A scholarship fund established to provide financial help to Southern Arkansas University (SAU) rodeo team students has been established in memory of Credit Card, a horse stolen, then discovered dead last year.

Credit Card was among five Quarter Horses belonging to student members of the SAU collegiate rodeo team taken from the Mulerider Stables at the university’s Magnolia, Ark., campus in November. Four of the animals were recovered alive; however, the remains of the 15-year-old sorrel gelding were recovered by law enforcement personnel in McCurtain, Okla. Former SAU student Jaci Rae Jackson has been charged in connection with the horse thefts. Jackson is also charged, along with two others, in connection with Credit Card’s death.

SAU Foundation Director Jeanie Bismark said that following the horse’s death, supporters offered to donate funds to help Credit Card’s owner and rodeo team member Shaun Smith purchase a new horse. The family declined the offers, but suggested that a scholarship fund to benefit rodeo team members be established in the horse’s name instead.

In July the SAU Foundation announced that the Credit Card Memorial Scholarship was established with a $15,000 endowment