I added this page for anyone that has a story that tells of anyone's valiant efforts of love for these wonderful God sent creatures that we are so blessed to have in our lives.

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In memory of Sulphur’s Primitive Link (by Jaime Smallwood)
April 4, 2004-October 7, 2005
SSHR #SS1231S
The date is 4/4/04 on a sunny, bright mid-morning not quite two months after adopting two wild mustang mares from the February adoption at the South Florida fairgrounds. I was out feeding the horses and stopped to check the small bay mare that we named Sulphur's Sego Lily as she was due any day. She was happily eating her grain and all appeared normal, with wary glances at me. Then I looked underneath her and saw milk was dripping slowly from her teats, and as if taking that as a cue, she stopped mid chew and turned around and laid at my feet and her water broke. It all happened so fast that I barely had time to think. My Mom grabbed the video camera and started filming as I snapped photos, two perfect feet slid out followed by the rest of who I would come to call Sulphur's Primitive Link. "Link". He was wonderful! His birth went smooth as silk and he was standing 20 minutes later, and soon finding the food supply. His coat was creamy tan with a dark black stripe down his back and black zebra bars on his front and back legs, coupled together with sweet brown eyes and a soft gray nose. He was my dream come true and soon became the mascot of the Mustang Club. An hour after his birth I separated him from Lily and had him sitting in my lap on a lime green beanbag. That beanbag would become his best friend and favorite toy.(Thank you, Ms Terry) Time after time he would roll and lay on it, pawing and twirling then grabbing and nuzzling it. As he grew he would bite and stomp on it and would come galloping from the other side of the yard and land mid stride perfectly positioned on it. He was growing like a weed and I couldn't be happier. We would play and run together and if I called in my own special whinny, he would answer and come running. Two months later on June 10th our second foal, a pitch black filly named Wyoming's Epona Rose, “Epona” was born. Thrilled with a new playmate, the two were buddies and Link soon found that Kate (Epona's mom) had milk enough for two and would leave his own mother to be with his second family. Time flew and before I knew it he was 1 year old. He was turning into such a handsome "prince" and his color was changing every day. He was now half dun and half grullo. We celebrated his birthday and took photos galore.How little I knew that I would treasure those pictures so dearly. October 7, 2005. Link had just turned a year and 6 months. Just a normal typical autumn day with no inkling of the doom that was to come. It was afternoon and hay had been passed around and it was now time to grain. It had been raining and there were puddles in his paddock that he shared with two PMU draft colts. I called him and he wouldn't come, and thinking he merely didn't want to cross the water, I called again and he made his way over to me, stopping 5 feet from the gate and crumbling into a pine tree and laying at it's base. Shaken and scared I grabbed a leadline and pulled him up and out of the mud. He followed and tripped nearly going down again, his knees buckling and he was shaking. I led him to the round pen while Mommy phone a friend and asked if they had anything that would help him. I worked him around the pen at a walk as he found his feet again and they came over and gave him Gas-X and a shot of Banamine. It seemed to help and he passed manure, not a lot, but some. So I put him in a stall where I could watch him. He peed alot and I thought he was getting better, just mild colic. I was wrong. Half an hour later he began to roll and was getting sweaty. I grabbed him and took him to the pen again, trying to keep him on his feet, as minutes passed and he got harder and harder to keep up and began to ignore my cues and just drop to the ground and start rolling. This wasn't working. Mom immediately called the vet while I tied him up, hoping if he couldn’t move he wouldn't roll. He still rolled, dragging the rope down and breaking some boards. I put a cool hose on him as he was steaming and held him up and he continually tried to flip himself in the water, which was pooling at his hooves. Nothing was working, I walked him round and round for I don't know how long, always having to look back to make sure he wouldn't fall on me in his desperate search for relief, and pull him to his feet when he did fall and rolled. The vet arrived and gave him a shot to sooth him, it helped and he stood still. The vet emptied his stomach and did some other stuff I don't know what he called. I didn't care. All I wanted was to have my happy baby boy back again, but that was not to be and the vet could not get him stablized to move him to the clinic. His belly swelled and he got worse and worse, his pain now showing through the shots, in which he had had enough to knock out a horse for gelding and yet he was still walking around. At 12:45 in the morning, after 6 hours of fighting and walking, crying and hoping and three more shots of sedatives and still no relief, the vet called me over and said that it was time for me to let him go and I was the one who had to make that decision. I made the decision to stop his suffering and pain. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. To have someone who means so much to you, and to know the only way to save them from pain is to let them go, is a feeling I never want to feel again. We led him to our front yard and the vet gave him the shot, he slumped to the ground and sighed, as though knowing it was time to let go. He died in my arms, my tears on his face, as he shut his eyes for the last time and felt no more. I cried in my friend’s arms and finally gave in to fatigue; wanting only to sleep and wake in the morning to find it was all a bad dream. But when I awoke and looked outside, only two happy faces greeted me where there should have been three. I felt hollow inside and empty, in which I felt for a long time. Now 6 months later and its his second birthday that I write this and bring closure. After a twist of fate almost two months earlier, I have a young black colt who has the same eyes and the same face though not the same color, and the same great heart. And I believe if he is not Link's spirit reincarnated, then he was sent by him. So I call him Nevada's Dark Spirit Chaser. “Chase”. He will be forever chasing Link’s spirit. I no longer feel empty inside, and when I think of Link I feel happy, I know that's how he would want it. And so I write this tribute to my sweet prince, who will forever run free and without pain in my heart, and always live happily ever after, in my dreams.
Jaime Smallwood, 15

