Teen turns ‘untouchable’ horse into barrel racer
By Alexa Zollner
SAUK VALLEY MEDIA
DIXON, Ill. (AP) — Day after day, 14-year-old Molly Weinzierl sat in the sand, a pile of hay on her lap, waiting for the perpetually spooked horse resting nearby to get hungry enough to come over. “He was terrified of men in cowboy hats and damn near untouchable,” said Weinzierl, now 18 and a senior at Dixon High School. She recalled multiples times Reno — an American quarter horse with the scars to prove past mistreatment — became so frightened that he ripped out the hitching post and took off toward the nearby road, dragging the roughly 4-footlong log with him. Weinzierl believes a past owner tried to train Reno to barrel race and beat him in an attempt get him to turn in the proper direction, Sauk Valley Media reported. Aggression and terror are about the worst mixture one can get in a horse, said Weinzierl, who lives in Dixon Township. She, along with Sally Cooper, helps care for Reno and her other animals. Cooper is a family friend and is the one who bought Reno for her. It was an unexpected purchase, as Weinzierl had gone with her to the sale barn to look for tack, not a new horse. But the moment she saw Reno, she knew he would be hers. She affectionately calls Reno by his nickname, Bear. The person selling Reno had pulled him and another horse out of the auction when they didn’t go for a good enough price, Weinzierl said. If she hadn’t bought him, there’s a chance Reno could have gone to slaughter. “I knew that he was going to end up being a good horse,” she said. “But there was something off about him. I knew
SHAW MEDIA PHOTO/EARLEEN HINTON
Molly Weinzierl, a member of the Ogle County 4-H Horse Drill Team, rides her horse, Reno, around a barrel during the Poles and Barrels competition at the Spooktacular Horse Expo and Fun Show at the Ogle County Fairgrounds. Reno, 16, was slated to be slaughtered before being rescued by Weinzierl. that there was something kind of deeper going on. And they almost seemed too calm, to a point where we think, I don’t know 100% for sure, but we think that they might have been drugged.” The horses’ behavior changed drastically following a few days of quarantine back at Cooper’s, Weinzierl said. The other horse couldn’t be saddled without bucking and
ended up being resold as a bronc, while Reno’s fear and aggression came out. It took several months to earn Reno’s trust, Weinzierl said. But today, she can put the 3-year-old neighbor on Reno and he’ll carry the girl around like a crate of eggs. “(I was) just waiting for him to finally kind of click and start seeing some gears turn in his head, because he really
was stubborn and he wanted to be his own thing,” she said. “But, from the beginning, I knew that there was something about him that was just going to be so awesome once I finally got his trust, and that’s how it has been.” Weinzierl started riding in December 2016 and, by Day Three, was out riding by herself. As soon as she realized See Weinzierl page 14 Ag Mag – 13
