03/28/2025
Mr Rudee Tudee
March 25, 2003 – March 13, 2025
Two weeks ago today, just shy of his 22nd birthday, I said goodbye for the last time to the most influential horse and stallion of my lifetime, Mr Rudee Tudee. His barn name was “Rudee” but I fondly refer to him as “Mister” often. He called my pastures home for seven years, covering a handful of my own mares each year, as well as two outside mares for close friends. Being my first stallion, he taught me so much about stallion ownership and breeding.
Mister was a once-in-a-lifetime stallion. His role is irreplaceable and his absence leaves a gaping hole not just in my breeding program, not just in my herd, but in my heart, too. When he wasn’t living with the broodmares pasture breeding, he was living with the weanlings teaching them how to be good citizens in a herd and acting as full-time 2-in-1 babysitter and playmate. Everyone who met him loved him, and most who met him didn’t know he was a stallion until they were told; he was so quiet and gentle. He didn’t require any special fencing, led in whatever halter I had available without any fuss, he loved his mares, and I could pasture him with just about anybody. He especially loved my daughter’s grooming sessions filled with love and goodies. His mane wiped away my tears. He listened to all my hopes and dreams for hours and hours over the years. He helped bring some of those hopes and dreams to life and gave me more opportunity than I could have anticipated. I was able to bless others because of him. I made some amazing friends and met some great people because of him. His foals even made dreams come true for others. He instilled in me a love and deep respect for stallions.
Mister was born into the Johnston family as a performance prospect, but after an injury as a youngster, became a breeding stallion. He was sold to the Yarnell family at a sale in Hermiston, Oregon four years before I purchased him, and bred many of their mares to him. I remember that sale well, as I’d seen him in the catalog and fell in love with his photo. I was in no position to own a stallion, so I watched him go through the sale without bidding, thinking it would be so neat if someday I could own a stallion like him. Four years later, he came up in a Hermiston sale catalog again, with the same photo as four years prior, and I immediately called the number in the ad. A friend and I drove down to where his owner lived, trailer in tow. I paid for him on the spot and hauled him home. Things in life didn’t go right a couple times and I was worried I’d have to sell him, but things would line out just in time, and I’m so blessed I never had to. I can’t tell you how thankful I was to have him the years I did. Having him was very clearly meant to be.
While Mister didn’t have the opportunity to have his own show career, he was a true All-Around producing sire and many of his foals during his breeding career went on to have careers of their own in the performance arenas earning money and points, the rodeo, roping and barrel arenas, ranching, outfitting, trail, brood stock, and more. I kept two fillies by him out of one of my favorite mares, a year apart, that are now in the broodmare band producing foals with his temperament, passing on his legacy in my herd. In six foal crops, I have shipped his foals to Montana, Florida, Oregon, and other parts of Washington, and can’t wait to see what the youngest of those youngsters will be up to soon. His last foal is due anytime out of one of my favorite girls and a producing mare, and it is so very bittersweet. This winter, his age and injuries caught up to him, and the most merciful thing I could do for him was let him go.
Rudee, I will forever be grateful for all you have done for me. You can never be replaced, and you will never be forgotten. Your legacy is a beautiful gift and will live on. I love you, buddy, and I miss you terribly. If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.
