Stallion returns to owner after eight years as a wild horse
Created: 10/14/2022, 8:30 am
By: Lara-Sabrina Kiehl
On a field trip, a stallion runs away and joins a herd of wild horses.
Eight years later something happened that nobody expected.
Shane Adams enjoys the great outdoors of Utah's Western Desert while camping.
His stallion Mongo relaxes with him and recovers from the day's route.
However, when a herd of mustangs passes their camp at night, the calm mood changes.
Thundering hooves startle Shane.
In his underwear he runs to his horse.
But Mongo is no longer there - he has joined the wild horses.
Stallion returns to owner after eight years as a wild horse
Up and away: Stallion Mongo lived with a herd of wild mustangs for eight years.
(Iconic image) © Westend61/Imago
Horrified, Shane looks at the vastness of the landscape.
His eyes follow the herd and below them his stallion, getting smaller and smaller on the horizon.
He desperately searches for his beloved horse for three years and almost every weekend in the West Desert area.
But there is no trace of Mongo.
Over time, his hope fades and with a heavy heart he gives up the search.
As a study shows, free-roaming horses are more stressed than stable horses.
When he has long since given up hope of ever seeing his horse again, Shane's phone rings.
A call that he "didn't expect in life", as he admits to the television station
KUTV
.
Stallion returns to owner - 'like a dream come true'
On the phone is the Bureau of Land Management, where Shane reported Mongo missing eight years ago.
The reason for the call: Employees rounded up a herd of mustangs near Tooele County and noticed a brand on one of the animals that exactly matched the description Shane had given when she filed a missing persons report several years earlier.
119 American wild horses have died from influenza.
Sure enough, among some 71,000 Mustangs freely roaming the western United States, officials have finally found Mongo.
Shane can't believe it: "I was overjoyed.
I could not believe it.
It's like a dream come true," Shane told The
Washington Post.
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Stallion returns to owner - 'as if he had never left the stable'
Meanwhile, the now 18-year-old Mongo is in his old home.
And there he is, albeit very emaciated, just the same as the old man.
"It's crazy," says Adams, "since he's been in the wilderness for eight years and he's acting like nothing happened.
He's just as gentle and calm as he's always been.
As if he had never left his stable!” Shane knows that they were both very lucky: “With this drought there is not much to eat out there, the horses look like the walking dead because they are so thin.”
However, Shane is not resentful and understands Mongo's flight: "I understand why Mongo ran away - horses are herd animals and follow their instincts.
But I'm glad we can look after him again now and make sure he gets enough to eat."