A disturbing video has been making the rounds online showing a horse drowning. It's led to a family feud between Ice Road Truckers stars as well as an investigation and an arrest.
So what happened? Reno Ward, who appeared on the show and son of the late Ice Road Truckers Darrell Ward, and Tatum Hansen, a rodeo star, were moving cattle together. Tatum bought a horse named Red after his last horse died. On that fateful day, Red was swimming in ponds to cool off.
"Kind of nothing like I've seen before," Hansen said via Cowboy State Daily. "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."
But in the third pond, Red ended up flailing around and drowning. Reno was riding the animal at the time. The incident drew backlash from Reno's sister Terra, who later posted the video online. The edited video showed both Reno and Tatum chatting while the dead horse floated in the water. They then pulled out the animal using a truck.
"That sucker just went under, and it was kind of crazy and messed me up for quite a while," Hansen said. "I've never seen nothing like that."
The incident caused the Ice Road Truckers siblings to become even more distant. Terra ended up posting the video, causing a ton of backlash for both Reno and Hansen.
'Ice Road Truckers' Spat
"The footage was very clipped and edited. The horse didn't drown with me on him," said Reno. However, Reno drew backlash for whether Red had a tether on his chin to his chest, which may have prevented him from lifting his head above water.
"(Reno) should have known to take that tie-down off," said Terra on social media. "I didn't know the video would blow up like it did. I just didn't want Reno to buy another fucking horse."
Things got nasty between the Ice Road Truckers siblings from that point on. Reno filed a restraining order against Terra that led to her arrest.
"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."
She called her brother a "piece of s—t."
Meanwhile, Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles is investigating the horse drowning.
"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."
The investigation 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."
