August 2

We have very sad news. A carcass was found deep in the desert by Maile Alday, a great supporter, upon which she called our hotline immediately. We went to investigate right away, to find out who it was, and what could have possibly happened. (To support our important fieldteam, please click donate on our page)

We identified the carcass and it is Nahele, a 7 year old, half blind stallion, who was in fine shape the last time he was seen on July 17th. His carcass was already mostly eaten, but we found blood under his head and neck, which indicates a mysterious traumatic event. We chose not to post the pictures. It could possibly be the mountain lion again, but we also investigated for foul play. We couldn’t find any bullets or bulletholes however. So we just might never know what happened. We are very sad about Nahele.

This stallion was pretty low in the ranks of wild horses, as he was a timid boy, but he liked hanging out with his buddy Poppy. He was also often still be seen in the vicinity of Iriquois band, which was his birthband.

Both of his parents, River and Iriquois are still alive and his maternal grandmother, Cayuga is still alive as well. Nahele’s full brother Susquehanna, (Suske) is a very succesful lead stallion with a very large band. So one never knows who will become a lead stallion and who will not, it apparently has nothing to do with bloodlines. It also has nothing to do with being half blind because we have half blind lead stallions and lieutenant stallions.

This makes the current total number of Salt River wild horses on Forest Service land , now 313. (To support our important fieldteam, please click donate on our page)

Nahele was a sweet and kind Salt River wild horse. Run forever free. 💕 SRWHMG.

Photos submitted by Maile Alday, and one of Nahele as a baby from our app.