#famous mustangs

[whywishesarehorses]

Famous Mustangs: Pt 5 - Picasso

The most famous wild mustang of them all, King of the Sand Wash Basin, Picasso. A 30-year old stallion, located in Colorado, has been watched by eager fans since 2008, but his popularity took off after photos of him went viral in 2016, after a bait-and-trap roundup.

“They all have a story about Picasso, now the most famous wild horse in America, as if the old pinto was putting on a show just for them. It might be the first time they saw the tri-color mustang galloping across the scrubby terrain of Colorado's Sand Wash Basin, heading full tilt toward a watering hole. It might be when they witnessed Picasso engaged in battle, clashing like a knight with a dusty black and white mane. And it might be an encounter that almost sounds too good to be true,“ writes Osborne, for the Denver Channel.

Picasso has inspired a level of devotion that is unmatched by the following of any other mustang to date, including Cloud. He has Facebook groups dedicated to sightings and photos that number in the ten thousands strong. “They write songs and poetry about him. They paint his portrait. They connect the dots of his family tree. They worry about his weight. They make weekly trips from the nearby town of Craig and 2,000-mile pilgrimages from Canada.”

“Picasso is the embodiment of strength,” says Cindy Wright, co-founder of Wild Horse Warriors for Sand Wash Basin. “People go into the basin to find healing when they are at a low point. He is symbolic of the ability to keep moving forward.”

Sentiments about the power of this tri-colored stallion fly fast and thick among his admirers.

Wilson, photographer of the first image in this post said, "I think Picasso is the epitome of the wild American mustang. It speaks to the nation in that way. It's what much of that wild, raw energy America has, and it just lives in this amazing horse. And I think people just want to feel a part of that."

As an old stallion now, Picasso has children and great-grandchildren that dot the landscape of the Basin. Some 800 horses call the area their home. A portion of them, relatives traces back to Picasso’s bands, are mapped by devotees, who track them in spreadsheets:

Picasso has not been sighted since early 2020, and followers have been expecting him to disappear since he was seen in 2018 looking very gaunt and weak. However, this in no way marks the end of an era, says Sharkey, who drove from Canada to see him. “Because when Picasso is gone, his legacy will carry on, in the attitude and appearance and instinct of his generations of offspring. His fans will return to the Basin, where they might spot a painted mustang, free as the day he was born, galloping toward a watering hole or charging at a taller stallion, and they might see the old pinto one more time”

[whywishesarehorses]

Famous Mustangs: Pt 6 - Hwin

Hwin gained a lot of attention for this photo of her, taken only five weeks after her entry into training for the Mustang Magic competition. “The picture [of jumping her bareback] ... came about when I was at my friend’s place. I had been riding Hwin western and she seemed to be in a bad mood. So I took her tack off and rode her in a halter and was jumping around the jumps and she was knocking them down. They were about 18 inches. You could tell she was bored. So I asked my friend to put one up to about 3 feet. Hwin knocked it because she wasn’t paying attention. But when she came back around, she cleared it and never hesitated. And then my friend suggested taking the halter off. I’d been trying to work bridleless with her. She was only five weeks out of the wild at the time and had only three weeks of training. So I had just the neck rope on and sure enough, I pointed her at the jump and she jumped it. It wasn’t a fluke. She did it like 10 times,” says her trainer, Elisa.

She went on to be a highly competitive eventing horse. Elisa has a collection of videos throughout her training and career available on her Youtube channel. After working with Hwin, Elisa Wallace switched gears from breeding warmbloods for eventing to training Mustangs for eventing on behalf of clients.

[whywishesarehorses]

Famous Mustangs: Pt 2 - Hidalgo

Hidalgo is a mustang that predates the BLM - he was a famous mustang of 1890. Best known for the epic biographical Western that bears his name, this mustang was once part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, where he was advertised alongside Frank T Hopkins as “the world’s greatest endurance horse and rider.”

The drama of his tale kicks off when a wealthy Sheikh requests that Buffalo Bill does not use that moniker unless the pair can prove themselves against the al-Khamsa Arabians in the ‘Ocean of Fire’ 3000 mile race in the Najd desert.

