OGO Foundation Morgan Horses Stolen and Slaughtered!

The following story I wish I could say is fictional but sadly it is true and very recent.

As many people are aware, I have my horses in a few different places...... Salinas, CA., Prunedale, CA., Norco, CA. and HorseShoe Bend, ID. I have been lucky enough to breed and raise some of the very best foundation Morgan Horse bloodlines and sharing these bloodlines with as many people of like mind is very important to me and to the breed. As it is well stated on my website, the following horses were in HorseShoe Bend with Terry Jenson of the T bar K Ranch and Cattle Co.

OGO Higuera Rio Bravo ( Higuera Bandido x Circle H Merlita ) Chestnut Stallion - proven to produce quality foals and only intact son of Higuera Bandido the stallion I have based my entire breeding program on.
OGO Circle H Hunnewell ( Higuera Bandido x Circle H Merlita) Bay no white gelding
OGO Circle H Romanesque ( Vining Lamar x Circle H Merlita) Chestnut Roan Flaxen Stud Prospect
OGO Shawalla El Cortez ( Vining Lamar x Golden WinterMist) Palomino gelding ( gelded without my permission not by Terry Jensen)
OGO Primavera Red Oak ( Vining Lamar x OGO Bellota Del Oro) Chestnut stud colt ( belonging to Amy Don Scheroder)

On the evening of May 10th I was notified that OGO Circle H Hunnewell and OGO Shawalla El Cortez were no longer in Terry Jensens possession and OGO Higuera Rio Bravo, OGO Circle H Romanesque, and OGO Primavera Red Oak were in extreme danger of being disposed of as well.

Thankfully to some very quick action by numerous people the three named horses above were rescued from what could have been a horrible fate.

Thank you to the Idaho City, Idaho Sheriffs dept for their instant attention on this matter as well as thier high quality investigative action. The sheriff was able to use thier well honed detective measures to identify who disposed of my horses and make the appropriate calls to get the chain of information moving. Their ongoing help in this matter just shows how lucky we all are to live in such a country that has such hard working and honest law enforcement. More detailed thanks will be given when the investigation is closed.

Thank you to the Idaho state brand inspectors Larry Hayhurst and Herb Faust who did double duty to track down the paper trail on my horses and continue making the phone calls and asking of the questions that allowed me to at least know where the end of the trail was for my horses. Larry and Herb I know it was a lot of extra work but know that your job is an important one and for those of us who need you, you have proven you step right up to the plate without batting an eye.

Thank you Terry Jensen for working so hard for the quality and history of this American made product of the Old West, The Foundation Morgan Horse.

With my thanks now expressed I am very sad to say that the fate of the two horses were too late to save, OGO Circle H Hunnewell a beautiful example of what every gelding should be....... stallion quality in the gelding package. and OGO Shawalla El Cortez to my knowledge, the most concentrated Foundation Shawalla bred horse in the entire world..... they were shipped like unwanted garbage to a slaughter house enduring god only knows what sort of travel and terror. After being unloaded into most likely some sort of holding lot then shuttled into a chute awaiting their turn in the kill box where the smell of blood and death and screams of fear had to be over whelming. They were hopefully, best case scenario, stunned into unconsciousness before being hoisted up by one leg to hang, still living but hopefully unconscious, until reaching the destination where their throats were slit and they bled out. I will not describe anything else other than the best case scenario as the graphic nature of that description would clearly be much much worse and very likely was the case.

I am attempting to gain the help of the Idaho State District Attorneys Office Mr. R. J. Twillgar (208) 392-4485 to criminally prosecute the man that disposed of my horses.
If the DA feels that laws have been broken and the case meets the qualifications to take and procecute, I have made a promise to the memory of my horses and to others that have had their horses stolen and never recovered to prosecute this horse thief under the fullest extent of Idaho law.

Full details of this matter are unable to be released at this time due to, all Americans, even scummy ones, are allowed the right of, "Assumed innocent until proven guilty". As a proud American I will honor that until the party is either proven innocent or proven guilty. If proven guilty as a Proud American I will exercise my right to Freedom of Speech.

Any and all prayers and well wishes are appreciated.

