(from the BLM archives - non-copyrighted):

me that the other horse in the photo was also in the group of 6 and he was listed as 21 years old.  And then people started sending me different photos taken over the years, all showing these same two horses together, so it became clear that these two had been together most of their lives.

Andi Harmon, who lives in Burns, Oregon near the Steens Mountains, took some of the photos. She said, "They were part of the place on Hollywood - herd, so named for that reason - they were often photographed, as they were part of the first herd you see when you come into the South Steens HMA.  We saw them all the time, as did many people."

BLM decided to offer the six in a special sale auction, with the only bidders being those who had already expressed interest in them. I was one of those. So I began to see that if they were to be sold into a good situation, I was probably going to have to do it.

It seemed to me that these horses, who had brought so much pleasure and beauty to so many people over the years, deserved better than to possibly end their lives in the slaughter house. AND, I thought it only fair that they should get to finish out their lives together. So I faxed in my bid. And, no surprise, I'm on both.

So My Husband, Mike, and I drove up to Burns, Oregon in April and brought back the 16 and 21-year-old horses we now called Lewis and Clark.

Our hope was that we could gentle and train them at least to the extent that would allow them to live in regular pasture fencing with our other horses, and to receive regular hoof and healthcare.

Mike and I and our daughter, Saanen, have other mustangs, as well as a PMU horse, and we are BLM volunteers/mentors who have helped gentle a number of other mustangs and PMU horses for other adopters, as well as our own. But these were all young horses. We didn't actually know of anyone who had even tried to gentle and train horses so mature as these. But it seemed our only option was to try.

The Burns BLM agents warned us that these horses were beyond wild, and very trashy. With help and consultation with our friends Lesley Neuman, Jerry Tindell, and Kitty Lauman - all three excellent wild horse trainers - Mike and I worked diligently for a number of months all spring and summer, and Lewis and Clark did make significant progress. But their minds are so different from the young horses usually seen at BLM adoptions! These fellows had survived in the wild on the open range for 16 and 21 years, and they had incredible self-confidence and well-honed survival skills. They alternated between progressing toward a working relationship with us, sizing us up to see if they could take us out, and retreating into total fear. I kept thinking that at some point they would figure out that if we intended to eat them, we would have already. But it was slow going. They learned we were the bringers of food, so they would whinny to us when it was feeding time.

Toward the end of last summer, we had some truly magic moments when we really seemed to be making some excellent progress with Lewis and Clark: One night Clark ate out of Mike's hand; another night Clark came close enough to willingly sniff Mike's hand and allow a light touch; Both Lewis and Clark began to face up and take a few steps toward us, in classic looking on - fashion. The question became, however, what would they do if they did come all the way in - We weren't at all sure of Lewis - intentions, and Clark had already proven that if he suddenly panicked, he might bite. Still, the general trend was upward, and they were very interesting animals to live around. They got along with our young horses, though they seemed oddly passive, making no attempt to rise up the pecking order or to stand their ground when hassled by a young upstart. This seemed odd, but really Lewis and Clark did not seem all that unhappy most of the time.

The main problem with exotic pets - like Lewis and Clark was the hoof and vet care. Jerry Tindell came in July and taught us how to rig a squeeze chute with pipe panels, and he worked with Lewis, who desperately needed his hooves trimmed, and after two days of getting Lewis prepared to accept the chute, a number of friends helped us to operate the chute while Jerry trimmed Lewis - hooves. In September Mike and I did the chute ourselves, so that our wonderful vet, Claudia Sonder, could give them their vaccinations, including much-needed West Nile.

In February, after a terribly wet, muddy winter, Lewis and Clark's feet were again in bad shape. We enlisted Jerry Tindell once again and we worked out a plan with our vet to come and tranquilize them in the chute, so that all four hooves on each horse could be trimmed, and they could be given their booster shots. Maybe it was because we hadn't worked with them so much during the rainy season, and maybe it was because this was the first time we were doing all four hooves on each animal, but this experience was quite stressful to both the horses and the people. At one point Mike and I looked at each other and said, "We can't go through this again!?"

The undeniable truth was, even though Lewis and Clark did seem to be more relaxed in captivity, their hooves were growing much faster than they were making progress. The magic moments - described above did not become part of their regular behavior patterns. The day that Lewis and Clark would be ready to stand still for hoof trimming and shots seemed very far off into the future. How long could we continue to ask our friends and vet to risk career-ending injury to help us with our Wild Boyz - And, bottom line, what was fair for Lewis and Clark?

As Dr. Sonder pointed out, these were, in horse years - a middle-aged and an elderly man, who were being asked to learn a completely different culture and language. If you met Lewis and Clark at our place, you would have seen two beautiful horses, but Clark was still, a year later, quick to snort and panic, and Lewis was just the Sphynx - silent and unreachable. Although they didn't necessarily seem miserable, they were a far cry from the noble beasts in the photos when they were out on the range!

As Jill Starr asked, why should they have to be domesticated just to survive? We decided they didn't. We asked Jill, who is the founder and director of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, if she might have room for Lewis and Clark on her newly-created born To Be Wild - sanctuary for unadoptable horses. She said she really didn't, but she would make room for Lewis and Clark.

So in early June of this year, we took Lewis and Clark down to the Born to Be Wild Sanctuary in the hills East of Bakersfield.

Here are some photos of the Lewis and Clark release Party?

When it came time to open the gate into the sanctuary, it was like they knew, because they waited as close to that gate as they could, given that there were people on the other side.

Out the gate - they're thinking "Oh Boy!"

"Hmmm... They can't have meant it - are they coming after us?"

Trotting up the trail, checking it out. Lewis and Clark had not moved that lightly since their capture. At the BLM facility and at our house, they only walked - or ran frantically if they were scared. But that nice, light trot - we never saw it before this moment as they trotted up the trail into the sanctuary.

Lewis and Clark went up to a high vantage point on the hill and stopped. Then they just stood there, looking back at us, hardly moving at all, for about an hour (a very LONG hour to watch) They just looked totally stunned and confused. I worried if we'd done the right thing.

Then they shook it off and trotted over the ridge. By morning they were lightly trotting all over, checking things out, and the amazing thing was the change in their demeanor. Clark was no longer hiding behind

Lewis with his tail between his legs and a haunted look in his eyes. He was looking confident and strong, and in fact, at one point, we saw him take the lead and tell Lewis it was time to move up the trail.

Sunday morning they showed up down in the flat across from the mares, at the far end of the sanctuary, looking happy and confident. When they saw us Clark walked toward me about 10 feet, stopped, looked awhile, and then turned around and trotted up the hill into the brush. It was like, "Well, I would stay and visit, but really, we're kinda busy."

Our role in Lewis and Clark's lives, as it turned out, was not to gentle and train them and turn them into members of our family. It was simply to save them from an uncertain and possibly nasty fate, to allow them to stay together, and then to move them on to a better life where they could do what they know best: live as wild horses.

This is not intended as a Morality Story, with the moral being that older horses should not be adopted and cannot be tamed. They can - it just takes lots of time, and you have to be willing to invest in the kind of professional help and equipment you need to care for them while they are taking their time. Had we no alternative, we would have eventually gentled Lewis and Clark. They were making progress, undeniably. But in this case, we had the opportunity to send them to a good sanctuary, and we felt that was best for them.

If you want to read more about Lewis and Clark, click here: http://www.mustangs4us.com/lewis_&_clark.htm And here: http://www.wildhorserescue.org/