This beautiful picture was snapped by Marilyn Bernstein a few days before Wonder was swept down the stream and went missing. From the back to the front it is: Dad Lindor, son Wonder, Mom Spring, and their yearling son Splendor in the front.

If this picture does not reverberate to your soul, that wild horses love their families as much as we do, then there is probably nothing that will. Just believe us when we say that this wild horse family looked for their son Wonder just as frantically as the human family looked for their son Rodrigo. When each of the boys were found safe, each family returned to peace.

The whole story:

Yesterday, our entire community feared and prayed for the safety of Wonder, who is one of just 3 foals we have on the river this year. Wonder was seen getting swept away in the current, by SRWHMG volunteer Erin Yager. She managed to photograph it from very far away. Erin then also photographed the band running frantically back across the river without Wonder, which other supporters witnessed also. You can see the panick in that picture, and everyone could hear their calling out, for their lost son.

The band then dissappeared in the bushes and could be heard galloping and continuously calling out. After this, neither the band nor Wonder could be found anywhere.

That’s when we issued an alert and an entire community started coming out to help our volunteers, who were already there.

People helped on foot, by kayak, paddleboard, with drones and even MCSO helped on horseback. We had a command center continuously on the phone, to coordinate everyone.

Everyone at home was telling us they were holding their breath and praying and sending positive vibes.

It was 114 degrees and it felt like an episode of naked and afraid to a lot of our volunteers, but our road patrol came in with refreshments and food to keep us all alive! Later in the afternoon, we made a video update to let people know we were still searching, and even more people came out and many local pages shared our alert too, thank you.

People kayaked and paddleboarded and took other people across and some just swam across the fast flowing waters. After the island and the chute (shoot) had been combed thoroughly, we started feeling better that at least Wonder had not been found dead, which was the worst case scenario playing out in our heads.
Later we received some videos and pictures that were far away and fuzzy, but they gave us some more hope that Wonder might be alive, but we needed a positive ID in real time to be sure and call the all clear. It came soon after, in the early evening, from one of the drone operator’s out there, Drew and Shannon Hastings. They called our hotline with 100% positive identification of Wonder, safe and sound back with his family!!

We typed as fast as possible, skipped the spell check, and posted the picture the very next minute on all 3 of our pages. The relief was like a giant sigh from our whole community! Thousands of tears and comments and cheers and all felt right with the world again!

Now Facebook unfortunately did not show the update to all of our followers, who were still holding their breaths. This is so unfair, and we continued to get questions if Wonder had been found, until deep in the night. Therefore, if you were one of those people to see the update late, or you are not seeing our updates regularly in your feed, please click on our page here, not just on the post, but on our name above the post, and be sure to click like instead of follow and click “see first”. In that menu you can give us a positive review also, and you can also click subscribe, which is only 2 dollars a month, and then you’ll be supporting the horses AND getting exclusive content about them, and see our updates quicker. Please take a few seconds right now to do it, every supporter helps.

Anyway, after we called the all clear and all felt right with our world again, our road patrol was doing one last check of Bush Highway. They were stopped at Sheeps Crossing by MCSO with the alert about the human boy who was missing! We then made the alert about 15 yr old Rodrigo also, and we hoped and prayed just as hard with our whole community that he would be able to return to his family safe and sound, just like Wonder had.
Rodrigo was found by MCSO around 11 pm and he was checked out by paramedics and was ok too! So TWO beloved precious boys are back with their families today, one human and one equine! Hallelujah.

So are we all just crazy to alert a whole community and worry about one little baby horse? Some will say we are, but what these horses mean to all of us is indescribable and hard to put into words.

With this herd being in jeopardy back in 2015, and them being in jeopardy again by another lawsuit from CBD at this very moment, you cannot blame our community for being very protective over them.

These humanely managed wild horses mean the world to the public, and we speak for all of the public who loves them, when we speak up for the Salt River wild horses.

These horses are the peace and tranquility people need these days. These horses are our rightful inheritance from the past, an economic boon to our area, and they are a key species to this ecosystem.

They do not only have our heart and soul, but they ARE the heart and soul of the Salt River!

We cannot imagine the uproar should anyone ever want to remove horses from this herd ever again. (Should this happen we will of course call on you all)

So thank you one and all, for your caring and showing us that you care, no matter if you are one of our volunteers, one of our donors, one of our supporters, one of the people who came and helped, or one of our followers far away on the other side of the world.

From our many grateful hearts, SRWHMG.