June 15th

“The hardest part about managing wild horses is that you cannot control nature.”

We see the good and the bad about being wild. If you would rather not see sad news, please skip this post and go on to a happier post in the history of our page.

With heavy hearts we report the passing of a brand new foal we named Kokopelli. Kokopelli was born into Suske’s band out of mare Mellie, who was hiding last year when it was her time for PZP. Kokopelli is only the second foal of 2021 in the Salt River herd.

As we know, the first 2 weeks of a foal’s life are the most volatile, which is why SRWHMG monitors them closely during that time.

The first days went well, but on day 3, we noticed that the mare would walk away most times when the foal attempted to nurse. We thought this was strange and tried to assess why. Through close-up pictures it appeared that she developed an infection called mastitus.

The mare did love the foal, but it hurt her to let him nurse. We then tried to save Kokopelli by giving him milk replacer, and we were hopeful that her condition would improve.

Sadly despite our best efforts, we were not able to save him. Our hearts broke when we found his little body deceased, just 5 days after he was born.

Our field monitoring program is sometimes difficult. It shows that being wild is not always easy. We are so sorry little Kokopelli. Rest in peace.

💔SRWHMG.

Watch our update video on our Facebook page