You hear and feel them first; their
drum beat of flight vibrating the earth…
A band of mustangs bursts
from a narrow ravine, led by an older mare, their heads high, shaggy mains
flowing in the rush and their long unkempt tales stream behind them like proud
banners.
The stallion runs easily at the rear of the band, herding his
mares with nips and signals, but alert all the while for any hint of danger.
He is not so big as imagined, and his coat has never felt a grooms
brush; yet the sight of him quickens your blood and lights visions in your
mind.
A free roaming band reminds us vividly that
horses created in nature as fleet and powerful plains animals, finely
coordinated bundles of nerve connected to masses of muscle and bone. Horses are
machines designed by God, to eat and run. No matter how long we humans have
regarded horses as a source of power or speed for our own purposes, the wild
horse re-asserts the truth that the equine is domestic only in the most fragile
sense.
Yet there is something about wild horses that swells the human
spirit. We see freedom incarnate, and we want to be part of it, if only in our
imaginations.
