Hello and Happy Wednesday!
First, I want to say THANK YOU to all of you for your warm thoughts and prayers for me and my mom. My mom is doing great and is expected to recover at least 90% if not make a full recovery.
I am now on my 3rd dose of meds to deal with this nagging pneumonia! I am starting to feel better but not quite like my old self – yet.
As always, there are a number of things we are working on, both as follow-ups from our meeting with the Department of the Interior last week, as well as our What Next for Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates series that we will discuss soon. We also have more meetings next week and will share details when we can!
When we first started documenting the horses, we shared photos and stories about what we witnessed along with them. Believe me, we miss those days as much as all of you! The stories have become less important when compared to making sure these horses remain wild and free. Thank you for understanding the necessary transition.
There have been so many changes in the park that I did want to spend some time sharing some history and also the evolution of some of these amazing horses.
I wanted to start with the photo attached to this blog. These are what many of us called “The East Side Bachelors”. This photo was taken in 2018 when these 4 boys were first kicked out of the natal bands: L-R: 2014 Stallion Maverick, 2014 Stallion Flash, 2014 Stallion Gunner and 2014 Stallion Remington.
It is worth noting that there was a huge wild horse roundup in 2013. This was also when Blake McCann came onboard as the park’s wildlife biologist. There was no roundup in 2014 and after that, Blake initiated “low stress removals” that targeted ALL of the younger horses between the ages of 4 months old to 3 years old.
Today, there are 7 stallions all born in 2014 that are still in the park. In 2018, they started becoming part of what became a growing bachelor group. As great as the bachelors are at mixing things up in the park, 7 stallions all vying for mares when all the young fillies were being removed was not just challenging, but also dangerous. Over the years, this more than likely caused the deaths of iconic stallions like Blaze and Satellite.
When we first started documenting these horses, because of these and other questionable management practices, there were just a small number of bachelor stallions in the park. This meant that the older, iconic stallions like Red Face, Satellite, Brutus, Thunder, Mystery, Sidekick, Copper, Teton, Wild Rye, Cloud, etc., all went unchallenged for years. It is NOT normal for band stallions to hold the same exact bands for YEARS. It is the addition of new mares and the loss of some mares to other stallions that helps keep the genetics of the herd in balance.
That started to change in 2018, and the East Side Bachelors were a big part of that.
One of my favorite memories is one that I witnessed with these stallions on the day this photo was taken.
These four boys were taking their turns sparring with the band stallions, who were all grouped near each other, as they commonly did during the summer months. One by one, each band stallion would be challenged by one of these four. They continued this as they made their ways around to each stallion, one of these four would step forward and challenge that stallion.
When they got to Sidekick, the four boys looked at each other, as if to wonder who’s turn it was now. After a few minutes, they all decided to skip Sidekick and move on to the next band stallion. I always felt like this was a testament to Sidekick’s reputation among the horses. I know that most of the humans who follow this herd felt the same way about that legendary stallion!
Over the 4 blogs that follow this one, we will look at these four stallions. We will give a little history and also share how their bands evolved and where they are now.
This is the only blog that will be e-mailed to avoid cluttering up your mailbox with too many emails this week. You can read the stories on our website at www.chwha.org. Many of you have also asked for shareable links to our blogs on Facebook and we do post them everyday there. You can view our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/ChasingHorsesWHA/
Thank you again for your continued support and we hope you enjoy this series!
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