The drowning of a rodeo horse named Red in Montana has divided a family, sent a Deer Lodge woman to jail and inspired death threats against her brother.
It all started with Red’s last ride. But before that, there were a lot of hard feelings and a rattlesnake bite.
Coming into the 2024 rodeo season, rising high school rodeo star Tatum Hansen said he needed a new “bulldogging horse” for competitive steer wrestling.
His horse Moon died of a rattlesnake bite in Glendive, Montana. Then through a family friend, Hansen met Reno Ward, son of Darrell Ward and star of the hit History Channel series “Ice Road Truckers”.
Ward said he is a big supporter of the rodeo team at the University of Montana Western. Hansen was a top recruit, and Ward wanted to help him find his perfect horse.
In May, Ward and Hansen learned online about a horse for sale in Cheyenne, and Hansen drove down to test out the horse.
Hansen said he knew right away that the horse he would later call Red was something special.
“I was like, ‘God dang, this thing's a fire rocket,’” said Hansen. “He’s got a big motor. So I called Reno and told him, ‘Yeah, this is exactly what we need.’”
He said Red showed exceptional acceleration and closing speed on cattle.
“He pinned his ears and just blew by them,” Hansen said. “I was just eating cattle up and it was like, ‘Holy cow. We got ourselves a diamond in the rough here.’”
On June 11, two weeks after bringing Red to Powell County, Montana, Hansen and Ward moved cattle on a ranch near Deer Lodge with Red and some other horses.
As the day heated up, Ward and Hansen said they swam Red in two ponds.
“Kind of nothing like I've seen before,” said Hansen. “And I really wasn't sure what was going on because we had zero problems at the first two ponds that we were going through. He's acting like a big water bug and was loving it.”
Then at the third pond, something changed.
“I do not know why the panic set in,” said Ward, describing a scene on video posted by his sister Terra Ward. It shows Reno riding Red in the water and then Red flailing at him before going under.
The edited video goes on to show Reno and others gathered at the water bantering casually while Red floats lifelessly in the water. They used a ranch truck and winch to pull Red out of the pond.
“That sucker just went under, and it was kind of crazy and messed me up for quite a while,” said Hansen, who watched his star horse slip away. “I've never seen nothing like that.”
It starts with a rider on Red in the water struggling, then cuts to several men on shore after the horse had died. They’re joking and laughing, while one goes into the water to pull the horse to the shore. At one point someone jokes he “could ride him like a boat, you’ll be alright. The cheapest boat you ever had.”
The Video
For the next six months, Reno and Terra’s already tense relationship became increasingly estranged, said Terra.
She told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that Reno asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement and promise to not disparage Reno and his businesses and to generally back off. Terra didn’t back off.
Terra posted the video of Red’s drowning to Facebook on Dec. 26. This opened up Reno to the global judgment of social media and Reno ran for cover.
“The footage was very clipped and edited. The horse didn't drown with me on him,” said Reno.
A lot of the debate on social media over Red’s drowning focuses on a tether or tie-down attached from his chin to his chest; did this keep Red from being able to lift his head beyond a certain point?
“(Reno) should have known to take that tie-down off,” said Terra in a selfie video posted to Facebook on Dec. 27. “I didn’t know the video would blow up like it did. I just didn’t want Reno to buy another fucking horse.”
That same day, Reno filed a restraining order against Terra, who was arrested later for violating the order.
“I asked the officer what the restraining order entailed,” said Terra. “He just told me that I couldn't have direct or indirect contact with him. I posted on Facebook that (Reno) had filed a restraining order on me.
“And Friday night (Dec. 27) at 5 p.m., they arrested me on a violation of the restraining order because I posted that I got a restraining order on Facebook, and my bond for a misdemeanor charge was $5,000 cash.”
Terra said she ended up spending a night in jail, and since then she’s continued to post videos making disparaging comments about her brother.
In a Dec. 27 Facebook selfie video, Terra calls her brother a “piece of shit,” and in a phone interview with Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday, she detailed several private grievances.
Those responding to the video of Red’s last ride continue to express a mix of disgust and outright aggression against Reno, who said he’s received death threats by those offended by the video.
In a Dec. 27 Facebook video, Terra tried to cool the heated fallout from Red’s death.
“Come on guys,” said Terra. “That’s not worth it. I hope and I pray that justice is served.”
A screenshot from video posted by Terra Ward of a rodeo horse named Red after it had drowned in a pond in Montana. This is the horse, which was bought earlier in 2024 from Cheyenne, after it had been pulled from the pond with a winch. (Terra Ward via Facebook) 
Screenshots from video posted by Terra Ward of a rodeo horse named Red after it had drowned in a pond in Montana. In this image, a man goes into the water to pull the body of the horse to shore. (Terra Ward via Facebook)
The Official Investigation
In his 25 years in law enforcement, Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles said he’s never investigated a horse drowning. His office gets about two animal neglect and cruelty complaints a month, and most don’t attract much attention.
“But this is just one of those stories. Obviously, it has a lot of high emotion involved in it,” Sheriff Roselles told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. “As a former rancher myself, everybody has feelings toward the animals that they love dearly.”
Roselles said over the next couple of weeks, the investigation into Red’s drowning will continue “without emotion based solely on facts. And save determination or judgment until after that case is presented to the county attorney if it gets that far and let justice take its course.”
Janet Rose, founder of Horse Haven Montana in Missoula, will continue to monitor Red’s case. Her organization’s mission is to “enhance the equine-human bond and to improve the welfare and the well-being of the horse.”
Rose said Reno Ward’s contention that Red’s drowning was a tragic accident sounds “entirely plausible.”
“But here's the thing that I would say: Be knowledgeable, be smart. Don't take any animal into an environment that you are not familiar with and capable of dealing with,” said Rose. “Its first instinct is fight or flight. So, if a horse panics, it's very hard, obviously, for an individual to calm it down.”
While Red’s death is investigated and the Wards remain at odds, Hansen charges forward with his steer wrestling career.
During the 2024 fall semester, he competed as part of the University of Montana Western rodeo team, and for a freshman did well.
Hansen rides one of Reno Ward’s horses.
“I am third in the region right now, in bulldogging (steer wrestling). And that's using Reno's good horse Cash,” said Hansen, who specializes in the rodeo event where a rider chases down a steer, dismounts their horse and wrestles the steer to the ground.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
