It's a Boy!
Introducing First Knight…Tor!
On August 2nd, Cloud’s look-alike daughter Encore gave birth. To understand why this seems like a miracle to me we have to go back in time…
It is May 6, 2014, Encore’s first birthday. On this day she was stolen by a band of bachelor stallions. Her father, Cloud, had been injured in a horrific battle with the stallion, Doc, who won the band and kicked Encore’s brother, Mato Ska, out. Cloud had disappeared. Although he ultimately won back his mares Feldspar (Encore’s mother) and Inocentes, it would prove to be too late for Mato Ska and Encore.
In a driving wind and rainstorm, Ann Evans and I spot Encore on a distant cliff. Big bachelors prance around behind her while the smallest stallion, a 4-year-old named Knight stands shoulder to shoulder with the filly. As a yearling, Knight’s mother died, and these mature bachelor stallions brought him up. We call these giant males “the Forest Service boys”…Hernando, Hamlet, Grijala, Garay and Inali…They grew tall in the lush Custer National Forest lands that are off-limits to the horses now. The big wooden fence built in 2010 prevents them from going home.
(Encore and Knight weather the raging storm together)
The wind swirls around the ATV as I turn to Ann. “Nothing could be worse than this.” I fear that Encore will not survive what is likely happening to her. It was hard to glass in the raging storm, but I keep trying.
Above Encore and the stallions, I see a familiar face staring out from the dense, rain-soaked forest above the filly and the stallions. It is Mato Ska, Encore’s big brother. Doc kicked the 2-year-old out and then somehow let the bachelors steal Encore.
I try to focus again on Mato Ska. He is watching his little sister. It is one of the saddest moments in my years of documenting wild horses. Mato Ska and Encore were inseparable. He was the quiet, patient big brother, and Encore was the lively, fun-loving little sister.
(She reminds me of a fairy princess)
A few weeks later when I return to the mountain, Knight is with Encore. The biggest bachelors are gone, all except Inali who seems determined to take the filly from Knight.
Sometimes it is the intangibles that determine a winner and a loser. Size and age are against little Knight. But heart is on his side.
Their fights are brutal. Inali’s coat is in tatters. Knight has a huge chunk taken from his butt and his left eye is nearly swollen shut. He has a gash on his neck. Then, one morning Inali simply disappears. Against all odds Knight prevails and Encore survives.
The bloody, filthy, pathetic-looking filly regains her angelic beauty. One young friend of mine says “She reminds me of a fairy princess.”
During the years that followed, I do not see Knight breed Encore. Then, in July of 2018 I see him mount her. I always assumed that her injuries would prevent her from conceiving. Joyfully, I admit to being very wrong. This spring Ann and I sit near Knight, Encore and the young mare, Outlaw Lady, whom Knight has wooed away from her mother, Hopi, and father, Duke.
“Do you think she looks pregnant.” Ann whispers. “Maybe,” I admit. She is a little round. A little bit round turned into a lot round. By mid-June when I take my friends, Mallory Lykes and Cynthia Smoot, to the mountain top, Encore is a bit of a tub. Still I worry. Will she have trouble foaling?
Knight is on guard. When the bachelor stallion, Oro, bathes in the very water he and his mares had played in, Knight gives the younger but bigger stallion a clear message. “Beat it.” Few stallions in the Pryors collect up like Knight. He cuts an impressive profile. After a brief scuffle, Oro retreats and the band walks uphill. When Encore lays down and rolls it is abundantly clear that she is very pregnant. Her belly reminds me of a beach ball.
(Amazing behavior, Encore lifts her newborn foal his feet)
Weeks pass, then the word comes. Encore has foaled! It is a dark male. Our friend, Phyllis Wray, was there on the day of the birth. Phyllis’s pictures show that she missed the birth by only a few minutes.
Blood drips from Encore’s tail as she watches her tiny newborn slip into a deep rut in the meadow above the snow-fed waterhole. The colt flails, unable to right himself. That is when Phyllis sees something amazing.
Encore picks her son up by the nape of his neck, just enough to allow him to get his shaky legs under him and stagger out of the hole. Like a mother cat or dog might do, but a horse?! I’ve never heard of anything like this. Have you?
Our intern, Elke Tukker; TCF Deputy Director, Dana Zarrello; and I had plenty of time to try to come up with an appropriate name for Encore and Knight’s unborn foal on our 10-hour drive back from the range this spring. In the Pryors we have a naming convention to help with documentation. All foals born in 2000 were given names that began with the letter A, like Cloud’s long-time mare Aztec.
This year is the letter “T”. Hmmm…I thought of Tor, a high rocky hill. Dana and Elke like that OK. We had no idea it had another meaning until Dana Googled “Tor” and discovered something amazing. Tor was one of the first knights of King Arthur’s round table. A Knight! It was a natural fit, but what if he were a she? Honestly, we never came up with a female name that we liked.
Two days after Tor’s birth I am on the mountain, searching for Knight’s family. I find the family and the tiny colt.
Tor is the smallest foal I have ever seen in the Pryors. He has a triangular star and a small slash of white on the tip of his nose. His favorite game is walking under his mother’s tummy or sometimes standing under her, letting her tail swat the flies away.
Lisa Friday joins me for a couple of days, and we watch the colt totter around on still unsteady legs. So frail, I think to myself.
As the days pass, I can see he is beginning to observe not just his mother but the world around him, the sticks and rocks. . .and his father as well. How much of behavior is learned by observation and how much is instinct?
(Tor is watchful as dad, Knight, sends band stallion Casper packing.)
(This little one shows complete trust in his mother as he follows her fearlessly, without hesitation, into the water.)
In over 25 years, Tor is only the second foal I’ve seen eating his mother’s droppings. Dr. Lisa, our wonderful veterinarian, believes he is deriving nutrients and I’m sure that is true, but I have only seen this with one other newborn, the beautiful band stallion Horizon. As a newborn I watched him eat his mother’s fresh poop. That’s why I called him “He Who Eats His Mother’s Poop” or “He Who” for short.
After Tor finishes eating poop, he urinates on his mother’s droppings. Is this instinct or mimicry of adult behavior? Knight is careful to cover Encore and Outlaw Lady’s droppings and urine with his own urine. I believe he is communicating that these are his mares, a warning for other stallions to stay clear of them. Tiny as he is, did Tor watch and imitate or just do this instinctively? When Outlaw Lady urinated, she watched Tor totter to her rear and lift his upper lip and inhale, a behavior called “flehmen”. The complexity of social animals like wild horses fascinates me.
(Father and son, Knight and First Knight, Tor)
A few weeks later Tor is not just interacting with his mother, but with his father too.
At sunset a cold wind is blowing hard. Encore and Outlaw Lady move away to graze in the lea of the limber pines. This time Tor does not dutifully follow his mother. Instead, he walks to his father. Encore would never have allowed this if she were not sure that Knight will not hurt the colt, either intentionally or accidentally.
In the brisk, cold wind they stand side by side, Tor pushes his body into his father’s side, and they stand perfectly still, father and son. . . Knight and first Knight, Tor.
Happy Trails,
Ginger
P.S I am off to the Pryors again soon and will try to find Encore and her family. When snow forces the horses off the mountaintop onto either Sykes or Tillett Ridges, they become far more challenging to find in the rugged canyons and deep forests of their beautiful wilderness home. Whatever happens, I will let you know.
Til next time…