Watching him go you’d never guess at his day job; his neck arched, smooth strides taking him effortlessly around the arena. He looks as if he belongs in a show ring amongst polished hooves and banded manes. Instead, his rider dismounts and strips his tack, replacing it with a colorful felt pad and surcingle. He’s lined over to the mounting block where he waits, hip cocked, until his patient is a ready to mount.
His name is Si O Tuck, or Cody as he’s known here at NCEFT. Out of a mare named Smoke Time Tuck, a reined cowhorse with earnings near $300,000, Cody was born on April 18th, 1995 at Bar Eleven Ranch in Red Bluff, CA. Skip Brown, owner of Bar Eleven, has trained and shown some of the greatest horses in NRCHA history. Skip bred Tucker’s Vaquero, the youngest horse to ever win the AQHA Super Horse title, and has judged the AQHA Snaffle Bit Futurity an astounding 7 times. Though Cody never made it to the World Show, His sire, Si Olena, won enough awards for the both of them: 1998 AQHA World Champion in Open Sr. Cutting, 1998 AQHA High Point Cutting Horse, and second place winner of the 1990 NCHA Super Stakes Open Division.
That’s not to say that Cody didn’t earn his keep, by the age of four he’d already earned over $2,000 as a cutting horse. His competition career was put on the backburner when he was sold in 1999 to Dearborn Ranch in Wolf Creek, Montana. Owned by the Seibel Family, the ranch sits on over 90,000 acres, and is part of an Angus operation that produces about 1.5 million pounds of beef each year. It was there Cody experienced life as a true ranch horse, walking fences, moving cattle, and toting kids around the arena.
By some stretch of luck, 2007 found Cody on trailer to California. The Seibels had donated him, along with Jazzy and Boon, to our program. Cody quickly adapted to life as a therapy horse, learning ground driving with ease and thriving on attention from his riders. Unfortunately, only two years later Cody came down with an undiagnosed lameness. Together with the vet, the barn staff at NCEFT tried everything to rehabilitate him. From complete stall rest, to muscle strengthening, and even equine massage, but with no lasting effects. Cody spent most of 2010 in a state of unofficial retirement, until in October of that same year the staff made one last push.
Today you’ll find Cody cantering around the outdoor arena during his morning workout, dependably carrying his hippotherapy patients, and doing a session or two of therapeutic riding. He’s slowly putting on muscle and gaining strength, and we expect nothing but continued improvement as the days go by. Though his hoofs are unpolished and his tack unadorned, Cody is still every bit a superstar.
