Wild Horse Ambassador

by Ronda Ewing

In February 2003, on a cold Nevada morning, wranglers, BLM (Bureau of Land Management) personnel, and a helicopter pilot were busy rounding up wild horses near Elko, Nevada. Donna Ewing, Barb Green, Sheila Roos, Jim Clapp and myself visited the roundup site in the high desert nearly a hundred miles outside of civilization, where a camouflaged trap awaited the entry of wild stallions, mares and young horses.

As I peered through the disguised meshed fence in the holding corral, for the newly gathered stallions, I saw Elko Dann for the first time. He was nervously moving other young stallions around the corral, continually working his way through the herd and constantly moving right and left, checking behind for danger and 'would-be' predators. Remarkable, this dominant stallion would not be intimidated by the helicopter or allow his band of nine mares to move off from it. Because of this, as a safety measure and in an effort not to cut them with the blades of the helicopter, they had to bring in five wranglers on horseback to round up the herd. The following day they moved this group of stallions to the JD Ranch. HARPS then intervened and made arrangements to save one eight year old horse, who we named Elko Dann.

Elko, being an older stallion, was not a candidate for an adoption program - and was certain to have gone to Fallon, NV an auction site and sale barn frequented by killer buyers. With the help of Jim Clapp, HARPS transported him from this terrifying place of capture in Nevada to his ranch in Orland, California where Jim had designed and created a proper training facility. We then worked on the beginning stages of haltering the stallion. A month later, I moved him to a stable on the ocean, just outside of San Francisco. It was at this small stable, Mar Vista, located on the cliffs in Northern California, that I continued to bond with Elko and began the long, arduous journey of gentling (not breaking) this terrified horse that had never been touched by a human before his capture. Countless hours during those first four months were spent building trust and reassurance as Elko and I walked out on the cliffs and down the long switchbacks to the beaches of the Pacific Ocean, where I eventually rode him bareback in the ocean waters. This small unique stable, left behind in time, is where Elko and I learned what it meant to communicate as two different species, using the language of companionship, trust and camaraderie. It was at this stable that I climbed upon his back for the first time. The groundwork for learning and communication was made through the smallest measures of movement and touch in the very beginning. Once we had established a level of trust, we were able to meet the challenge of increasingly complex learning situations - on foot we negotiated rough terrain, high cliffs, the ocean tides and finally civilization. We eventually ended up at Rio Vista Stable in San Juan Capistrano in November after Elko Dann suffered a rough bout with strangles (an extremely contagious equine virus). Wild horses have not been exposed to domestic disease and commonly fall prey to these types of illness when in captivity. We began more graduated training at Rio Vista and, and with the help of trainers Sandra Hanson and Ginny Bryant, Elko learned the basics of dressage and jumping and currently he anticipates each fence with remarkable willingness, agility and strength, never refusing. The long hours of groundwork and trust culminated when I successfully rode him on one of the largest equine parades - The San Juan Capistrano's Swallow's Day Parade (San Juan Capistrano, California).

On May 1, 2004 Elko Dann arrived at HARPS in Barrington Hills, Illinois to begin his new life as an ambassador for the wild horse project that we have worked diligently on for the past twenty years. The intelligence, diversity and adaptability that Elko and these historic animals possess is the driving force in the desire to save them from being "managed to death" by the mismanagement of government. Elko brings the character and qualities of a unique species that needs our attention and support in helping to keep the dangerously few remaining wild horses where they belong - on our public lands.