A Poem
“In Memory of Link”
By: Jaime Smallwood
October 8, 2005
Why? Why did you leave? Why did you walk through the stars, and leave my empty heart so far behind? I miss you terribly, but I know you were in pain, and are happy now. But my eyes still long to see your gold dun coat, my ears still long to hear your shrill answering whinny when I call your name to an empty stall. While you are in peace, my soul still hurts, but as it is said, time heals all wounds, however the mark you left on my heart is not in pencil, but engraved forever, in stone. I miss you and love you and always will, please, don't ever forget me, I know I’ll never forget you.
Head of Grullo, coat of Dun, he's a little mix matched, but hey, he was young. We argued over which way he'd go, dun or gullo, but we'll never know. Our boy was a star, a gifted young colt; he was smart as a whip and quicker then most. He could fly through the air, or stand by your side, act like a butt, or be so good you could cry. He was Spanish by blood, a Sulphur mustang. His spirit was strong, and long were his bangs. His eyes full of fire, till the very end, he fought as he could, and just wouldn't give in. He was a special colt, our first baby ever, we taught him and raised him, and in our hearts he will stay forever. But he is now, away from the pain, and in some far away place, where the air is sweet and the grass is green. Our boy was something that can't be replaced, his spirit lives on and in our hearts, he will race. We must just remember, that he is safe and sound, and to this cruel earth is no longer bound.
Where are you? My eyes can no longer see your glistening coat in the warm rays of the sun, my ears can not hear your answering whinny when I call your name when I return from work. I can not smell your comforting earthy smell as I hug your soft neck and burrow into your soft mane. My hands can not feel your silky coat under them anymore, or feel your warm breath on my skin. Where have you gone? My heart can still feel you, but you are not there, why? My soul still waits for you, but is it in vain? Will I never know you again? No, I will always know you, you are always there, you have gone nowhere but to a place where time stands still and pain is a mere memory. You are lost from my material world, but in my heart will always stay, for as long as it takes, till we meet again, in a distant time and place.

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I found this article on the Internet and I was so moved by this person's heartfelt effort of love that I had to let everyone read her beautiful but heartbreaking story....

I am adding a couple of pictures of this little guy. I was at the gather when they brought him in and I wanted to take him home but it was not allowed at the time. He was healthy and Chad figured he would be fine. When he got to the facility in Salt Lake he went drastically downhill and when I finally found out what had happened to him, Dayla Hepting had already adopted him and I was glad that someone was trying to save him. The last time I had seen him he looked good enough for someone to be able to save him so I thought he would have lived but life doesn't always go the way we think it will. I am just glad that this little guy was able to have the love that this wonderful person shared with him for the duration of his short but happy life.


Anderson Valley AdvertiserMarch 10, 2004

Sulphur Springs, Utah

by Dayla Hepting

Sulphur Springs lies along the old Spanish Trail. In 1840 a Ute Indian Chief and a one legged cowboy stole 3,000 head of Spain's finest horses from the missions in Los Angeles. They drove this herd back to Utah losing a third of them along the trail in the rugged mountains called the Home Range near Milford, Utah. These were Iberian Sorriaos. They were descendents of the primitive sorriaos of Iberia. This band disappeared into the mountain desert range. It wasn't worth it to stop and find them. After all, they still had 2,000 good horses. No use in starving them to death trying to round up the strays. They pressed on to Salt Lake City and made themselves rich off their bounty.

The Spaniards bred a hearty little horse. Much like the Arabs did. They were great horsemen and although they might have been a little mean they were smart horses and they knew better than to get caught unawares by the few cowboys who wander through the canyons.