Thank You,

Wendy LeGate
OGO Morgan Horses
http://www.ogomorganhorses.com/

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Please watch for updates to this ongoing investigation.
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It’s two days before the BIG day and I’ve been waiting a long time. Two days from now my dream horse arrives! I know you’re probably thinking “dream horse, wow that’s a tall order to fill!” You are right about that. I do have a lot of high hopes for this horse!

My story began about three years ago when I first took at look at Wendy LeGate’s website at www.OGOMorganHorses.com. Her farm is Old Growth Oak Morgans in Hollister, California. If you’ve never looked at her website, you’ll find a wealth of information on Foundation Morgan Horse bloodlines. And wow, such passion and an obvious love for the Morgan breed.  I called her because I was interested in a yet to be born foal IF she turned out to be a filly. Wendy and I had a nice long chat talking about Higuera Bandido (see her website), bloodlines and all that fun stuff. The foal was born but unfortunately, it was a colt…so that was that for the time being.

Wendy and I did keep in touch here and there. In the course of conversations she would mention her stallion OGO Windswept Soleil who was up in Canada at the time. I looked at his photos and pedigree analysis so I could learn a bit more about him. What a pedigree treasure he is with all that old California Working Western. His dam Woodrose Katrina was all old California Working Western. She was a working reining cow horse bred and trained for ranch work. Not only was she talented at work but she had a sweet personality to boot. Katrina’s lines were working ranch horses that had to prove themselves on the job. The closer lines were of Sid Spencer’s breeding program in California whose lines then go back to all Sellman breeding.

Soleil’s sire CanDon Joshua Danny was bred in Canada and was shown in trail, English and western. He was sold to Jo Johnson of Jaquima a Freno Morgans in Tivy Vallen, California who uses him to work cattle, ride in the high country, practice dressage and sire some outstanding offspring. The whole line is very people oriented with excellent dispositions. Shatona Karzan, Soleil’s grandsire was winning shows even when there was a huge color bias. Then there is Red Vermont several times throughout Soleil’s sire line, him being the son of the great Jubilee King. The sire side of Soleil’s pedigree is mostly Working Western also of Sellman breeding. The forethought that went into breeding these horses is impressive with the same theme repeated throughout. 

Soleil was Wendy’s first Foundation Morgan foal and I could tell he meant the world to her. Later, I heard he was at Nora Boman-Knight’s place (Vintage Morgans) in Coeur d’Alene, ID and was going to be transported back to Wendy’s. Then eventually Soleil ended up standing for Lennie Randall’s Questor Morgans in California where he stayed for about a year. 

In the meantime, I had started looking for a broke Morgan to be my riding horse. I have a beautiful Foundation Morgan Working Western mare named TK Mandolay (Vining Lamar x Miss Chatelaine) that I bought from Terry Jensen of T-K Morgans in Southern Idaho. I’ll stop here and talk a little about Terry Jensen and her Working Western breeding program. I’ve had the opportunity to visit Terry’s place a few times now and gotten to see some fine examples of Foundation Morgans including the stallions Vining Lamar and Looking Good along with some wonderful mares and foals. If you’ve ever met Terry, you know that she is a tough cowgirl (I mean that with respect) who has worked very hard for the breed. She’s extremely knowledgeable and willing to share what she knows…which is a lot.

So back to my story…I did take my mare to be started but of course she was still very green. Also, she was in foal, then not in foal, then back to Terry’s for breeding so I decided she would be a broodmare for a while and I would look for a Morgan who is already broke.

Trouble is, I’m very picky. I know what I want and didn’t want to settle for less. My wish list included…Foundation Morgan, 5-10 years old, 14.3 plus hands, must be pretty with a nice head, good mover and good conformation, must be broke, must like to be fussed over, have trail experience, good manners and above all…good temperament…a safe horse for my 5 year old to be around too. Well, now you know why it took 3 years to find such a horse. There is definitely a shortage of broke Morgans for sale out there. No one wants to sell their good riding Morgan horse!

Anyway, whenever Wendy and I talked, I’d ask if she had heard of any horses for sale that fit what I’m looking for. The answer was always nope, not yet.

