Barbara Ellin Fox
Romance, Adventure & Horses
Mustang Reno's Legacy
Reno’s Legacy was captured during the heartbreaking Calico Mountains round-up. He and his family were chased by helicopter out of the high mountains in northern Nevada, a place called Granite Range. After processing, Reno was brought to an adoption site in Flagstaff, Arizona near where we lived.
Reno was a yearling when we adopted him, and the only time he’d been touched was to be driven into a squeeze chute, inoculated, freeze branded then turned on his side and gelded. That happened right after he was captured. Needless to say he didn't welcome human touch.
As you can see from the first video below, the BLM runs the horse into a chute and puts your halter with a lead rope on the horse, and then runs it into the trailer. You leave the halter on the horse until you can handle him and lead him a little bit. Reno wore his for a month.
A day or so after arriving at our house Reno got very sick with a horrible upper respiratory illness that made breathing a struggle. I worried he might die. Here I was with a horse I needed to doctor and I couldn't touch him. With the help of our very good veterinarian, Dr. Westover, we got creative with oral antibiotics and alfalfa leaf. It took two rounds of antibiotic to help Reno.
The videos below show a progression from the day we adopted Reno to the day I first took his halter off, then to one of the first times I let him out of his pen to play in a big space. This was a huge achievement over several months.
Reno had his own blog which we discontinued when it was necessary to separate for a while. His story is still developing and one day Reno may have his own book.
The first three pictures are unofficial and are Reno's demonstration of the hungry foot. Whenever I give him a treat I say, "Hungry?", and he answers by holding up his right front hoof. Once he learned this trick, he started to do it for everything and I had to teach him a signal to stop. He's very smart.
My daughter, Alisha Fox, of AFox Photography is Reno's official portrait photographer.
My Buddy, Reno at Feeding Time
Reno-"Hungry" He's asking with his right foot.
Now Reno is trying with the left foot. If he had words he'd probably be yelling right now.
Reno: "Are you seriously not going to feed me?"