alone for a week, and his life would be very different than he was used to for a week. We prepped him and off we went with no expectations of any ribbons, just genuinely thrilled that our rodeo bronc had made it to that big of a Hunter stage.

We hoped his story would help more of these horses find a new life. Then it happened. The standby list for the third over fences trip was announced and there he was in second place. We crossed our fingers and toes and held our breath while the remaining trips went. He had done it. The ‘failed rodeo bronc’ that no one wanted had just received a second place at Championships. There were many real tears and a whole lot of very real gratitude. He had gone from an unwanted horse, to a horse of a lifetime and none of his team can wait to see what next year brings for him. Cecilia is just as excited as Aragon looks to be following in his ‘big brothers’ footsteps. The next time you see those ugly ducklings on your newsfeeds pause for a second and take a good look. You could be staring at your horse of a lifetime as well.