In the meantime, Wendy sent me some photos of Soleil that Lennie Randall had taken. He was so beautiful that I nearly fell out of my chair. First of all, to give credit where credit is due…Lennie takes wonderful horse photos, but shoot, Soleil was drop dead gorgeous. The last time I saw him in a photo was when he was about 2 years old and in these photos he was 5 years old. He had matured into a deep gold with a silver/white mane and tail with super nice conformation too and nice soft eyes. Wow and wow. I thought if I had a horse that looked like that…well I don’t know what I’d do because I’d be beside myself with joy to look at such a specimen!   But dream on…right?

But then around the spring of 2007 I got a call from Wendy that started it all. In the course of the conversation, she said “what would you think about buying Soleil?” My heart skipped a beat and I was sorta shocked because Wendy knew I wasn’t really in the market for a stallion. So I asked her what she’s thinking.  Basically she said she planned on collecting him and was thinking of gelding him. She thought he’d be perfect for me knowing what I was looking for.

Well shoot needless to say I was very shocked but then the wheels started turning…imagining riding him and all the things I could do with him. We had a few more conversations about him and I felt hopeful but decided I would not get too excited yet.
Then as luck would have it, it looked like it wasn’t going to work out. There were some breeders that wanted foals from him and Wendy wanted to make that happen. I don’t blame her at all as gelding him would be a very big decision to have to make. I knew it was kind of a long shot anyway.

So, I kept looking at horse for sale sites and breeder websites. Nora Boman-Knight of Vintage Morgans in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho had a real nice mare (since sold). Nora and I went trail riding so I could test her out. I had met Nora about a year or two earlier when I went to her place to meet her and her Morgans. Nora’s breeding program is primarily Foundation Working Western with a focus on breeding sport horses. She has some really nice mares and for her it’s a priority to train and ride them as a test of disposition and athletic ability.

Her place is only about 30 minutes from my husbands’ parent’s farm so it was neat that I could have the opportunity to go and visit. Nora is always so warm and welcoming and it’s always fun to see her fine Morgans (some of which are related to my mare) and meet the new foals. I was lucky enough to see the stallion Sir Danes Sire Storm (aka Stormy) before he passed away in early 2008. I had heard a lot about Stormy so it was neat to see him in person and let me tell you he was definitely all that! When Stormy passed on, it was such a loss to the breed but I was thankful that I was fortunate to have seen such a magnificent tribute in person.

Anyway, back to the trail ride. This mare was a super nice broke trail horse with a good travelin’ walk like I like and nice to look at too but I felt like I just didn’t click with her. So…I kept looking.

I have been keeping my eye on some other breeders’ horses also. There were two in particular that I was watching…one in Washington and another in California. There were many other possibilities back east and the Midwest but I didn’t want to travel that far since I’m in Washington.

A few months later I found what might possibly be the one. He was a bay Foundation Morgan gelding that was for sale through a dispersal sale. He sounded perfect. I set up an appointment so my mother-in-law could go look at him in two days. The gelding was 6 hours from me and about 45 minutes from my mother-in-law so she graciously agreed to look at him for me. Well, you guessed it. Evidently a lot of other people had their eye on him too. I got a call the next day and was told there had been a flood of calls and he had sold sight unseen. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. But what can you do except tell yourself it was meant to be?

So I plugged away again back to the drawing board except I was really questioning if the horse really had to be a Morgan. After all, if I were to look for a Quarter Horse, my search would be drastically easier. I started looking at Quarter Horse ads and even printed some out to call on. But I never did make any calls. While there were certainly some real nice Quarter Horses available, they just weren’t Morgans. And so I kept looking.

Then in winter 2008, Wendy and I were talking about my mare Mandy who was pregnant with one of her stallion’s OGO Higuera Rio Bravo and she let fly that she might think about selling Soleil to me and what would I think about purchasing him as a gelding? Oh boy not again. I can’t get my hopes up again! So I kept my cool and said why the heck would you want him gelded? She felt like this might be Soleil’s opportunity to have a forever home and he would make a wonderful ambassador for the breed. She talked about his temperament and how fantastic it is…how everyone loves him and how good he is as a stallion and imagine how good he would be as a gelding. She planned on collecting him too so his fantastic bloodlines could be preserved.  Ok well my heart starts beating faster and I said of course I’d want him. And so there were several more conversations over the course of a few months since he needed to be available to breed a few more mares. Finally it looked like it was really going to happen!!!! Wendy agreed to sell him to me. Ok can we say unbelievable? I can’t believe this is really going to happen. He is going to be mine?  I told Wendy that I’ll really believe it when he steps off that trailer and comes home to me. Rick my husband was all for the purchase. In fact, we started “arguing” over whose horse he was going to be. Ha ha that’s certainly not a problem to me…I’ll share. I showed my daughter Jalyn her palomino Barbie horse and told her a real live one is coming to our house!

