Last month we told you about the sad end of King’s band, after King’s lieutenant stallion Gandalf was found dead. After we searched for all of Kings mares, we let you know that they were all accounted for, but in different places, and they were each with different young stallions. After 15 years of being a powerful lead stallion caring for his band day and night, King was alone, and he appeared to be grieving.

How do we know what he is feeling? We don’t, that’s why we say “appeared”. We try to keep things scientific and unemotional, however, we observe very much the same behavior each time a horse experiences a loss. They usually tend to linger in the same area, appear lethargic, by themselves with eyelids slightly closed, and they always lose weight for no apparent reason, other than pure grief. We have been monitoring King like this for almost a month.

But we did tell you that he would be OK and that he would not be alone for long. So here’s the good news. Right now his spirits seem to be much improved and…. he has found some friends.

Wild horses are extremely social animals, they do not like to be alone. Whenever you see a wild horse alone, he might be in a transitional phase, he might be recently emancipated (kicked out of their bands) or there might be something wrong with him/her.

King is the dark stallion on the right. Funnily enough, the grey stallion he has made friends with, is the boyfriend of his daughter Highness and the sire of Kindness; he recently lost them and has some battlewounds on his face. The young dun stallion in the middle was recently expelled from his birthband. So all three of these horses have some kind of heartache and are finding comfort in each other.

The emotional and social life of wild horses is pretty fascinating, and often has parallels with how us humans would react.

We hope that everyone who has experienced a loss, can find friends who understand and can sympathize… so you can get through a hard time, together. “Wildhorsewisdom”.

Until next time…SRWHMG.

Picture by SRWHMG R.Blandford