He was born of the high desert winds of Wyoming in the cold and still snowy days of April, to a lovely red sorrel mare and handsome blue roan stallion.
Aegir's Fire w/ his mother - April 2020
He ran with his family across high desert hills, through sage filled washes, and he played with his young brother and sister as they explored their wild home, and they began to learn from their elders the things they would need to know to be a wild horse in a wild place....
Family Band- Arapaho Creek HA
He would grow strong from galloping across the grassy hills.... he would learn all the trails they used to go the places his sire knew to be the best grazing, and by the end of summer he would know the best water holes to go to for a good drink of water. He took long drowsy naps on hot summer afternoons, met other wild mustang bands on those hills, and he saw so many things in this place to see and experience, but for now he was happy to stay close to his mama and papa and the rest of his family band.
Father & son - Arapaho Creek HA 2020
Mother & son - Arapaho Creek HA 2020
This was his life - a young mustang colt that would grow strong and wild on sacred lands that remembers the secrets of everything. But then the helicopters came... and everything changed. Everything that he knew and loved was taken from him, his mother, his father and aunties, and his brother and sister - his freedom. It was gone and nothing would ever be the same for this wild mustang colt that loved his wild life.
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I was there that day... the day this wild one and his family, and so many other wild mustangs of the desert, lost their freedom. I was there as their witness, I was there as a member of the public to hold accountable public employees, and I stood on the hill as they came across the sage flats below us, I recognized his sire before anyone else on that hill did - after all his sire and I had been friends long before anyone else knew this great stallion. Recording their long trot across the flats, up the hill, and finally into the metal barred trap of man, recording the loss of greatness stolen from a sacred land, unable to do anything but stand by as a witness to something that was done solely as an act of greed and dominance by man.
The Loss of Freedom - October 2020
After the helicopter had brought in as many mustangs as their pens could hold, and they had hauled them to temporary holding, we were allowed to go and observe the horses in the corrals - the corrals where they can hear each other, maybe even see each other, but they are no longer together. The corrals where they will last hear or see each other... because from here they will be sent to different places - most of the adults would be sent a long day's drive away to Canon City CO.
No Longer with his family band.
Almost a year later this colt would find himself adopted by someone in Lovell WY - it would finally be the something good that would happen for him after his capture and months of living in large holding corrals with dozens of other young mustangs. This lovely boy was now with a family that knew horses, understood mustangs, and make it a habit to help out people and horses - and he was welcomed into their life! He was given the chance to learn that humans are kind and loving.... he was given time to be with other horses, he was given time to heal from the wounds of losing his wild family and life, he was given a safe place to live and be loved by all that happened to stop by and spend time with the Cerroni's.
Aegir's Fire @ the Cerroni's in Lovell WY
It is funny how life works.... I was not the person he was supposed to live with - someone else had made a contract with the Cerroni's for him - but when that person was not able to give him the home they had planned, and we instead were offered the chance to give him a home.... there was not even a second's hesitation for me and my husband, we knew we wanted this boy to be in our life for always.
So we made the trek to see him in Lovell as often as we could, while we worked on cleaning out and preparing his barn and building a fence around his pasture at our place... and after a little over a year he came to live with us in Thermopolis. So here we are ... it is now just a little more than two years since he and his family were taken from their desert home. I would have chosen freedom for him - every single day I would choose if I could to go back in time and prevent that round-up!! But none of us were given a choice... and all we can do is look at what the fates have given us and decide what to do with it.
Aegir's Fire in his home pasture in Thermopolis WY
Aegir's Fire is what we call him... it is from Norse Mythology - a gift of the God of the Sea, a gold that burns so brightly it is used to light the halls - and for anyone who has met him, there is no doubt he is every bit the meaning of his name. His spirit is strong and resilient, he carries himself with all the pride of his mustang ancestors, and his soul is as fire itself - full of light and bravery.
A young Aegir's Fire
He has embraced what he cannot avoid - that he is captured and now lives with humans. But he has his own desires for this life.... he has his own destiny that he intends to live out. He wishes to share his story with those that do not already know him and his family - he wishes for us to remember all of the mustangs taken from his desert home. This is not my story, it is his, I am here simply to support him, and he is here to remind me that we are so long away from finishing the fight to protect those wild legends of the desert - his brethren of mustang legends, and that we must continue to work to change many things before it is too late and all the wild ones are captured, and their freedom forever lost.
Aegir's Fire with his family - still wild in 2020