All eleven horses that are part of the current Shawnee Creek herd were in the Two Rivers area today. The other four horses, the two older mares and the visiting mare and foal, continue to stay behind at the main Shawnee Creek fields.
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Seriously, who could not think this little guy isn’t adorable? He is full of life and energy, and I call him Mr. Curious because he is inquisitive and interested in anything that moves.
I loved this photo of him so much that I added it to my Online Gallery.
I recently posted a video in the Wild Horses of Shannon County Facebook Group of him sniffing and investigating the hiking chair I left behind while trying to find the horses. It is a lot of fun to watch how curious they are. You should check it out.
In the photo below, you will see Mr. Curious on the left and his cousin, Foal # 1, on the right. Foal # 1 was born first in the last spring of 2022, and Foal # 2 was a few weeks later. The image is deceiving because Mr. Curious is actually noticeably bigger than his little buddy.
As you can see in the photo below, that is a bull elk, not a wild horse. During my hiking today, I found this elk. This is the first time since 2015 that I found a wild elk near the regular wild horse locations. I have found several elk over in the Peck Ranch area, where they are known to be, because of the elk restoration project by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
If you would like to know about simple ways that you can help me ensure our horses remain free, take action today and make a difference.
Meet Mr. Curious’s mom. I can definitely understand where he got his curious nature. She is also very curious, although not at his level.
She spotted me over at the edge of the woods and slowly started working towards me. I am typically dressed in camouflage and get low to the ground. No matter how sneaky I think I may be, these horses know I am there long before I am visible. I guess 50 million years of DNA and genetics as a prey animal really do come into play.
I love this mare in the Shawnee Creek Herd. Her mane makes her look wild and free, and I love it! She frequently has the attitude to go along with her wild hair. I recently took several photos of her dishing out some loving advice to her family.
As the sun was starting to go down for the day, the warm light lit up the fur on Mr. Curious and made him look regal and elegant. I have been following and photographing him since he was born, and it is amazing to see how fast these little foals grow. It literally seems like yesterday that he had his little giraffe legs and looked like he was walking around on a pair of new stilts. By the second week of his life, he was running with the herd and doing a good job of keeping up with them.
If you would like to know about simple ways that you can help me ensure our horses remain free, take action today and make a difference.
Wild Horses of Missouri History
Shannon County is home to a beautiful herd of wild horses in Southeast Missouri in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways on public land about 130 miles from Springfield and 150 miles from St. Louis.
Ozark National Scenic Riverways is the first national park area to protect a river system and the only state where wild horses still roam free. It hasn’t been an easy path for the wild horses over the last 100 years, and it would be foolish to think current conditions couldn’t change and put them back in danger again.
During the 1980s, the National Park Service announced a plan to remove Shannon Counties’ wild horses, and people were outraged.
In 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court denied a final appeal to protect the horses and gave the National Park Service the right to remove the horses from federal land. The national park service started removing the wild horses in a profoundly upsetting way to residents and horse lovers around the country. The people of Shannon County and horse lovers around the country rallied together, and the Wild Horse League of Missouri was formed.
Luckily, by 1996 the Wild Horse League of Missouri, which was formed in 1992 to save the wild horses, received help from the people of Shannon County, congressman Bill Emerson, Senators Kit Bond, and John Ashcroft.
Their tireless efforts paid off, and President Clinton signed a bill into law on October 3, 1996, to make the wild horses of Shannon County a permanent part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, with conditions. You can read more about the law.
Reading and understanding the law referenced above is essential because these wild horses’ freedom relies on compliance with the law. The national park service or any entity at any time could claim the horses are causing harm or being a nuisance, and the removal process could start again.
People worldwide visit Shannon County in hopes of seeing these majestic wild horses.
In accordance with the Ozark Wild Horse Protection Act, the Missouri Wild Horse League works with the National Park Service to capture some horses when the herd exceeds 50. The captured horses are taken into care and evaluated before being adopted by loving families for permanent homes.
If you want to support and protect the wild horses of Shannon County, Missouri, the best thing you can do is donate to the non-profit Missouri Wild Horse League. Your gift will be tax deductible and go a long way to helping ensure we have resources to protect the horses in the future.