First Pryor Foal Born in Europe.

wildinthepryors

10 years ago

I got an email from my friend Cedric yesterday, announcing the birth of the first Pryor foal born this year (born yesterday!). This colt is also the first Pryor foal to be born in Europe. He has named him Onida.

Cedric agreed to give me some more information to share and I will let him tell his story. Thank you so much Cedric for sharing!

Sandy

I bought my first horses 9 years ago. Two colts. I had a small pasture or a large paddock and as long as I was not born with horses, I started to learn as much as possible about how horses living in the wild. And I found Ginger’s movie, on DVD.

This was my first encounter with the Pryor Mustangs. I got in contact with BLM to adopt one, but unfortunately, it’s not possible for non US resident. I’ve check some Pryor’s breeder websites and I met (by email) Bess Carnahan. I asked her about wild horses behavior when they were rounded up and how to gentle them. That was in 2005.

In 2007, I saw on Bess’s website a wild stallion for sale. It was Targa. He was born in 2002, from Starbuck (Starbuck is the sire of Capucino) and a mare called Mae West. Targa, who was called Chai by the BLM, was removed in 2006. He was proposed to internet adoption but the BLM had a problem with their website. He was on page 2 and this page has not been published. So nobody adopted him and the BLM finally asked Bess if she would buy him. She already had stallions but accepted. After one year, when she finally got the papers form the BLM, she put him for sale. And she has accepted to sell him to me.

But I had a kind of feeling of guilty. Targa was not born to spend his live in a bachelor band and to carry an human. He was born to live free and to have progeny. Bess Carnahan was ready to sell me Pryor mares born in captivity but the pasture / paddock I had was not suitable for a breeding program.

I’ve convince my wife to move and in the end of 2010, we bought an old farm, 30 miles away from our house and still 20 miles away form Geneva / Switzerland. While we were restoring the farm, I’ve agree with Bess to buy Media Noche, a black mare born in 2003 in captivity by El Cid, a born wild stallion by King and an unknown mare and by La Sombra, a daughter of the famous Shaman. With my family, we moved to the farm in July 2011 and Media Noche arrived in October 2011.

Unfortunately, Media Noche died 24 hours after she arrived. She probably didn’t support the stress of the travel. I was desperate and guilty to have make this poor mare endure such a long trip to die here. All my projects were stopped. I had to take some time for reflection. It came obvious that I had to go and see the wild Pryor horses. In August 2012, I’ve travel alone to the US to see them and to meet Bess for real.

I was on the range during the 2012 round up. I was thinking to buy a mare at the auction but once again, it was very complicated because the BLM don’t allow foreigners to adopt horses. But once again, Bess was there and accepted to sell me a daughter of Media Noche : Bella. She is a daughter of Chico, a stallion bought by Bess to the Hartman.

Bella spent 6 months at Steve Smith facility in Nebraska. He worked and gentle her enough to let her be able to endure the quarantine and the flight toward Europe.

Bella arrived at my place in March 2013 and after a few days to rest, she’s been introduced to Targa. They became a nice pair, very in love together.

Finally, one year after Bella and Targa’s meeting came Onida. It’s an O year for foals in the Pryors Mountains and I choose this name because it means in Iroquoian language “long awaited for”.