Ten years ago, when I founded Wild Love Preserve in central Idaho, I set about creating a new and inclusive means of wild horse management on home turf by bringing stakeholders from all sides together in a new light. I imagined that if I could turn regional wild horses into an asset for the community, region, and state, everyone would win, and our model could also help other wild horse regions in the west. Initially, many told me it would not be impossible to bring stakeholders to the table in this manner. Some called me a traitor for working with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency in charge of managing our wild horses on multi-use public lands, and with the ranchers who graze their cattle on our public lands where indigenous wildlife and wild horses reside. However, I stayed true to my belief that common ground can always be found through fluid communications and mutual respect when we choose to rise above drawn lines. The fact being, we save wild lives by working together.
By design, the work of Wild Love Preserve engages public and private lands to address all facets of regional wild horse populations on home turf with community engagement and benefit. From our collaborative work on the range with the BLM to our, now, 165 adopted Challis-Idaho wild horses, and the creation of our permanently protected Idaho wildlife preserve. Kindness, mutual respect, conflict resolution, accountability, science, and education drive the Wild Love mission to protect and preserve western wild horses in their native habitats and nurture the legacy of respective indigenous ecosystems as an interconnected whole by way of bridging divides and working together.
The magnificent Wild Red Stallion has continued to lead the charge for Wild Love, even after his crossing in 2013.
Last November, we at Wild Love Preserve were in attendance and addressing logistics of the Idaho BLM's 2019 Challis helicopter roundup, which was the first conducted since 2012 due to our collaborative work with the BLM and successfully slowing the population growth with Native PZP-1YR, versus every 2-3 years. It was not easy for me to witness wild horses we had been working with for the last seven years being run into the chutes by helicopters and removed from the Challis Herd Management Area. While some wild horses were released back to the range, leaving the total count at 185, most were trucked away and prepared for public adoptions.
In November 2019 the Idaho BLM conducted their first helicopter roundup of the Challis herd since 2012. The WLP-BLM collaborative work implementing Native PZP-1YR has proven successful in safely slowing population growth.
In June, I received word from the BLM about the first group of wild horses from the 2019 Challis roundup needing placement at Wild Love Preserve. As per our mission, Wild Love adopts and purchases those Challis-Idaho wild horses that do not find homes through BLM adoption programs, and as we did following the 2012 Challis roundup. Once with us, they will live a forever life of wildness together on their native turf in Idaho at Wild Love Preserve. We do not adopt out or gentle, and by design, our population management program with Native PZP-1YR mirrors our collaborative work on the range.
Like others, the Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted our work and vital fundraising efforts. So, while we continue fundraising for the purchase of our permanent 10,000-acre wildlife preserve and subsequent move, it was necessary to orchestrate a Plan B to enable us to take these 2019 wild horses at our current leased 400-acres. Sleepless nights were many as I worked to address the multi-layered logistics and raise initial funding for implementation, to be followed by continued fundraising for increased supplemental hay expenses, our monthly lease, and operations into 2021 for our 165 Challis wild horses.
Everything came down to the last minute, literally. We drove all night and arrived in Challis on July 20. The next morning we met with the BLM at the Challis wild horse corrals and saw the first 24 geldings we were adopting and purchasing. The cloudless sky was a vibrant blue, and it was going to be another blazing hot day. I felt my usual excitement seeing the horses, smiles hard to contain. They had no idea they had won the lottery and would soon be running wild again. As we stood talking, a sorrel horse with a broad white face stripe caught my attention. He was walking my direction, and he looked familiar. I asked the BLM guys if he had a nipped left ear, and the answer was yes. My heart skipped a beat. I walked closer to look him over, and I kept looking, thinking to myself, "Is this happening?"
In the moments Little Red and I recognized one another at the BLM’s wild horse corrals in Challis.
Sure enough, it was Little Red, the offspring of the magnificent Wild Red Stallion. Wild Red and I had a special bond from the start of this journey in 2010. My heart broke in two when he crossed over in 2013, but he has continued to lead the charge for Wild Love Preserve. As he walked on, the White Mask Stallion assumed Wild Red's mares, and subsequently, he ran Little Red out on his own at a young age. Little Red was the spitting image of his father with the attitude to match, so it was no wonder. There is only room for one lead stallion. I had searched for him over the years and looked back on my photos and videos of him as a baby and yearling, wondering where he was and if he was okay. Did he have a family and mares of his own? I had been afraid I would see him in the temporary holding corrals during the November roundup. Now, here he stood in front of me at seven years old, magnificent like his father and recognizing me as we chatted. It was wonderfully surreal. To this moment, I catch myself shaking my head in disbelief, pinching myself that I have officially adopted Little Red, and now I know he will forever run wild and protected at Wild Love. It was the sign I needed from Wild Red as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Wild Love Preserve. Now Little Red is here, and will lead our charge into the next decade and beyond, and my heart is full as my spirit soars.
Little Red, 2013
Little Red + Auntie Arapaho, 2013
Little Red, Mama Cochise + Little Red, Sister Mojo, Auntie Arapaho, 2014
Little Red, Mama Cochise, Little Sister Mojo, 2014
Little Red, Sister Mojo + White Mask Stallion, 2015
Little Red + His Family Band, 2015
Papa Wild Red and the White Mask Stallion, 2012
Our dedicated crew worked through the relentless heat, preparing all day for the arrivals of our new family members. All our eyes were on the prize. The next morning, July 22, my excitement was hard to contain. We arrived at the corrals early to load the older authority horses we purchase first because they are at high risk. It is always nerve-racking when we load wild horses into trailers because you never know how they might react or spook. Thankfully they loaded okay, and we drove as a caravan to Wild Love Preserve and opened the trailer doors to their lasting wildness.
There are no words to adequately describe moments like this after working so hard and tirelessly to get here. When the trailer doors open and the horses start leaping out. You can feel their trepidation soon turn to wild exuberance as they realize this is freedom when they are greeted and welcomed by our existing wild horses. They are home, their forever home, and free to be who they choose to be.
The following morning, July 23, we met again at the corrals, this time to load our adopted horses. Little Red, of course, led them into the trailer, and the doors were closed behind them. Again, we caravaned to Wild Love Preserve, this day with me following in my truck just behind the trailer, pinching myself the whole way. When we arrived and opened the trailer doors, the horses came bounding out as they do, the last one being Little Red, who slowed and looked at me as he passed by, and as I said, "Welcome home, Red, I love you."
Watch Video of Day 2: Footage of BLM wild horse corrals, loading up, transport, and initial arrival of Little Red and others at Wild Love Preserve.
All grown up. Red is now 7 years old and will remain forever wild and free to be at Wild Love Preserve in Idaho.
Wild Love Preserve allows for Idaho wild horses removed from public lands to remain wild and together, to be who they are on their terms, establishing family bands, relationships, and instinctual dynamics. WLP programs on and off the range since 2013 have saved taxpayers over $8.5 million and resulted in new forms of revenue for the local community.
As a legacy project, Wild Love Preserve includes our innovative wild horse conservation program, conflict resolution, education platform, youth programs and employment, comprehensive range health fixed on sustainability, and public engagement. The creation of our permanently protected Idaho wildlife preserve is central to our work, nurturing and ensuring the lasting wildness of this indigenous ecosystem as an interconnected whole through our diverse partnerships. Our preservation of America’s iconic wild mustangs and respective wild places speaks to our greater good, now and for future generations.
-Andrea Maki, Founder, September 2020
Watch Full Video: The Arrival of Challis Wild Horses From The BLM’s 2019 Challis Roundup, July 2020
