HUGO - Almost since its creation in 1992, Hugo’s Dead Broke Saddle Club has been quietly supporting Special Olympics Minnesota and other worthy community endeavors.
Last month, the club was honored at the annual Distinguished Service Awards banquet in Bloomington as the 2008 Special Olympics Minnesota Outstanding Agency/Nonprofit and a “vital part” of the agency’s equestrian program.
“We were very pleased to receive the award,” said club president Eric Wesman. “We have supported Special Olympics for a long time in a significant financial way.”
Each year, Special Olympics Minnesota holds its annual equestrian state competition at the Dead Broke Saddle Club arena.
The mission of the Dead Broke Saddle Club is “To promote and sponsor equestrian activities for youth, for the physically, emotionally and mentally challenged, and in service of our community” [www.deadbrokesaddleclub.org]. Funds raised by pulltab sales at four local establishments—The Blacksmith Lounge, Kelly’s, The Trio Inn, and WiseGuys Pizza—all go to support 4-H, FFA, area schools and food shelves, and the annual Minnesota High School Rodeo Association rodeo finals, which are also held in Hugo.
“In cowboy terms, a ‘dead broke horse’ is a horse that is completely trained to do his work, and willing to do it if asked,” Wesman said. “It reflects an ideal of horsemanship.”
In that regard the club, which has roughly 70 members, is well-named: many of them volunteer often.
For his part, Wesman, a retired senior marketing investment representative, works at Kelly’s selling pulltabs. “Money is intrinsically indifferent,” he mused. “It’s how it gets used that makes the difference.”

Planting A Seed—And Making A Difference
Kris Kelly of Woodloch Stables says that the seed that grew into the Dead Broke Saddle Club was planted decades ago by longtime Hugo resident and Woodloch Stables proprietor Dan Ramberg, who gave riding lessons to a Special Olympics athlete.
Kelly, who now serves as the Special Olympics Minnesota equestrian director, said that when Ramberg took his student to his first Special Olympics equestrian state competition, he was disappointed that “it wasn’t run as a horse show.
“Dan felt that these athletes did work towards a goal, and that goal should be a true horse show experience,” she said, adding, “That’s why we decided to put in to have it done here.”
The event has been held in Hugo ever since.
Wesman says that around the same time some horse enthusiasts, led by Ramberg, had a desire to form a saddle club that was more outward-focused.
“The notion behind Dead Broke was that we would raise money and use that money to support community activities, with a very strong focus on activities involving horses and kids,” he said.
Dead Broke Saddle Club’s mission was born and—many years later—reinforced by the experiences of Special Olympics athlete and Global Messenger Noah Reedy, who hosted Wesman’s table during the Jan. 17 awards banquet.
“Noah’s parents told my wife that getting involved with horses saved his life: it gave him a meaning and purpose that wasn’t there before,” Wesman said. “To see how committed to [the equestrian sport] he is, and how good he is at it, shifts your whole perspective on how you think of people with disabilities. Instead, you learn to think of them as people of abilities in special ways.
“You see the competence—and you see the impact.”