February 14th

Oh, how we hate to see a happy couple broken up, especially on Valentine’s day! It’s true that Rascal lost Aquarius to Bud, from Jake’s band. Jake’s band is “unusual” because it consists of stallions Jake and Tad, who have been buddies ever since their bachelor days, and Daisy, their only mare, plus her grown son Bud.

This entire band was in a vehicle collision in 2019, which is when Daisy lost her young foal and Bud was hit also and almost died. He sustained a head injury and a leg injury, but they all waited for him to rest up and he made a full recovery. We believe that this is the reason that Daisy has not let him emancipate from the band, even at 5 years old.

In addition, 5 year old Bud is no threat to the two adult stallions, because he will not breed with his own mom. So Bud is kinda like the 40 yr old Virgin still living with his parents!

But he thought he would go get himself a girlfriend and two powerful adult stallions were supporting him. Three stallions was just a little too much for Rascal to fight off.

However sad it is, we have seen it a million times over the years. A new lead stallion rarely holds on to his very first mare. It’s why we’ve named the daily drama on the river “As the River flows”.

Bud has been doing his very best to win Aquarius over the patient way.

As for dear Rascal he likely learned an important life lesson and he will watch his next mare a lot closer. Many fillys of the 2019 foalcrop will be leaving their birthbands soon and we will see new romance bloom soon!

Happy Valentine’s day everyone.

To learn more about humane wild horse management go to SRWHMG.ORG

Pictures by SRWHMG Rick Blandford.