CELEBRATING ONE OF OUR OLDIES!

Seeing foals grow up wild and free is amazing—but there is something just as special about watching them live their lives through the seasons and grow old the way they were meant to, in the wild.

This is retired lead stallion Diego on the right, now at least 26 years old and becoming frail.

Walking along with him is Heath, his grandson out of Butterscotch, through his son Steven. Through our decades of monitoring of the Salt River herd, we know these horses, their family lines and their relationships—and we’ve watched Diego from his young bachelor days, to running a band with Shadowfax and later taking it over, to him retiring, and then roaming alone, as retired lead stallions do. However, this year, Heath has been staying close to his grandfather, keeping him company and protecting him. It is incredibly sweet to witness.

Diego has sired a strong line of offspring in the Tonto National Forest, including Steven and several other lead and lieutenant stallions, such as Carmel, Garrett, Scratch, Luna, Nugget and Solo.

Moonfire, who is almost a year old now, is his grandson through Garrett. With upcoming genetic research, it will be fascinating to learn and confirm just how much of Diego’s DNA runs through the Salt River herd today!

Long live the old Salt River wild horses—and cheers to keeping them wild and free for their entire lives.

SRWHMG, for every Salt River wild horse.

Pic by SRWHMG Christine Burkhart.

Please share! We want to keep sharing herd information that we have researched for 20 years and it may be shared with proper credit, but not copied or republished as someone else’s work.

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