Can u believe its been 8 years since we rescued our first Salt River wild horse? HAPPY 8th 🎂 BIRTHDAY Rosco! Yes Rosco needed to be rescued on the day he was born!

Rosco would have suffered a slow and cruel death all alone, because he was abandoned right after his birth, by Serta’s band. It was March 2, 2016, at Butcher Jones on the Lower Salt River, Tonto National Forest in Mesa, AZ.

Serta was the new lead stallion who had just taken over his band, and he made Minnie, Rosco’s mother, move away from the baby. We had never witnessed this behavior before, and it was hard to watch. Serta has never done anything like that since, and he is an amazing father to all of his offspring, so please don’t hold it against him.

What happened is, Serta knew Rosco was not his offspring, because he just recently took over the band. After waiting a few hours to see if the band would come back, SRWHMG carefully surrounded him and loaded him on a blanket in an SUV.

We then frantically drove around trying to find the important colostrum he needed, which is the vital first mare’s milk that contains important antibodies a foal needs. It was hard to find late at night! In addition to the colostrum, he needed plasma which was administered several times by our vet the next day. From that point on SRWHMG volunteers stayed with him around the clock, and he was fed milk replacer every hour at first, and later every 2 hours. He had a new family, the SRWHMG family of volunteers.

After a long search on the internet and placing some ads, we came across mare April, who had lost her own foal at birth just a day ago. She was so distraught that she had stopped eating or drinking and the owner wanted us to bring Rosco to April. However, being responsible for Rosco’s health, we could not approve the property for the safe raising of Rosco.

So we negotiated a lease for April so she was able to come to Rosco. At first the two did not take to each other, but after patiently trying to pair up the two, April finally decided to adopt Rosco as her own! These two 100% saved each other!

And guess what, April is still with us today, we purchased her with the first $2000 we ever raised, when the new owner wanted to breed her again. She is now retired and lives in Prescott with her boyfriend named Custer.

So happy 8th Birthday sweet Rosco! We can only keep our Salt River wild horses through your donations, and while it may not seem as urgent as the day of his rescue, Rosco needs sponsors and he would also love some cookies and flyspray for his birthday!

Thank you so much for your support, without which the Salt River wild horses could not be humanely managed. SRWHMG.

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