“Although I live for today, I often warmly think about the “good old days” when hundreds of we wild ones roamed free. Where are my wild friends that I knew those many years? Where are my mares and foals today?”
Source: By Ed Pearce of KOLO.com “Probably the greatest photo op was when he took his band and he ran alongside the train for a full mile at the same pace as the train…” LYON COUNTY, CA – Some called him “Railroad Man” or “Flash.” The crews and […]
By Jeff Hampton The Virginian-Pilot It was the first rescue of a horse by Corolla Ocean Rescue COROLLA, N.C. – A blind and aging stallion is recovering after a rip current swept him seaward and lifeguards carried out the coastal community’s first wild-horse rescue. On May 2, two […]
Submitted by “Ace“, the Twin Peaks Wild Stallion and personal friend of Grandma Greg’s I often warmly think about the “good old days” when hundreds of we wild ones roamed free… “It’s ‘Feel Good Sunday’ and I awoke, today, to find a letter from a captured, yet now […]
May 29th was a blustery day on the Pryor Mountains as we bounced up Tillett Ridge Road in a gale force wind blowing out of the north. Icy rain fell in intermittent sheets—the polar opposite of the weather on the day of Cloud’s birth.
Sixteen years ago the sun was shining. It was warm. Light clouds floated overhead. I set up my camera and was filming a brash, young stallion who was flirting with his father’s newly acquired filly when I spotted a flash of white moving through the trees and panned the camera. A pale colt tottered out of the forest beside his palomino mother. The rest of his family followed—Smokey and Mahogany, his sisters; Diamond, his yearling brother; and the other mares, Isabella the pale buckskin, and Grumpy Grulla. Pulling up the rear was Cloud’s stunning father, the unforgettable Raven. The foal struggled to keep up with his mother on their trek uphill to snow drifts under the canopy of Douglas firs.
Wells, NV – On Friday, Feb. 25 the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) abruptly canceled the controversial wild horse roundup in Northern Nevada known as the Antelope Complex, while the following day the agency released twenty chemically sterilized mares and two studs back onto their federally protected public lands, nine had been released earlier in the roundup.
Yesterday, out on the range, roamed a dust covered and weary car full of anger and frustration.
Perhaps it was because its occupants had just climbed to the top of a ridge to watch a green and dangerous contract helicopter pilot chase a band of four wild horses across a mountain top and into a treacherous canyon only to release them. The release was good, but in that four was a very pregnant mare and a foal. Couldn’t the BLM contract pilot have figured out that was animal cruelty in Nevada about 8 miles earlier?
A tall, charcoal maned gray stallion living in Twin Peaks has, through no intentional actions on his part, accrued a small fan base.
Twin Peak’s “BraveHeart” ~ Photo by Lisa LeBlanc
He is stunning, though years of defending his family and his territory have left his black skin visibly scarred, a common testament to a fiercely protective nature. First observed during a ‘mixer’, a Wild Equine version of speed dating, he pawed the ground, trotting, snorting, kicking up dust in a frank display of masculinity. Middle age and hard living has begun to moderately effect his body, leaving him angular, in contrast to the inherent roundness of a younger, untested stallion. Still, he exudes a powerful appeal in his direct gaze and commanding stance, an assurance that he is more than capable of taking care of what is his. And in his small realm, he is undisputed Lord over all he surveys. In Wild Horse society, little credence is given to perceived perfection; he wooed and won many mares. His mares chose him for his competence as protector and provider, for his experience on the range and likely, for the hardiness & vigor sure to be handed down to his offspring.
Once upon a time, on a small one-acre paddock in rural central Texas, there resided several horses; unfortunately, not in the best of conditions. It was a mean enclosure, boarded with barbed wire and natural cut poles whose bark had been eaten off long ago by the horses held captive within.
I don’t know how true this story may be; I only know how true it could be. As the Holidays approach, we should be filling our hearts with the appreciation, warmth & kindness of our fellow humans. Instead, we find ourselves fighting bitter battles for those who cannot fight for themselves against such a monstrous enemy.
But as the Holidays approach and as we fight the Fight, please, remember to be thankful for the human Alpha Mares and Stallions Fate has kindly brought together, bonded in friendships old and new.
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