Eeyore: The Story of a Wild Mustang
by Debbie Driesner
(Eeyore starred in the 2003 Show as well as the 2003 Friday Night Celebration of the Horse)
The story of Eeyore begins in the fall of 1998 just before the fall burn on Forest Service land in the Ochoco National Forest of Central Oregon.
Gayle Hunt, an employee of the Big Summit Forest District, first saw him that year as the only colt in a small band of 12. He was a healthy dusty bay that easily kept up with the group. Eeyore's most distinctive feature was an interesting set of ears that hung down like a stuffed donkey who had been loved too much. As they were near a well-traveled road, several people saw the band and commented on the lop-eared colt who reminded them of Winnie the Pooh's donkey pal.
Months later, in the darkness of the opening morning of cow elk season, two of the band's mares, who had foals at their sides, were wantonly shot and killed. Eeyore made it through the winter but, as a yearling, he was exiled as is the custom in wild horse bands.
Looking for his own turf, he finally joined up with a younger bay colt that Gayle had nicknamed Ebay. Gayle found the two together in the woods behind the Ranger Station. His ears were longer, and his studly countenance was somehow compromised by his sagging antennae.
One afternoon Gayle was out running and encountered the two bachelor boys. She tried to ease past them, but Eeyore walked toward her without the normal hesitation of a wild horse. He and his buddy Ebay sniffed the skin on her arms and decided she wasn't a threat. She saw them both several more times while on foot and got the same response. But one day while riding her mare she encountered the two again. This time, instead of retreating, Eeyore circled, snorted and lunged at the horse and rider. Fortunately, another person happened by and helped Gayle and her horse escape. But this incident was not the only one.
Reports trickled in of other riders on horseback who had been attacked by this lop-eared horse. Worse, it seemed that Eeyore became more and more aggressive with each encounter. Exactly what he wanted was unclear, but he was using extreme measures to get it.
The last reported incident of Eeyore's aggression was an attack on two riders who felt their only option was to shoot him, which they did, with a 9mm pistol. But Eeyore didn't go down. Blood streamed from his nostrils, and they chased him in an effort to end any suffering the gunshot may have caused. The chase lasted several hours until their conditioned endurance horses gave out.
A search was made for Eeyore, and three weeks later, Gayle found him. He and Ebay were grazing in a pastoral scene on a grassy hillside. Though they were much more wary now, she could see no wound. The two continued to wander around the area and stayed out of trouble, at least until the wagon train incident.
A group of 4-Hers were re-enacting the life of western settlers and had paused for a light lunch. The hungry wagoneers were surprised when a small herd of cattle stampeded into the circle of schooners with the two bay colts in hot pursuit. That was it. The BLM and Forest Service decided that something had to be done about Eeyore. He had to be taken off the range and soon.
The last weekend in July of 2000, I was camped in the Ochocos with other members of the Marion County Sheriff's Posse. Two Forest Service employees talked with us about the wild horses in that area and told us the story of Eeyore. They told us that if they couldn't find someone to adopt him, Eeyore would probably be euthanized.
I wasn't looking for another horse, but I had just lost my five-year-old quarter horse to a neurological disease called EPM two months before, so I had room for another horse at my house.
Upon returning home, I called Gayle Hunt to tell her that I would adopt him. This started a series of events in which Eeyore was captured and taken to the Wild Horse and Burro Facility in Burns, Oregon. I completed the BLM application that asked questions about my faculties, and I read all the rules regarding adopting a wild horse. My application was approved and, at the end of three weeks, my friend Brenda and I drove to Bend to pick him up and bring him home.
I was very excited and could hardly wait to see him. The BLM policy is first come, first serve. They will not hold a specific horse for a specific person. On the day he was available for adoption, we were there when the gates opened at 7:00am. I'd spent a sleepless night in the back of the horse trailer in a parking lot in Bend. Though it didn't seem likely that people would be standing in line to adopt our floppy-eared friend, we were making sure that no one else was going to pick up our Eeyore!
We couldn't wait to see him after hearing so much about him. I had so many questions running through my mind: Was he as aggressive as they said he was? Could he hear? Was the rest of his body normal? How badly was he hurt after being shot in the head?
I looked into the corral and there he was. His back end was toward us and his head was in the feeder. What I saw were bony hips and tail bone, a matted tail, and battle scars. My first thought was, "Oh, my, what have I done" Then, he turned his head and looked at me with those big soft, trusting, brown eyes. I saw nothing but those eyes as he stood quietly watching us. It was like he knew that we wanted him and would accept him just as he was.
When we got home, we backed the horse trailer up to the 40-foot round pen, which would be his new home for the next several months. We opened the door. He looked out, stepped down and immediately started grazing. I had expected him to come bursting out of the trailer and run around the pen in a panic. But, in true Eeyore fashion, he took everything in stride. We sat outside his round pen for several hours watching his every move. He seemed very content as he grazed and wasn't worried about a thing.
The next day, Brenda and I introduced ourselves to Ee by letting him sniff us all over. Slowly, we were able to touch him all over. He seemed to enjoy all the attention and especially liked having his face rubbed. He let us play with his ears as we examined them. They were very interesting to say the least. They had a cartilage running down the back of them and were placed slightly lower on his head. His poll had a protruding bump from which his forelock came, and his jaw tilted slightly to one side. But, the more time I spent with him the more beautiful he became. In all the time we spent working with him, he never showed any aggression. He never tried to bite or kick, which is a normal expectation of a wild horse just brought into captivity. On the third day, a Sunday morning, Brenda and I were in the pen with him. Soon, we were brushing him. We cut his bridle path with a pair of scissors and brushed his long matted tail.
