We have mustangs. I was a horse crazy girl. Now, a horse crazy girl all grown up. We have adopted four mustangs over the past six years and Black Elk is my newest horse. He came from the Robert's Mountain Herd Management Area in northern Nevada, near the Shoshone Mountain Range. In the winter of 2008, there was three feet of snow in the mountains, and the horses were living on twigs and sticks, the snow too deep to find any grass. The BLM did an emergency gather. The wrangler said they smelled like Elk, not horses.
At 16-2 hands, Black Elk is an unusually large mustang. He looks and moves like a warmblood, like a dressage horse. Loose, long strides with his butt tucked under he is stunning at times! I saw him on the Internet. He was being held in the BLM corrals in Delta, Utah, and when I called there, I ended up talking to one of the wranglers. Now, usually these are old crusty fellows, who like horses, not people. Now, usually they are not much on talking. Not this wrangler; Eric was young, computer savy, liked to talk and his wife Lisa, who did the PR was a great photographer. I wanted more photos..she sent them, I wanted to know more about this horse and he was willing to tell me. He started out with the statement "In the 10 years I have worked for the BLM, I have picked out two horses that I wanted, this is one of them." Why?" I asked? "Temperament", Eric says, "this horse has the best temperament, unruffled, and he's big, and he moves real easy-like." He went on to say," I am also a farrier, and this horse has perfect feet and perfect legs." He'll stay sound. Oh....I was getting hooked but good.
"Does he really look like those photos?" I asked. His wife sent me some more. There were some where he looked like the awkward 2 1/2 year old colt he was, but not many. This is Black Elk in the corrals. This was not your average mustang, I knew, I'd been looking for this horse for years.
I really did not NEED another horse, not really, it's just that I never got to pick out my others, and this was a long standing dream. So, I gave it one last try, I told the wrangler, well the corrals in Burns will haul the horse 400 miles for me, and you're a long ways from Orcas. He said he'd meet me in Burley Idaho, if I wanted the horse. If I did not like him when I met him, he'd just take him back.
That weekend, we hitched up the horse trailer and headed for Burley, Idaho. Nervous? It was like getting a mail order husband! I was alternately ecstatic and sure I'd made a mistake. We drove to our favorite place in Pendelton and spent the night, ate at the Stetson steak house. The drive was beautiful in mid October, just about one year ago. By noon we had gone through Boise and were close to Burley. I thought well, maybe I call him 'Burley'. Then we were there.. standing in a small pen was a very laid back, very big, dark brown mustang.
What a beauty!
Well, you guessed it, we loaded him up and headed back west. He traveled perfectly, no bucking, moving around, eating hay as we barreled down the highway. In Baker City we stopped at the Majestic Hotel for dinner. What a great place to eat! The colt was so quiet in the trailer, eating and drinking water, we decided to sleep in Baker City and finish our trip home to Orcas the next day.
We wanted to be home to unload him in the light, but that was not to be. So, he was unloaded in the dark, calm and quiet as if he'd done it all before.
Here is Black Elk in his new home, wondering what's next?
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