A Story of Disappointment

"As she was drifting to sleep her thoughts were of horses, and of the open country, and of horses. Horses still wild on the mesa, who'd never seen a woman afoot and who knew nothing of her or her life yet in whose soul he would come to reside forever".

adapted from ~Cormac McCarthy

A story of a girl and Wild White Stallion.

Photo by Leslie Sterling, Sacramento Bee

This girl came to be an ardent admirer of an amazing guardian and father while doing Biology research and writing her thesis for a Masters degree, in the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area near Susanville, CA. The Stallion and his band were intentionally/inadvertently within the confines of a small grazing allotment at Spanish Springs, Summit Trough near Ramshorn Campground, off Rye Patch Road.

Guarding his family.

While in this small allotment many admirers of wild horses came to visit him and his family, but this one girl, she was totally swept away by the vigilant care he showed his family, the way his large band of mares and offsping looked to him for guidance and protection, and the way his babies mirrored his every move displaying to the world confidence and comfort in their high desert home.

  His youngest son already taking charge of his world. 

Photo by Leslie Sterling, Sacramento Bee

On August 20th, 2010 he, his family along with 2 other family bands, seen in the below photo, were gathered by helicopter at the Shinn 1 trap right on Rye Patch Road.

BLM Photo

Soon after the roundup this girl, with images on her computer and in her mind of this battle scarred Wild Stallion, decided she must do something to keep him in his wild home. It couldn’t be his rightful home but she found the next best thing.

BraveHeart giving warning to another stallion.

With a new sanctuary home secured, correspondence began with his captors and guardians at the Litchfield WH&B corrals in October. By way of photographs, many descriptive emails and phone calls the wranglers said they had identified him, but neither the promised tag number nor photographs were returned to her by email. According to staff he had been deemed un-adoptable because of his age so he was the considered “sale authority”, now hip branded and gelded. The correspondence continued with very few, delayed replys, still no tag number and no pictures just apologies and word that the sale authority horses would be available on January 1st, 2011.

Last seen here 8/21/2010 the day following his capture.

Word finally came from the corrals on December 9th, "we may have sold him with a load of 40 sale authority horses going to Michigan" then the same day "we think you should come to the corrals and pick him out".

A visit was paid on January 4th to the corrals hoping to find her freckled white stallion gelding. The search lasted most of the day checking every pen. He was not there! She left the corrals very disappointed, with only a list of 17 appaloosa and gray horses that had been shipped to long term holding on December 8th, and a "good luck finding him" wish from the staff.

Why was it the very day after horses had been shipped to long term holding that she was told he might not be there? How could it be that a horse who had a private home may now be a long term ward of the Federal Government? Why were long term horses shipped before Jan 1st when they were said to be "available"? Where has he really gone? How many others has this happened to?


BraveHeart and his family will forever reside in this girl’s thoughts and soul.

She says "Every horse deserves special consideration, and should not be just pushed through the process." 

Our girl will not give up on the search for her BraveHeart.

*UPDATE:  We received word today about the search for BraveHeart...

March 18th, 2011 

"We discovered today that our BraveHeart is dead. It is not how he died that matters, it is how he lived … and I think you are aware that this special stallion lived the true wild horse life. He was extremely dedicated to his family and he loved his world each and every day that he had on the range, being who he obviously was put on this world to be … a very, very special wild stallion. His story will be told. He will not be forgotten."

BraveHeart will live on through his many admirers, many photographs, his young son Pableu's Cloud Blanket, and in the heart of our girl.
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