The sabino stallion Medicine Bow, a rarity in this herd, has had a tough life. His mother died while he was young, and he was found attacked by a mountain lion during the summer of 2004. This year, he didn’t come out of the winter looking quite as good as the rest of the harem he was in. In early April, I was disappointed to see he was still not looking as good; and he had a fresh wound on his back left leg. When we find injured horses, we get right in touch with the BLM to alert them to the situation. After that, we just keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t get too bad.
By April 20th, Medicine Bow was looking in even poorer shape; and he wound was still looking bad.
At this point, I was getting worried about him. Soon after, Medicine Bow was no longer with the harem. Between us and the BLM, we were able to keep a pretty good eye on him to make sure he didn’t get too bad. On a recent afternoon, Jared, the PMWHR’s wild horse specialist, called to let me know that he’d just seen how Medicine Bow was doing; and he thought he looked like he was on the rebound.
I was happy to get to see Medicine Bow today. He’s still on his own, but he’s come pretty far.
We often see that the Pryor horses are able to overcome their injuries and get back to their normal lives. These horses definitely have a remarkable ability to heal. Still, it is always hard to see something like this happen. It was especially frustrating to see this with Medicine Bow again as he’s already had a pretty tough life. Hopefully this will be the end of his bad luck.
PryorWild 
That’s an amazing recovery, I hope he is able to win back some mares and pass on his very unique genetics!
I can’t help but wonder if this wound will interfere with Medicine Bow’s ability to get around. It almost looks like a tendon may be involved, but hopefully, it’s just the flesh. He has to be TOUGH, to survive this, as well as all the other adversity in his life; a true mustang. I hope his companions Fools Crow, Belle Starr and Hickok will welcome him back when he’s ready. If you get the chance, let us know if there will be lasting change to his ability to move and if he gets back with his buddies. He and Fools Crow both sure do “stand out from the crowd”, colorwise.
Thanks for the “window into their world”.
At this point, Fools Crow and Belle Starr are together. Hickok is running with Tony, Issaquah, and Hawk up on Sykes Ridge. I hope that Medicine Bow can get his own harem soon, though.
Another question popped into my mind. What are the chances that this wound is the result of competition between Medicine Bow and Fools Crow for Belle Starr’s favor? Or do you guys have any idea what the cause was? I guess you would have mentioned it if you did.
Thanks.
We don’t really know what caused his injury. We haven’t really observed a lot of violence between Medicine Bow and Fools Crow, though we have seen a transition in the dominant stallion of the two. Jared thought it looked a lot like an injury from a fence, but there really aren’t any fences in that area. It’s hard to know for sure, but we’re all happy he is doing well.
wow! blows my mind! the amount of weight he put on in a month is amazing.. how old is he? he has one hard life!
Medicine Bow was born in 1999. I was pretty impressed with the amount of weight he put on too!
When Medicine Bow was attacked by a mountain lion, was he a 5 year old when he got attacked? Who was his mother and father?
We’re thinking HUGE best thoughts!! Would love to see these horses sometime, soon! Good job, Matt!!
LB
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