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The wild-horse range covered 31,000 acres of rocky hillsides and limestone caverns.

  Rachel is about as close as she should get to these wild horses. Wild-horse reserve regulations require that visitors stay at least 100 feet from any wild horse and never try to pet or feed one.
  Rachel is about as close as she should get to these wild horses. Wild-horse reserve regulations require that visitors stay at least 100 feet from any wild horse and never try to pet or feed one.

Cloud could be anywhere.

At age eleven, my young friend Rachel was horse crazy. She had been longing to visit the wild-horse range in the Pryor Mountains. Small scattered bands of mustangs have roamed across this range since the late 1800s. It lies south of Billings, Montana, along the border of Montana and Wyoming. In early summer, when I decided to make a trip to photograph wild horses, I invited Rachel to come along.

The Pryor mustangs have lived in relative isolation for 200 years. They often sport unique markings. Various shades of dun (clay bank, mouse, apricot), buckskin, and grullo (a kind of brownish gray) are common, along with red and blue roans. Legs may be zebra striped. Often a dark dorsal stripe runs down the middle of the back, sometimes crisscrossed by a wide shoulder stripe.  
The Pryor mustangs have lived in relative isolation for 200 years. They often sport unique markings. Various shades of dun (clay bank, mouse, apricot), buckskin, and grullo (a kind of brownish gray) are common, along with red and blue roans. Legs may be zebra striped. Often a dark dorsal stripe runs down the middle of the back, sometimes crisscrossed by a wide shoulder stripe.
  

No one knows for sure the actual origins of these mustangs. Many of them have unique genetic characteristics—such as one less vertebra—linking them to the colonial horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors five hundred years ago. Because the Pryor Mountains do not get many visitors, the horses have lived in isolation for many years. They roam the desert-like red-dirt lowlands in the winter and climb to the high alpine meadows in the summer.


A Famous Stallion

As Rachel and I jounced our way up a rocky, twisting dirt road, she asked “Do you think we’ll see Cloud?” Cloud, a handsome palomino stallion, achieved national fame when a book and a video were made about him. Of Rachel’s many plastic horse statues, the one modeled after Cloud was her favorite.

  Water holes are few and far between in the dry desert climate of the Pryor Mountains. Wild horses come to these holes not only to drink but to cool off and to get a coating of mud. The mud helps protect them from biting insects.
  Water holes are few and far between in the dry desert climate of the Pryor Mountains. Wild horses come to these holes not only to drink but to cool off and to get a coating of mud. The mud helps protect them from biting insects.

“You never know what you’re going to find,” I told Rachel. “Wild horses travel great distances in search of food and water. Cloud may be out in the open grazing, or hidden in the fir trees trying to escape biting flies.”

Eventually, we began to see a number of grazing horses. I pointed out the three plants known to be poisonous to horses. They’re often called the three “L’s”: bright blue lupine, the darker blue larkspur, and clumps of white showy locoweed. By trial and error, wild horses must learn to avoid eating plants that make them ill.

Spring and summer are short seasons in the mountains. Wild horses spend much of their time eating, building up necessary fat reserves to carry them through harsh Montana winters. Apart from the weather, wild mustangs must cope with mountain lions, disease, injury, and starvation in dry years.  
Spring and summer are short seasons in the mountains. Wild horses spend much of their time eating, building up necessary fat reserves to carry them through harsh Montana winters. Apart from the weather, wild mustangs must cope with mountain lions, disease, injury, and starvation in dry years.
  

After parking the truck, we sat on a bank above the horses’ main water hole. It was really just a small muddy pond well on its way to drying up. We visited with some filmmakers from Indiana who were taping a video. After admiring their huge camera, Rachel asked if anyone had seen Cloud.

“Not today,” they said, “but his mother is grazing over that hill. His son with his harem are just over the ridge to the west.”

I looked at Rachel and smiled. We might be getting close!

  Stallions curl their upper lips in a gesture called flehming when they want to improve their sense of smell. A stallion will often flehm when checking to see if a mare will be receptive to his attentions.
  Stallions curl their upper lips in a gesture called flehming when they want to improve their sense of smell. A stallion will often flehm when checking to see if a mare will be receptive to his attentions.

The Best Day

Having checked out the water hole and cruised several more back roads, it was time to start toward home. We had seen many horses: stallions with their little bands of mares and foals, and young bachelor stallions staging mock battles. But we had not seen Cloud. I could sense Rachel’s disappointment. The wild-horse range, set aside in 1968 as America’s first wild-horse preserve, covers 31,000 acres of rocky hillsides and deep limestone canyons. Cloud could be anywhere.

Rival stallions compete for mares, sometimes engaging in ferocious battles that result in serious injury or death. Young stallions without mares of their own hang out together in bachelor bands until they are strong enough to challenge an older adult.  
Rival stallions compete for mares, sometimes engaging in ferocious battles that result in serious injury or death. Young stallions without mares of their own hang out together in bachelor bands until they are strong enough to challenge an older adult.
  

Just before we reached the boundary fence, I spotted one last group of horses with two dun colts so alike they could have been twins. We climbed out of the truck for a final look around. As I walked over a little rise, there was Cloud! He looked as if he had recently taken a mud bath. He was more red than his usual yellow, but even covered with mud, Cloud was imposing.

Rachel was thrilled. Here was her plastic horse in the flesh, first sniffing noses with one of his dun offspring, then chasing off a rival stallion trying to steal a mare. In between checking on the whereabouts of his mares, Cloud would snatch a bite or two to eat.

I snapped several photos as Rachel stood watching Cloud and his mares. She found a little blue roan filly especially appealing. At sunset, we finally set off on the long drive home. Rachel looked over at me and grinned.

“I think this has been the best day of my whole life!” she said.