Cattlemen considered mustangs to be a nuisance, like rats or mice or coyotes. They were eating grass their cows could eat. Granted they were on BLM land, not their land, but they considered BLM land was their land because they paid minimal fees to have their cows graze on that land. They had what was called "grazing rights." Mustangs had no rights. They were as a rule shot on sight. Or used for sport. The cowboys had a game called "earing." That is where you come on a herd of mustangs, you chase them down and you bulldog them and cut off an ear as a trophy. The cowboy with the most ears is the winner and everybody has to stand him for beer all night. You can still find eared mustangs at the BLM so that game has never really stopped. Of course it is mainly the babies and the old and the heavily pregnant mares that get eared, but an ear is an ear when you get to the bar. Right? All's fair in love and war.

The BLM at Butterfield Canyon near Salt Lake City culled about 15 horses from the Sulphur Spring Herd this year. Me and my girl Vicki spend a lot of time up there. Got hooked on Mustangs when I moved here from Boonville three years ago. Vicki moved here from Reno last year and got hooked on mustangs right off. ("Like marijuana leads to heroin. Once you get into them silver bullets, you think you'll just save a few of them for your bad days and then pretty quick all your days turn out to be bad days without them silver bullets. Time to stop chippin' around. Time to admit it. You're hooked about as bad as you can get hooked." — Tom Waits/William Burroughs, "Crossroads")

And that's how it was. We were hooked. But there are worse things than being hooked on mustangs, don't you think?

So we were there when they brought that bunch of Sulpher Spring horses in, 14 or 15 of them. They spooked at the drop of a hand — wild eyed and terrified. There were two bummers in there (babies with no mothers). One looked pretty strong. He was nursing off of this mare or that, but the other one had bad legs. He was a mishmash of colors. He was black brown and light tan. He was a rack of bones. His legs were crooked and he was dragging the right hind. He could not compete. He was not getting any milk. We went up to the office and told them we wanted one of those horses. They said those were Sulphur Springs so they would go on the internet. We would have to go on-line and bid on them. So I said we will take that bummer baby not the one with the bad legs because he won't make it but the other one. I said, "Those babies won't go on the internet because they won't live long enough." "Yeah," he said, "but we can't get them out right now because if we go in there the mares will spook and trample the orphans."

Two weeks later they called to tell us they had a Sulphur Springs baby for us. If we could save him we had our horse. Guess which one it was? Yup. You got it. It was the hopeless one with bad legs.

There was an old woman in Nevada, a rancher. I can't remember her name. But she was headstrong, honest, and she had been working horses all her life. She was the one who changed everything. She went to battle with the ranchers who were killing the mustangs or hauling them to the canners to pick up some cash. She never cared what people thought about her.

She was no bleeding heart yuppie ass liberal. She was a cow person herself. But she saw no reason why all these horses should die just because they were wild and not useful. She saw them for what the were: horses — who have served us for thousands of years and through no fault of their own now lived in the desert eating what they found and making the best of what God had given them.

So in the end that little old lady beat the ranchers and the mustangs became a national treasure like Yellowstone Park or Dead Horse Point. The Government acknowledged the ranchers' complaint that there were too many of them and they were eating too much so the national adoption program was set up. The BLM built wild horse centers. The herds were monitered and culled. The horses were sent to these centers for public adoption. An advertising campaign was set in place. You could adopt a wild horse for $125, if you met the qualifications. You needed to a have a large paddock with adequate shelter, good fencing, six feet tall.

You received your title after a year. The BLM visited your facility at six months and then a year. If you kept your horse in good shape you received ownership papers. They required that you never send your horse to the canners. If the canner sees a horse with the BLM tattoo on its neck they are to call the BLM. Of course they don't do that. A horse in the can is worth two in the bush, right?

It was on honest effort to keep these lovely animals from abuse. There are those who will adopt a horse for $125 and drive to the canners to pick up $400 and still have the afternoon free to get their other chores done with that $275 warming their pocket. That kind of thing doesn't happen much because when the BLM comes around to check up and the horse is not there you are in deep trouble. If you fed that horse for a year to get title then take it to the canners you lost money because it cost you over $500 to feed it for a year.

Things are like that in the horse business. Horses have no idea how many things conspire against them. They are afraid of tarps and plastic bags and flu shots. They have no idea that their dead body is worth more than their live body to some people.

Sebastian was what we named him. He took to his new stall right away. Those mares at the BLM had beat the tar out of him. He loved the peace and quiet. Vicki and I slept all night with him the first night. He did not like his milk replacer at first but after awhile he drank it down — three buckets. And we knew we had it. At least we had our foot in the stirrup.

The death box. A place you can't get out of. Up the walls. Down the walls. Into every corner. Up down around and over. No door no window. No place to escape. You can't dig your way out. You can't climb out. You can't zone out. You can't get out of the death box.