We spent time with him each day, getting him used to domestic life: standing tied, leading, lounging, sacking out, and picking up his feet. People would stop by every day to look at him. He allowed strangers to pet him after he gave them a very thorough sniffing. And, yes, his ears were a curiosity and everyone fell in love with him because his personality was so likable.
Almost everyone asks why his ears are deformed. It may be inbreeding or a mineral deficiency or genetics, but we may never know. People ask if he is mentally challenged because he is so docile, but it's evident that Ee is very intelligent to have survived two years in the wild, especially with his handicap. I believe his other senses are keener to make up for his ears. His ears go up and down, but do not swivel like other horses, so he needs to turn his head to identify something directly behind him.
Two weeks and four days after we brought him home, he was leading well and I had him gelded. Under sedation, the vet examined his whole head, including his ears and face where he was said to have been shot. He could find no sign of where the bullet hit him. He took x-rays of his poll area, which showed an abnormality of the first vertebrae which doesn't affect his performance. His ears were just a natural deformity for which there was no cause or cure. His jaw also hung ever so slightly to the right and we could only surmise that perhaps he had been kicked when he was younger. I continued to walk him each day to help with the swelling of his surgery. I gave him his first bath, cleaning him all over including his wound area. He stood quietly and seemed to like the warm water, the brushing and, most of all, the attention.
Four and a half months after bringing him home I rode him for the first time and, again, he took everything in stride. No panic, no bucking, he just walked out. You cannot imagine the pride I felt for this horse. He still had several more years until he was full-grown, as mustangs generally grow until five. His long strong legs and willing attitude made him an excellent mountain horse for search and rescue. But, it' s his kind brown eyes and gentle patient spirit that make this horse unique, not just his ears.
I couldn't wait for the summer weather and the longer days so we could explore the mountain trails together. In mid-June, I took him to his old home in the Ochoco Mountains for the 2001 Ochoco Wild Horse Count. With Ee as the tour guide, we camped in the middle of wild horse land and explored his home territory, traveling cross-country through the ponderosa pines and grassy meadows. We followed game trails, jumped logs, climbed hills and saw many deer and old horse sign. Wild horse stallions defecate on one pile, so some of the piles of manure become quite large. When Eeyore came upon one of these piles, he sniffed it. I could imagine the wheels turning in his head as he tried to recognize the scent of the wild horses that were in the area
He would walk with his head held high, sniffing the wind, and suddenly veer off and run before coming to an abrupt stop. Obviously, as his rider, this was very exciting for me, but not for anyone who rode with us and experienced his erratic behavior of dashing from hither to yon. I finally realized that these areas were places where the stallions would stand in the shade to watch over their herds. These areas were usually groups of pine trees close together that showed signs of rubbing, piles of manure, and dust for dust baths. After smelling the trees and manure, Ee could be persuaded to move on, but not until he had thoroughly sniffled everything in sight to determine who had been there and when. Was he looking for his old buddy Ebay?
After smelling a fresh pile of manure, Eeyore lifted his nose high, catching all the scent in the air that he could, and suddenly took off like a shot. I knew he was on to something! He dashed through the brush and there they were Ebay and several wild horses. I pulled Ee to a stop. He obviously wanted to join them, but they didn't recognize him. I tied him to the closest tree and, once we were in the open, the wild horses calmed down and we sat and watched them for hours. A few of the younger horses came fairly close until the stallion decided it was time for them to move back closer to the herd. What a thrill to finally get to watch wild horses in their own environment. I walked back to where Ee was quietly standing, feeling very privileged to be a part of the mustang world.
In August 2001, Eeyore and I competed in the Oregon State Fair Mustang Show where he won the Mustang Trail Championship. I enjoyed watching the expression of the judges when he entered the show ring and they saw his droopy ears. Interestingly, he would rather be meeting and greeting the public than performing. He draws people to him like a magnet because of his unusual ears and soft eyes. He seems to really like people and is very trusting and kind, which is hard to imagine after he's been chased, shot at, and misunderstood by other horses because he couldn't communicate normally. He definitely shows the true mustang spirit.
Ee went on his first search in a wilderness area of the Oregon Cascades in June 2002. A man and his son had been missing for three days. Because it was early in the hiking season, the trails had not been cleared and were littered with trees that had blown down during the winter. Moreover, the trail was still covered with snow which is how, we learned later, that our subjects got lost in the first place. Eeyore proved to be a very good mountain horse, picking his way through the, toughest terrain. I would often dismount, and he would follow me unattached, like a big puppy dog, picking his way through the obstacles on his own. We ended up spending the night on top of a mountain with what few provisions we had carried with us. Ee came through like a champ.
In October 2002 while having routine dental work done, the vet noticed a callous on the right side of his tongue just behind where the bit would lay. Upon examination, she noticed something in his tongue that was trying to work its way out. It turned out to be shrapnel from the 9mm bullet when he had been shot in the wild before I adopted him. He had carried those sharp metal pieces in his tongue for 2-1/2 years, never fussing with the bit. I can't imagine the pain he endured and the irritation it must have caused him.
He is truly an amazing horse, and the more I work with him the closer our partnership becomes. To know Ee is to love him. He is a walking lesson of patience, tolerance, and love. Look for him in years to come, proudly wearing the Marion County Sheriff's Posse uniform in parades, on searches, and wherever the call of duty asks him to go.
