El Regalo

From Kimerlee Curyl, AWHC Creative Ambassador:

Regalo lived wild and free for about the first two years of his life, in the Great Divide Basin, Wyoming. One of the most magical places to ever place yourself. The Divide Basin consists of almost 800,000 acres of open land which sits between the southern Wind River Mountains and the Atlantic Rim splitting the Continental Divide.

In October 2011 helicopters descended on his family. A prey animal chased for miles across the rugged, dangerous, and diverse landscape with a soaring, loud machine over his head. Did you know that a horse can hear the ultrasonic shriek of a bat, which is inaudible to a human's ear? Just think about that. He was then, immediately removed from his family band, loaded onto a slippery, metal-floored livestock truck with his mother, and other frantic wild horses, crammed like sardines then shipped for hours to a facility in Utah.

Imagine, being chased with your family for miles, quite possibly hours by helicopter, forced into tiny steel pens after living two years of your life on close to a million-acres of territory. You've never seen a human before and now they are yelling and waving plastic bags in your face. You are exhausted as your little legs should never have had to run that far, that fast and that scared. Now you begin the 6+ hour journey in a loud, bumpy metal box stuffed with other scared wild mares and youngsters. You arrive and are unloaded into a flat pen surrounded by fences. The following day you are taken from your mother, run through a squeeze shoot, given vaccines, gelded, and moved into a pen with only other newly gelded youngsters. Your mother is now gone forever.

With all of that happening to him, this is the smartest, most curious, mostly confident horse I have ever been privileged to know. If communicated with, he loves to learn. If forced, he grows in height and becomes hundreds of pounds heavier -- “No, you can't make me do anything”. He is an amazing creature.

Adopted in 2013, his name means “the gift” and that is exactly what he has been. My first wish is freedom for wild horses and burros. And while not nearly all wild horses do well in captivity, the ones that do are remarkable. For the past few years, we have been learning the joy of jumping. Yes, a once wild horse now representing the American Mustang with the art of jump and human communication. He thrives on it! He is my “wild child” and I could not be more proud of this amazing creature.