06/29/09 Bend
 
Sentencing for 27 year old Russell Daniel Willeford of Banks, Oregon. Three months in jail, just under $9,600 in restitution, five years probation, no weapons and domesticated animals in his possession, and a mental health evaluation before he has any chance of working with livestock again. This after he was found guilty of animal abuse and criminal mischief for shooting the horse now known as Hero in the head and leaving him to die in the sisters wilderness last fall. Hero survived, now blind in one eye. It was a Crimstopper tip that helped lead Deschutes County Sheriff's Detectives to Willeford. Willeford claimed he was putting the horse down due to a leg injury. He got the horse from Camp Tamarack in Sisters where he had once worked. In court, he told the judge, looking back he would do things differently but the horse business is his source of income. "If I'm not able to be around horses then I don't see, especially in this economy how they're expecting to get any of this paid back," said Willeford.
 
Lately, Willeford has been working as a trainer at the Rolling Hills Stable in Banks, Oregon, his current employer declined to comment. On the website, Willeford says"In college I spent my summers at an advanced riding camp for kids called Wolf Mountain in Grass Valley, California. It was there I was originally certified as a CHA and CCHA riding instructor." KOHD called the CHA or Certified Horsmanship Association, they told us: "We have searched all of our records, and find no record of him ever being certified by us," said Polly Haselton-Barger, Program Director for Certified Horsemanship Association.
 
Hero is now living at the Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch in Bend. Willeford was ordered to begin his sentence at 5:00 PM Monday.