September 1st

Another little Salt River baby grows up, becomes a bachelor, battles his way up the wild horse ranks, and finally finds love.

Our documentation of each wild horse on the Salt River from birth until death is valuable research, because of the astonishing amount of data collected each day, on their behaviors, social structures, migrating habits, reproduction and their health.

But as most of you know we are not a bunch of dry researchers, we also simply love it. We love watching them grow up wild and free and documenting the stages of their lives. We cry for them when it’s not going well and we cheer them on when we know they are trying to accomplish something, and we know you do too!

So let us tell you about this particular stallion, who’s easy to spot because of his outstanding beauty and his bright right blue eye.

He was born in November of 2016, out of mare Chardonnay by sire Champagne. Neither one of his parents had blue eyes, and none of his siblings do either. His official name is Citrine, but we have accepted the more well known nickname of Rascal for him, because it fits.

He was emancipated from his birthband at 2,5 years old, which is the median age for young stallions to get kicked out of their bands by their fathers. With this he became a bachelor stallion and then spend several years growing up and gaining strength, hanging out and battling with other young stallions for practice.

Our Rascal has been a bit of an independent bachelor all this time. He has been watching and waiting strategically until he grew strong and confident. He is now almost 6 years old. According to our data this is exactly the median age where bachelor stallions start conquering their first mare. Rascal was increasingly becoming a serious threat to existing lead stallions.

Many people were kind of keeping an eye on him because of his increasing confidence. Here’s to hoping he would find a pretty lady.
Well he did not disappoint! After battling his heart out he found this beautiful girl, her name is Aquarius. She is actually not a young lady anymore but one of our experienced older mares, but wild horses do not care about age and he does not see her wrinkled muzzle, only her beautiful blonde mane. He has won her over and they make a beautiful new couple.

Now we just have to see if his protective skills are strong enough to hang onto her.

With every day in the wild, their story and our work continues. Our many important programs are all geared to keep them wild and free and healthy.

We are glad to share this information with you and you are welcome to share it. When you do, please credit SRWHMG and our many years of important work to keep them free.

Thank you.
Photos by SRWHMG photographers.