Maestro’s Family
Maestro, Gracie & Legacy
The Second Royal Family of Skydog Oregon
Maestro was a mighty band stallion in Salt Wells Creek, Wyoming, who was much loved and extensively photographed. People traveled from far and wide to marvel at his strength, beauty and follow these magnificent mustangs. Maestro is a curly, but has a smooth coat and piercing blue eyes, a treasured genetic inheritance unique to this herd. He ran wild and free for years with his lead mare Gracie, a beautiful black mare, who is quite likely the daughter of Goliath. He had very few other mares on the range. Gracie was his one true love.
Maestro, Goliath, and their families were rounded up on the same day and chased by helicopter into the same trap. Their lives were violently turned upside down. Torn from their families, the stallions were thrown together into a trailer heading for a BLM facility, where they would share a pen. A few months later, when they appeared on the Internet Adoption, they were standing next to each other in every photo. Suddenly, their relationship was all they had left of their wild lives in this dismal, alien world.
When we bid on Goliath, many people asked us to also take Maestro, but the CANA Foundation told us they were going to bid on Maestro and Champ. We focused on Goliath and reuniting him with his lead mare, Red Lady, who was pregnant with their last foal. A couple months later, CANA came back to us and asked if we would be willing to take Champ and Maestro. They both needed a lot of space, but Maestro was enormous and powerful, a dominant, studdy horse, who could be dangerous. In the world of lore, he has Big Medicine. We said yes to both of them.
We turned them out with other horses, but had to bring Maestro in to one of the huge elk pens, where he couldn’t do any harm. This hunk and a half of wild horse nearly injured other boys doing what came naturally: fighting for mares. He rotated a few pens with Gypsy Rose and Blue Moon who swooned over him, but we could sense he wasn’t happy. Elusive, he always hid in the woods away from people. He’d stare at the horizon with his head held low. I felt his heart was broken.
A woman in Cody, Wyoming loved Maestro and adopted his lead mare, Gracie, She helped her deliver her last foal with him, Legacy, who was now 6 months old. She asked the BLM if she could transfer them to Skydog so the family could be together, but they said no - and they told us the adopter did not want to give them up. Once she had title of the mare, she reached out to us about reuniting the family. We didn’t hesitate, but had to wait until winter was over to safely transport them to Oregon.
The moment they saw and raced toward each other was one of our happiest at the ranch. Gracie and Legacy ran to meet Maestro, mother placing herself between father and son to be sure their introduction was gentle. He welcomed the colt who has the same beautiful, dark coloring as Gracie. He has not objected to her nursing him Maestro has been a different horse entirely since then. Proud and confident, he’s protective of his loved ones. It was wonderful to watch him and his mare raise their foal and renew the deep bond forged on the range.
Maestro is a force of nature built of sheer muscle, like a bull. The draft DNA in that the Salt Wells Creek herd is on full display in this boy. He’s the wildest and strongest of all our mustangs. Every year, it's with some trepidation that we bring him into the hydraulic chute, but he gets cracks in his hooves without a trim, so it has to be done. For a couple of years, his tail became so matted, it resembled a baseball bat. It's good to have a flowing tail to swat flies, so we combed it out while we had him. He kicks hard and often tries to pull the entire wormer tube out of our hands, making his annoyance clear. His exit videos always make an impression!
Maestro, Goliath, and now Blue Zeus meet at the fence and start exhibiting stallion behaviors: snaking, leaving giant stud piles, puffing up their chests, and pawing to show who's boss. I think they love going through the motions, remembering their wild lives as kings on the range. I'm sure it makes them feel young again and impresses their mares no end. It's also a wonderful way for their sons to learn. When the boys are finished strutting their stuff, Gracie, a gentle wild mare, enjoys socializing with Goliath’s family across the fence.
These three live on 50 acres together as Legacy has severe arthritis from a small fracture he had before coming to Skydog. He does well on this area as it's mostly flat and not too much for him. The three are happy and content in their safe space.
Maestro and Gracie had another son on the range, Bo. Before the roundup, his father had started pushing him out of his band to start a family of his own. Bo came to Skydog and saw his parents and little brother across the fence, but none of them showed any interest in being together. Maestro charged the fence a few times, so releasing him with them would not have been safe. Gracie may have felt that her plate was full raising Legacy - or perhaps just wanted to avoid any tension with Maestro. What was interesting was how happy Goliath’s family was to see him as they’d all known each other on the range. This was just fine as Bo is young, strong and loves running with wild boys on rugged, hilly terrain. If his family had wanted to be together, they had that choice, but they all found their hearts’ desires at Skydog.
Maestro and Gracie on the range with young Bo.
family photo album
