Diego’s age and experience shows, but he is still alive and kicking, and there is no reason to euthanize him. We do not euthanize or rescue Salt River horses, until they show signs that they can no longer survive without pain or suffering. In fact Diego, along with a few other oldies, is getting a little extra from us at feed, because other than his ancient appearance, there is nothing wrong w him. He could have anywhere from a month, to 5 years left in him, no one knows, but he deserves every day he has left!

The pictures show him at different times of his life, every stage carefully documented and stored in his file in our app. We remember everything we monitored Diego for, too many injuries to mention: severe bitewounds, severe leg injuries and even strangles when it was going around many years ago. Needless to say, he got better every time! His ear got nipped in 2010, his eye injury happened in 2018, and his nostril was ripped in his last attempt to keep a mare.
But doesn’t he wear those battle scars, plus his grey hair so beautifully?

Details of his long life include being Shadowfaxes lieutenant for many years, until they switched roles when SF got older. Together they stood by eachother and kept that very large band for a decade. Shadowfax, even older than Diego, would have perished several years ago, (because of his hip displacia and teeth issues) but he lives his last deserving days at our rescue facility now.

Diego earned our designation of “retired lead stallion” when he eventually lost the rest of his band, to the younger generations. This is a fact of life for wild stallions, and while it seems sad, after losing their bands, retired stallions can roam around quit happily, for several more years. BTW the mares never end up in a retired file, because they stay with their bands until the end. We have more than 10 oldies in our “retired lead stallion” file in the wild, which shows how fast the Salt River herd is aging.

Diego still enjoys his freedom and travels many miles a day, sometimes we see him at our SRWHMG property in the evening and at one of the river feed stations in the morning! We’ve seen him do that track within an hour!

If you think that’s impressive, wait until you meet his offspring: His son Luna (or Indian Prince), has become a very popular and awesome dad, so Diego is the paternal grandfather to our youngest Salt River wild horse, Lainey!

Diego is also grandad to one of our rescues, Agave and other notable offspring names include: Carmel (lead stallion) Garrett (lieutenant stallion) , Nugget (Lead stallion) Solo (lead stallion) Scratch (lieutenant stallion) and Steven (lieutenant stallion)!

So should Diego’s time come one of these days, he has already left his strong DNA for future generations. In the mean time, should you have the great honor to meet him, please give him respect and a 50 ft distance at all times, and if you feel it’s appropriate, give SRWHMG a few dollars donation, so we can carry on our important work, of protecting and humanely managing the Salt River wild horses.

In fact, the very reason we work so hard, -in the public eye and behind the scenes,- is to see them live their entire lives and grow old wild and free, with dignity. There is no better reward, than knowing we make that difference for them, and if you are one of our donors or supporters, you help to make that possible.

One of the many ways you can become part of our important mission, is through

paypal: SaltRiverHerd@respect4horses.com

Or Zelle: 6023963978

So that we can give Diego an extra flake for you! Thank you! SRWHMG.

Pics by Jenn Johnson, Destini Rhone, Luanne Hedblom.