GoHorseShow would like to congratulate, Lauren Rodberg of Dana Point, California on the purchase of The Fire Escape, who was the 2012 Reserve Congress Masters Champion in the Two Year-Old Hunter Under Saddle with Scott Jones in the saddle.
The Fire Escape (Jim), is out of the late great thoroughbred mare, Escapist, and by the highly popular, Good I Will Be. Jim was the last foal of Escapist before she passed away. The 2010 sorrel gelding was sold by Janae Walker Bronson of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Bronson, told GoHorseShow that Jim is everything she hoped he would be, and it was a very hard decision to part with him.
“I always heard that the ones that you don’t really want to sell are the ones that do sell and that is the case here,” Janae told GoHorseShow. “He showed us in the Masters that he is going to make a great show horse as well as the Jim we see every day that just wants to sleep, be brushed on, hang out in the pasture, eat carrots and go back to sleep.”
Bronson adds, “I think California will suit his personality and I know that he will be going to a great program and a home that will love on him as much as we do. I have my Escapist mare (Jim’s half sister) that we are breeding in the spring, and we will be looking for a new project for me to show next year. I expect great things from the team of Jim, Lauren and Nancy Alto-Renfro in the future.”
Bronson purchased Jim from equine sales specialist, Ruth Ellen, who raised him and sold him to Janae in the spring of his yearling year. Ellen told us that she immediately knew that Jim was great minded. “He had been saddled and was the easiest colt to start: tying, clipping, saddling, anything and everything.”
According to Rodberg, Jim’s movement, beauty, and sweet personality were some of the traits that immediately drew her to him.
“He was the first video I watched when we started discussing a new horse, and I pretty much fell for him then,” says Rodberg, who currently shows a 2008 Allocate Your Assets gelding, Al Ways Right (Dave) in the Amateur and Non Pro Hunter Under Saddle.
“I bought Dave in March of last year. He was my first hunter under saddle horse,” Lauren says, who showed in youth under Berleen Ross for many years. “I’ve had an amazing time showing him and he won me the West Novice Championship in the Novice Amateur Hunter Under Saddle. I really love the futurities, though, and that’s when Nancy showed me Jim.”
Rodberg’s plans next year is for her trainer, Nancy Alto-Renfro, to show him in the three year-old hunter under saddle futurities including the NSBA World Show and gradually start showing him in the Amateur and Junior Hunter Under Saddle. “I am so excited about the future,” Rodberg says, who would like to also thank her very supportive parents for all their love and support. “I just love Jim’s personality and he blew me away the first time I saw him, and I knew he had to be a part of the Rodberg family.” (Lauren pictured here with Jim)