We took pictures. Before and after. We took before. He had blue eyes, gray blue eyes. He was a special horse. Spirit horse, my ancestors would say. Only spirit horses have those eyes. Horses have brown eyes. But once in a blue moon comes a horse with pale eyes — most often one spirit eye. One eye looks into the spirit, the other eye is the earth eye looking out to the earth. But he had two spirit eyes.

He was thriving at first. He gained 30 pounds. Before he had skin hanging over bone. He grew muscles overnight.

Then he got pneumonia. That was what I expected. The pneumonia hung on. We kept fighting.

Then he got diarrhea. That scared me. Diarrhea kills babies. Pneumonia kills babies too, but put the two together and things don't look so good. By now I had no money. But I needed a vet. I wouldn't win this battle on my own.

Sebastian loved his walks. We went out every day. He loved the way people stopped to give him a pat and say how cute he was. Sebastian thought he was a movie star. He had so many fans. He had a twinkle in his eye. So much hope.

I called Dr. Clay Cannon. He came over. He is a big man. He has the hands of a working man and he was wearing a plain western shirt. He did not hold out much hope. But he went to work. I told him I had no money until payday. He did not know me but he decided to save that baby's life as best he could whether he got paid or not. He had no way of knowing if he would ever get a penny, but he did it anyway.

That is a judgment on his heart and he had the heart to do it. So he will always be my vet. He did what needed to be done without even pausing for a moment. He had paying clients waiting for their West Nile virus shots but he chose to try to save this baby. We were a long way from worrying about mosquitos.

He did not expect him to live through the night. But he did. I slept with him. The dogs slept with him.

Sebastian didn't get it the first night. He kept getting up and dragging all the blankets with him. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked him. "Lay down and I will feed you."

The second night he understood that dogs and people want to stay under the covers all night. I woke up every two hours and gave him his medication and tried to make him eat like Dr. Cannon told me, then we snuggled in to doze for two more hours. He licked my face for hours. He did my hair. He sucked it into little curls that spiraled straight up all over my head. The sticky milk in his mouth acted like mousse and froze them in place. I said he should go into hair when he grew up because he had a definite talent for styling.

But his diarrhea continued. No matter what I did I could not stop it. His weight dropped. He was once again a rack of bones. I started to think the milk replacer was the problem. I bought goat's milk. He drank it right down. His diarrhea disappeared immediately, but it was too late. He was too weak.

I discovered that under his strange motley coat he was a true black. His muzzle and around his eyes had turned black. That is the true color a horse will be. As they shed their baby coat — which can look like anything — the true color comes out around their eyes first. He was a black horse. A rarity in horses. Most of what people call a black is a dark bay. A dark bay has an almost black coat with a brown muzzle and usually brown legs below the knees. But his muzzle was black. His eyes were pale blue.

He is my spirit horse. He was a gift to me from Wakantanka. I have always dreamed that Wakantanka would one day give me a gift, a vision, something that told me I was not just a lost half-breed in a white world.

I have grown old in my body although my mind and my spirit have not changed. I can see in the mirror that my body has changed. I am as strong as ever but I must rely more on my will than anything else. I force my body to keep up with me. Sometimes my body just wants to sleep but I force it to get up and go on doing what has to be done for all the animals that need me. I have done this for years. I will keep on doing it until my body will not rise up again and then I hope my beautiful Vicki will stand up in my place.

But I had given up on my vision quest. I believed no vision would come to me. Wakantanka saw me as white because I was half white/half Assinaboine. The Assinaboine were a part of the Lakota nation. A fight between two women caused them to leave the nation. They went to far northern Montana and Canada. And some of them, like my mother, married white men.

I never took to Christianity. I have always believed in the old ways of our land. I have always loved Wakantanka and the Coyote God, the Trickster. He taught me more than any other. The Trickster Coyote is not kind or forgiving, but he is fair. Fair is all I ask for really — not kindness, not charity, just justice, that's all I want out of life.

Coyote gives that and his lessons are hard, and almost brutal. But truth is brutal isn't it? In the end truth is all we need, really. Just to know exactly how the land lies. That is what matters.

Now an old one I have been given my gift, my spirit horse. I know that when I cross over he will meet me there. My black horse, my war horse. My black horse with the pale spirit eyes. He will take me up on his strong back. We will ride high up through the skies. His pale spirit eyes will see all the demons who hope to possess us and he will pass over them without a moment of hesitation because he is my horse, my perfect horse and nothing will ever defeat him.

I would have given my life if only he could live but it was not to be. I remain here, without my horse. I wait for him to return and take me up to the spirit land of Wakantanka.

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