I had tried multiple times to find someone who owned this herd, but I never had any luck. What I did find were people chasing the horses on their ATVs and dirt bikes – chasing them across my land, no less. I was dumbfounded the first time I saw this. They were actually chasing the horses right on my property and my neighbor’s property. These people apparently rode their vehicles with no regard for whose property they were on. At first I would see the horses running like crazy and then right behind I would first hear then see the vehicle. After a couple of such sightings I called the County Sheriff’s Dept. to report this. I was told that because it was private property and private roads that there was nothing they could do. During one such call I was even told that it wasn’t a Sheriff’s Office concern. Shortly after these episodes, the horses disappeared for several months. I was hoping they had gone far away from people who would hurt them -- way back onto the nearby State and/or Federal lands and that they were too hard to find for these folks to keep chasing them.
The following spring the herd started coming through again. They had survived the winter and now they had babies with them. The babies made it so the mares kept the herd at a great distance from the house. But babies weren’t the only thing that showed up that year….. so did a big gray stallion. And believe it or not, this appearance occurred on a weekend I just happened to be on vacation on the mountain. My little house has windows and a deck all around the second story, so you are high enough you can see most anything going on outside. I first noticed the gray stallion when he and the white stallion were doing some sort of dance in the field across that fence. What they were doing was a complete mystery to me, but I had grown to somewhat know that white stallion and I truly appreciated his calm nature and how he seemed to take care of the herd. When the gray stallion showed up I suspected it meant trouble for the white stallion, but I had no idea what kind of trouble -- I was about to find out as I started watching out the windows.
At first the two stallions danced around each other in the field across the fence for what seemed like a long time. The dance included moving toward each other, then moving away, then circling each other, then darting back toward each other. At this point, from my vantage point, I’m hoping that this dance is all that was going to happen. Then, as if on some silent cue, the encounter escalated.
They started chasing each other around both these two pieces of property and any others close by. They were racing at break neck speed with tails flying and manes straight back, darting in and out toward one another, making seriously sharp corners that looked like they should break legs – their bodies were so close to the ground I didn’t know how they stayed on their feet! Once the white stallion would be chasing, and next time around the gray stallion would be doing the chasing. They would stop and fight each other on their back legs with their front legs flying at each other – just like you see in paintings, only this was very real. When they were in the air their front hooves would actually connect with each other. And the noise they were making was almost out of this world. I was terrified that one or both of them would be hurt because it certainly appeared that this wasn’t going to end well. This went on for hours and then on into the dark. Their stamina must be so great that they could both go on like this. When they ran by the house on this side of the fence I could see massive amounts of sweat on both stallions.
Part way through all this fighting I noticed that the mares (and their foals ranging from several weeks old down to just a few days) had separated. Three of the mares had gone to the north side of the empty field on the neighbor’s property and the other three had gone to the south side. They were back in amongst the trees and the trees’ shadows so I couldn’t see them well, but I could tell that something had happened to separate them in that manner and they were definitely watching the contest in the field between us. The stallions would occasionally break from the fight and both would dart over to where the mares were waiting. The gray stallion danced and snorted and whinnied around the mares on the south end of the field and the white stallion did the same to the mares on the north end.
It took me long enough, but I was starting to understand what I was witnessing. I was actually watching these two stallions fighting for their rights to this harem (that’s what you call the mares as part of the herd). The fight wasn’t about being mean to each other just because they were both stallions. They were vying for superiority and the rights to the harem. I don’t know if the contest was for the entire harem or if the stallions were so evenly matched that they split the harem in some fashion, since the mares had separated to different ends of the field during the battle.
However that all works in wild horse herds, over night, the stallions apparently worked it out, because the next morning what was left in the field was the gray stallion and three mares and their foals. The white stallion and the other three mares and foals were nowhere to be seen. Now that the fighting was over, it seemed likely that the mares must have had some say in this outcome or they wouldn’t have separated like they did on separate ends of the field.
The white stallion was gone along with 3 mares and their babies. I was missing him already. The friendly bay mare that had been on the other side of that fence was still here, along with two of the gray mares – all three had stayed with the gray stallion. That helped some but it was feeling very empty. I didn’t realize how attached I had gotten to all of them. And I found myself not liking this gray stallion for what he had done to the herd. I know I was being unreasonable, and it didn’t matter that it was a perfectly natural part of life in the world of wild horses. Four of my four-legged ‘friends’ were gone.
New stud after take over
The gray stallion and his new family stayed around for a couple of days. I could tell he had never had a harem before because he kept the mares and foals together all the time. He seemed really nervous and kept his little group right next to him. He would walk around them and force them closer together if anyone should move even a little bit away. His instincts had told him to contest for this harem, evidently, but being the protector must have been a very new role for him. This is very much in contrast to the way the white stallion had let the mares wander all over the field; it seemed the white stallion didn’t really worry as long as he knew where they were and knew he could protect them if they needed him.
Then the gray stallion, the three mares and their babies wandered away down toward the creek, the hills and the woods beyond. I didn’t see any of them again for a long time. Again, partly because I only visited once a month and mostly, I think, the newly formed herds were figuring it out.
[This whole experience was so mind boggling to me that I started doing research to learn what I could about wild horses. I have come to suspect that the white stallion was quite a bit older and more experienced than the gray stallion. It is very probable, from what I read, that the gray stallion came down from one of the bachelor herds that live in the national forest. In order to win a harem the young stallions are at least five or six years old before they ever try to challenge a herd stallion for a harem. Young fillies, when they are forced to leave their herd (Mother Nature’s way of keeping them from in-breeding), are picked up by other stallions. Young stud colts are not so fortunate. No stallion wants the competition for his mares, so the young colts are kicked out of the herd (usually between a year and two years old, depending on the genetics of the colt and the temperaments of the stallion and the colt’s mother) and left to fend for themselves -- eventually coming together for companionship and safety in what are known as bachelor herds.]
Chapter 4 – Developing a Relationship
The next spring I moved permanently up onto the mountain and the horses came back to the area. The gray stallion now had his mares and their babies. These babies were not offspring of the gray stallion, but rather from the white stallion before the herd separated. It takes 11 months for a mare to go from inception to delivery. Fortunately, over winter The Boy had lightened up in his protection duties, and the mares could move around a