A stunning black and white pinto stallion catches your breath when you first see him, your eyes widen in excited surprise, and your heartbeat quickens as you watch him and hope he will grant you just a few moments of time in his company.

My first meeting of this young stallion was on a beautiful summer day, a soft breeze whispering across the grassy sage scattered hills, a warm afternoon sun leaving all feeling lazy, as wild horses and pronghorn napped under blue skies.

I was trekking down the 2-track in my rig, seeing horses here and there in the distance, thinking that I was not going to get close to any and that I would have to turn around and head home soon, I crested one last little hill and - OH MY - there they were!

Wild horses! I backed up several feet just as fast as I could and parked, expecting the mustangs and pronghorn to begin fleeing at any second.... instead they studied me, examined my intentions, and decided that the sun was warm and the afternoon meant for staying lazy - let the silly human take her photographs!

A month later and the peace of this place was shattered by the beating of helicopter blades chasing these same wild horses into traps to be taken away from this land forever.....

2,577 wild horses were removed from the North Lander Complex in July of 2024.

Several months later a few dozen were returned to this wild land.... Wovoka was one of those chosen to be released back to the wild - but he was not returned to where he was born and explored as a young bachelor stallion.

Instead he was taken to the farthest western edge of the North Lander Complex, and released with two mares and one other stallion into the isolated island of Dishpan Butte - West.

Why? Why did they not return these horses to the land they had known before.... actually, this is standard practice - when a roundup and removal is done and horses are selected to return to the wild, BLM will select horses from one HMA to be moved into another HMA in order to increase genetic diversity - it is done in the name of maintaining a healthy herd.

And in the case of the western island of Dishpan Butte, where only 5 mustangs were allowed to be - by the decision of the Wild Horse Specialist, genetic diversity is questionable at best and so a mix of the other HMAs were selected, with only one of the mustangs that previously had been in this area returned, the beautiful little palomino mare is originally from this island.

To be very clear, I absolutely do not agree with the decision to allow only 5 mustangs in this isolated island, it can easily sustain at least 20 and probably 50 horses, with cattle grazing and wild ungulates of deer, elk, and pronghorn.

There are many ways that could have been achieved, instead the Wild Horse Specialist chose the easy way.... minimal mustangs released (one stallion had not been trapped and waited the summer for friends to be returned), mares treated with two doses of Gonacon, and a ratio of 3 stallions to two mares.

And one of those stallions returned was a young and inexperienced Wovoka.

As I began to share the story of this young stallion, of his lonely pacing along a fence by a highway, restless and anxious, losing weight despite an easy almost snowless winter, you asked...... how can we help - what do we DO!?!?!

Many messaged me asking how can we get him back to his HMA? Do we open gates or maybe cut the fence... what, what do we do for him!?!?!

And my heart ached to watch him pace so endlessly, wearing a trail through the sage and grass by the fence as traffic raced by.

But.... we need to pause, and ask, really truly, what does that look like - if we do any of the things suggested!?!

Taking him back to where he was born... not as easy as opening a gate!!

First is that he is not even on the side of Dishpan Butte that faces his original HMA... he is on the literal opposite side of the isolated island that faces the other HMAs.

And if he was facing the other HMAs.... there is a busy highway!! And trust me, there is no easy opening gates and moving him from one side of the highway to the other!! Even domestic horses won't cooperate with you that easily!

Second.... there are miles of fences, rolling hills, rocky rising peaks, and then more fences before he would reach where he was born - it is 24 - as the Crow flies - miles of obstacles between where he and I first met and where he paces now.

On the ground it is probably more like 35+ miles of obstacles to travel.

And last but most certainly not the least to consider..... where he knew is no longer the same, most of the mustangs he ran with are forever gone from this land, and the mustangs that are here now have formed new bonds and boundaries, and his return may well be met with harsh resistance from these mustangs.

Nothing is as it was....

So what do we do!?!?! I know, it is in our human nature to fix things that seem broken... and as he continues to pace this fence, we really want to make it better for him!

But... is that what he is actually asking of us?

If we pause and consider.... I know many of you believe wild horses are much the same as us - they have feelings of love and caring, they have family bonds, they can reason and understand, and they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

So what does that look like? This stallion's life has already been upended once, would you really put him through the trauma of another capture and moving once again, to a land that may not welcome him back?

The place he is in now has miles and acres of land to wander and explore... there is good grass, there is water, and there are other wild horses - more than we maybe know - because even though BLM decided to allow only 5 mustangs here, a mysterious stallion appeared and kept company with Wovoka for several weeks!

And yet, he chose to stay wandering this fence when the other stallion did not... right now, in this moment, Wovoka chooses to stay walking this fence along a busy highway.

Why?

Why... does he stay here when he has miles to wander and be lost from human eyes!

I am not sure... at first I thought because he was kicked out by the older stallions, and I believe there is truth in that, he was too young and inexperienced to win a fight for mares, and they did not want to have young competition near them.

And then I thought maybe it was because the cows were across the highway, and maybe when the cows were moved into the HMA he would blend in with them, the way a solitary mustang will for the sake of company. But he did not.

And it felt as if somehow he had been trapped here, that he did not know how to move away from this fence-line, that he needed another horse to keep him company and give him comfort - and miraculously from where we do not know, a sorrel stallion appeared with Wovoka one day, and for weeks they wandered the fence line together.

But now he is alone again.... walking this same fence, standing on a hill, observing it all as traffic goes by.

Why.

Only he knows that answer, I have asked and he was kind enough to answer, but it is not for me to tell you.... you must sit with him yourself and hear what he has to say.

Truly hear his voice.

And maybe that is the why.... maybe he is asking each of us to pause, to not make assumptions or try to fix it the way we think it needs to be fixed, but instead to sit in the silence and hear him.

He has answers that we need to hear, he has knowledge we need to know, and he needs us to silence our own voices so we can hear his voice.