Ghost & Phoenix

The story of Phoenix and Ghost is a love story for the ages and one which has now been shared by over 15 million people thanks to The Dodo. We originally saw a photo of Phoenix taken by Steve Paige of the American Wild Horse Campaign during the Warm Springs roundup. Phoenix jumped the six-foot-high panels in the trap he and his family were driven into by a helicopter. From a standing start, he lept for freedom and made it but then refused to leave his family behind. He was captured and lost them anyway. We went to the BLM corrals to find him and his family and managed to see him and get his tag number. We were told he was to be turned back out to the wild but we would go and visit him and tell him he was going to be free again soon. After a year I went to visit and found him alone, his friend gone, and now the plan to release him was canceled.

We applied to adopt him and we brought him to Skydog, this horse who wanted so badly to be free was going to get what he fought so hard for. We set him free on our 9000-acre ranch but always felt there was a sadness about him and that he was scanning the horizon for his family.

Phoenix was home and safe but my heart still hurt for him and I would always look for his mare whenever I visited the corrals, taking photos with a long lens trying to find his mare for him but they had been rounded up a year before so i figured she had been adopted out. But I still searched.

A full two years after the roundup and their separation I was looking at the internet adoption and saw a mare who looked familiar. I looked and looked at the old photos and the ones on the adoption page and checked every mark and spot. And it was her. We named her Ghost as she appeared just like a Ghost. We went to pick her up and the reunion was one of our happiest days. Ghost and Phoenix live happily together and we will continue to reunite families at the heart of our sanctuary.