I won’t spoil the movie, but the pair go on to try their hand. There’s romance, drama, and swashbuckling. There’s a great deal of disagreement about the legitimacy of the story from a historical standpoint, with most concluding that despite the Hollywood “based on a true story“ claims, Hidalgo and Hopkins never existed.

The horses used in the film are also not mustangs, but American Paints. One of them, RH Tecontender, was bought by Hopkins’ actor, Viggo Mortenson.

[whywishesarehorses]

Desert Dust - First Famous Mustang

Featured are excerpts from an article on Desert Dust, a wild mustang stallion who made the news in a big way in the 1940s, thanks to rider Frank Robbins. The article is written by his rider’s great-great-grand-niece, Dakota Kuhns, who wrote the story for the Western Nebraska Observer.

The fight for and against wild horses in the United States will continue as it has for many years. Nearly 76 years ago on March 16, 1943, the U.S. Grazing Service, (today's BLM) announced there were about 100,000 wild horses roaming federal ranges. Shortly after the announcement, it was decided to stop the growth and enlargement of the wild herds.

Once the decision was made, a widely attended meeting was held in Rock Springs, Wyoming, to create a plan of action. It seemed the meeting was composed around the destruction, and the wholesale slaughter of "trespass horses" (horses not under grazing permits).

A Wyoming native, Frank "Wild Horse" Robbins, was one of the many in attendance at the meeting. Robbins, a rancher and cowboy in his own right, was also assigned to break horses for the Army during World War I for the Remount Service. After the Army and a few cross country moves, Robbins decided to return home to Glenrock, Wyoming, to capture wild horses off of Wyoming's Red Desert in 1935. Robbins was the youngest of six boys and one girl born to Frank Benjamin and Susie Robbins on Box Elder Creek near Glenrock.

During the meeting, Robbins presented a plan, "I'm representing the horses. I'll trap 'em and bring 'em in alive." The plan included the use of a small airplane to gather the herds into "horse traps," which were somewhat like corrals. The method worked. Robbins captured thousands of horses that were then broke and sold as either rodeo stock or hauled by truck to Wamsutter. Then they were put on a train and sent to Europe to supply meat during WWII.

However, out of the estimated tens of thousand horses Robbins captured, one wild stallion with a photo and a name seen and heard all across the world was the ticket to fame for the wild horse population in Wyoming -- Desert Dust, a beautiful palomino stallion that called the Red Desert home.

According to the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame and relative Dale Robbins, Frank told the Casper Star Tribune and a Glenrock Independent freelance reporter that he and his hands were gathering horses some 28 miles southwest of Wamsutter when he was approached by a couple who passed along the message that they were on to "something special." After hearing the news, Robbins called on his pilot, Walt Williams of Laramie, to take a closer look.

July 12, 1945, brought a morning of remembrance for the Robbins family as well as the rest of the crew, an experience that explained what "special" really was. That day Williams was able to run the stallion into the box canyon where Robbins and his hands completed the capture.

As the dust settled, Robbins sent word to photographer Vern Wood of Rawlins "to come out and capture the wild palomino on film." It was reported that Robbins gave him the name, "Desert Dust."

The photograph of the stallion was run in The Denver Post, the article from the Post was picked up nationwide by United Press and the famous black and white photo was used by Robbins to promote his rodeo held every year in Glenrock.

Once the photo appeared in the Post, numerous inquiries of the print came in, including those from National Geographic, Western Natural Life and Eastman Kodak, who all received prints of the beauty. In 1946, Wood's announced that a large 40- by 50-inch color oil print of Desert Dust would be hung in the Capitol Building in Cheyenne, and a second was given to Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney for presentation to the National Capitol.

Desert Dust was murdered in 1952 and his killer was never caught. However, the family believes to this day that the murder of the beauty was part of a feud between a man from Glenrock and Robbins – and that they did not see eye to eye.

But the spirit of the stunning Palomino remains around the small towns in Wyoming near Wamsutter. A painting hangs in the bar at the Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow, and a photo is on its restaurant menus. A large mural also in on the roadside in Rawlins on the old Ferguson building on Main Street; it's a view of the big yellow beauty can also be seen in the movie.

Frank "Wild Horse" Robbins passed away on July 5, 1984, at the age of 89. and was inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2016. To most folks in around the area, Wild Horse Robbins and Desert Dust live on to roam the Red Desert and the history of the Cowboy State.