So I set about doing all the right things to make sure he’d be the right horse (even though we both knew he would be). We had a vet check which came out wonderful. The vet said he could not find one questionable item on his list. It’s rare for a vet to say that.

Then I made arrangements to go see him in person. He was standing at Sharleen Shields’s Acorn Morgans, in horse capitol Norco, CA. Sharleen was nice enough to pick me up at the airport and take me to her place where I spent a couple of hours. When we got to her place, she took me around back to where her horses are. It was so fun to meet another Foundation Morgan breeder and learn about her Lambert/Old Vermont/Brunk program. Sharleen was really a pleasure to meet. She spent a lot of time answering my questions and showing me around which I so appreciate.
 
But back to Soleil…we walked out back and I was greeted with several pens of obviously healthy and happy Morgan horses. I took a peak around to see if I could see Soleil. I did see one nice Palomino but too tall to be Soleil. Sharleen took me down a bit further and said I know you’ll want to see him. Holy moly! There stood Soleil. My very first thought was that he had such a presence! His mane was about 2 feet long (you gotta be impressed by that!), good conformation, beautiful color, nice head and soft eyes, and…what a joy to look at! We took him to the arena so Sharleen could free lunge him. He was very calm…just did what he was asked to do despite the fact there were several mares in season around. Then she rode him and then I got on. He was very nice to ride to say the least. Light mouth, easy transitions, nice smooth trot, nice stop, doesn’t know neck reining yet, a little stiff but all in all has the basics down really well. I knew going in that he needs finishing but that will be fun to bring him along. You know when you get on a horse, either you like how they feel or you don’t? There’s certain horses that just don’t feel comfortable. They’re not good or bad, just different conformation so a different way of moving. I felt immediately at home on Soleil. He was very comfortable. And I’ll say again…such a nice temperament! 

After we were finished with Soleil (how can you be finished with Soleil?), I wanted to look around and learn more about Sharleen’s program so she took me on a tour. I got to meet the grand old gentleman Canyon of Quietude, a real nice filly named A One Sophia by Soleil, a mustang mare in foal by Soleil and a three day old colt by Soleil named AFO Awesams Mavrick out of T Tyme Sunday’s Delight. I was impressed by Soleil’s offspring and can’t wait to see them as they mature. I got to see Two C Sissy Herod, OGO Caven-glo BlueMoon, Higuera Tinkerbelle, AFO Summer Jubilee and AFO Autumn Jubilee and more…all super nice Morgans. It’s so fun to see these horses in person. Sharleen and her son took me back to the airport and we said our goodbyes. It was a wonderful way to spend the day!

Ok still a resounding YES for Soleil. So the next step was to get him collected. Wendy and I decided to go into partnership on this so we set about finding someone to collect him. We did the collections at Dr. Jim Kubiak’s in California. Unfortunately, we didn’t secure as much frozen semen as we would have liked but at least we have it for the future.

Next step…gelding. Oh boy everyone was sad on this day. I shed a tear from two states away, Sharleen was sad, Sam who trained Soleil and Wendy of course too. But we all felt it was going to be the right thing in the long run and we do have that frozen semen still available.

Fast forward to today when I just got word from Sharleen that Soleil left last night at 9:40 pm two days earlier than planned!

Fast forward two days later and the shipper called to say he would be at our place around 7:30 am. Whooooeeeeee! It’s Christmas in July! So the next morning, the shipper drove up and I went running out to peek in the trailer. There he is! The shipper had to unload a mule and a Thoroughbred to get to Soleil so I was waiting…then he backs him out of the trailer and hands him to me. My hand closed around that lead rope and I gave him a pet on the neck and whispered “welcome home.”

To be continued…

Shelley Dodd