Everyone please welcome my first guest blogger, Jonathan! Jonathan is a mustang advocate who knows the subject in and out. Whenever I forget the name of a horse in the Pryors he’s the man to go to! Which is perfect for me because I wanted to learn about Flax’s past, and I only had to ask him. Enjoy a very in depth look into my little Flax’s life on the mountain when she was wild. Let’s see if you can read all this info in 30 seconds and in one breath!
Flax was born in 2005 to Looking Glass and Tonopah's 1996 golden dun son Baja and Sitka and Shaman's 1994 golden dun daughter Washakie. Flax is their first offspring. She left her parents in early 2007 as a two year old and found herself with the dark bay stallion Morning Star and his band where she spent the entire summer.
In late August of 2007, she was taken by Flint, staying with him for a few days and then she was taken by Velvet and Cocomo's 1998 black son Stiles. She stayed with Stiles for a bit, but they didn’t really bond. So one afternoon, Stiles was trying to get back Diamond's current band (stolen back in 2006 during the bait trapping which left Diamond severely injured) and while he was fighting with Diamond, the one and only Cloud swooped in and snaked her to his band. As soon as the pretty dun filly arrived in Cloud's band, Velvet and Aztec chased her all over the place. The only mare that protected her was Velvet's black daughter Flicka. Once the situation settled in the band, she had found her place in the family.
In the spring of 2008 while with Cloud, Flax gave birth to a sickly bay colt who was sired by Morning Star, but he died a few days after his birth.
In the spring of 2009, Flax gave birth again, to a beautiful dunskin filly sired by Cloud and was named "Windflower". Shortly after the birth of the Windflower, Flax was taken or went with Jackson (a coyote dun). While in her new band, a few weeks later, Windflower was sadly killed by a mountain lion. However, Flax stayed with Jackson and his family for the the rest of the summer until September that year.
In September 2009, when the roundup began, Flax was removed along with 56 other adults and 3 foals with their mothers. She was unknowingly pregnant with a Jackson foal at her capture.
In 2010, she gave birth to her beautiful and very Spanish looking dun son in the BLM holding pens, who has found a great adoptive home. Unfortunately the same could not be said of Flax. The people who adopted her did not know how to care for a mustang and they tried to use her as a broodmare. This didn't work out so they left her in a filthy roundpen. She never had her hooves trimmed and was overweight and unhappy. One day, Effie Orser saw her on Craigslist and The Cloud Foundation rescued her.
She spent most of 2014 with Lisa Jacobson in Colorado and on 1/24/2015, I told my new best friend Jamie and her husband about Flax. Now after 6 years of captivity, Flax found her family in Jamie and Michael Claps and has the forever home she's always wanted"
*Photos below by Tony Wengert
