Montana Brandy
- April 24, 2024
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- Ruth Nicolaus
Posted in: Barrel Racing, Featured, Rodeo
A special gelding made a difference in the lives of four different women.
Montana Brandy not only had the speed and athleticism necessary to run barrels and poles, but he provided love and friendship for his owners.
Montana Brandy’s first home was with Marion Gramith. Then Penny Treeby bought him, then he went to Sherry Maher Taylor’s, then on to Dee Webb Haugen.
And all along the way, he brought his tremendous speed and kind personality with him.
Marion Gramith, who lived in Montana at the time, had bought Vegas Go Way “Salty,” a half-brother to Montana, and liked him so much, she found the lady who owned his sire, Vegas Hard Way, and contracted with her for the next three consecutive colts out of the stud.
The second of those babies was Montana Brandy, a 1970 foal, whose dam was Classic Barrett.
Gramith put the training on him, and in 1976, on her last of three trips to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, she rode Montana, while her daughter Cindy rode Salty.
When Penny Treeby saw the horse, she had to have him.
“He had explosive speed when he left the start line,” she remembers. “I just wanted him. I wanted that talent that he had.”
Treeby purchased him in the early months of 1977 and circuit rodeoed on him, winning the PRCA Badlands Circuit titles in 1977-78-79.
He had a tendency to over-shoot the first barrel.
“Marion would run past the first barrel and still clock,” Treeby said. She worked with him to slow him down and turn the barrel more efficiently. “If you could get around the first barrel on him, you’d be winning.”
Brandy, as Penny called him, disliked particular adults but loved kids.
He wouldn’t calm down with her aboard when she left the arena, but he would for her three-year-old daughter.
“If I tried to stay on him and walk him around, he wouldn’t settle down, but I’d throw my daughter on him and he’d walk gently.”
When his time with Penny was done, he moved to another good home.
Sherry Maher Taylor was sixteen years old when Montana (as she called him) came into her life in 1983.
He was to be her sister Holly’s horse, but after Holly rode him, she didn’t really like him, so she passed him on to Sherry.
Montana had a big right fetlock when the Mahers got him, and Sherry and her mom Ida noticed it and took him to the veterinarian.
“The vet took one look and said, he’s no good. Get your money back,” Sherry remembers. But she and her mom didn’t believe him.
“So we went to a different vet to get a second opinion,” she said. That vet gave him a steroid shot, and it worked; Montana was never lame for the rest of his life.
Sherry rode him for high school rodeo and in 1984, was state runner-up in the barrels and poles and the next year, won both events plus the all-around title.
Montana also paid the expenses for Sherry and her mom to go to the National High School Finals.
For two years, Nationals were held in Rapid City, and Sherry’s goal was to qualify, since it was so close to home.
But there wasn’t money to stay in Rapid City for the week.
It was Montana who paid that bill. Sherry had enough money to pay entry fees for an SDRA rodeo, where Brandy won second, giving her and her mom the funds to be in Rapid City. In 1984, they finished in the top twenty at Nationals in both events; the next year, they finished in the top twenty in the poles and top ten in the barrels.
Montana was more than just a horse to Sherry; he was her friend.
“He was my best friend. I lived on a ranch, I had no friends, I grew up such an introvert, and I spent all my time with horses,” she said. “That horse took a kid with no self-esteem, and pretty much won almost everything I took him to. He was my best friend. He was a life changer.”
Montana increased Sherry’s self-esteem so much that she ran for Miss Rodeo South Dakota, and won the title. “That horse gave me confidence to start engaging with people. He touched so many facets of my life.”
She rode him at the 1987 College National Finals, and sold him the next year.
Butch Webb, the father of Dee Webb Haugen, called Sherry’s older sister, asking to buy one of her horses. The sister said, “if I had a daughter, I’d buy my little sister’s horse.”
So Butch called Sherry, and talked her into selling the horse, plus throwing in the bridle she used on him, said Dee, Butch’s daughter.
Dee was twelve when Montana came to live with the Webbs, and she rode him for 4-H, NRCA and SDRA rodeos.
“He was just awesome,” she said. “He’d win every barrel race and pole bending.”
Like Sherry, he was a comfort for Dee, too. Her parents had divorced when she was young, and he was her “solace,” she said.
He was also tough, Dee said. “He was gritty, a real soldier. I’ve only seen one other horse like that in my lifetime.”
When he hurt a stifle, the Webbs retired him. One year, a late spring snowstorm came, when the horses were turned out. Montana Brandy laid down, went to sleep, and never got up again.
“We buried him on our place,” Dee said. “You feel honored to do that for the good ones.”
“He was beautiful,” she said. “He was my first love. He gave me a reason to love horses.”
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Posted in: Barrel Racing, Featured, Rodeo
About Ruth Nicolaus
Ruth is a rodeo publicist who loves the Great Plains and its people. She can be found behind the chutes at a rodeo, working in her flower garden, or cooking, some of her favorite things to do....