Father’s Day; the stallions

By Laura Leigh on June 17, 2017

Band stallion in Nevada, Leigh 2017

“There’s no shame in fear. But understand this – the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion.” ~ David Gemmell, author

Action item June 2020: You can take action to help all of our wild horses by clicking this text.

Memories of wild stallions for “Father’s Day.”

Father and son after capture, with the mare on the opposite side of the alley, at Twin Peaks. Stallion protected his young son from other stallions for three days.

“He was a father. That’s what a father does.

Eases the burdens of those he loves.
Saves the ones he loves from painful last images that might endure for a lifetime.” ~ George Saunders, Tenth of December

Kiger stallion

It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons. ~Friedrich von Schiller

“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature,” Antoine François Prévost

One of the last of the Sheldon horses in sanctuary. The Sheldon herds were the most well documented remnant of US Cavalry horses. The three herds were eradicated in 2014 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) only remnants remain.

Pop served in our wars with America’s wild horses. Many people are unaware of how many of our horses served (and were left) overseas. Grandpa was cavalry in WWI, “You put your mask on him first,” he would say in his deep grunts, “he can carry you out but you can’t carry him.” That story, and a reference to the size of the rats he saw in the trenches in Europe, were the only war stories Pop shared. Like many men of his generation he was one of few words. I loved him, dearly. ~ Laura Leigh, Wild Horse Education

When we remember all of the amazing stallions we have seen both wild and captive we always remember an amazing stallion that would not give up. His tenacity made the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and their contractor abandon a trap site.