The Grullo, The Roan and The Rare Sabino

Just a quick glance from Bridger Country rises the blue swell of the Pryor Mountains. Named for Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1806, this range looks deceptively smooth and calm from our Valley. In truth, the Pryors contain some of the most diversified landscape and climate of any area of Montana. Annual precipitation varies from next to nil in the desert foothills of the southern Pryor to over twenty inches in the higher elevations. The Pryors are a geological hotbed. From exposed portions of the ancient, inland Colorado Sea which cut the U.S. in half over 150 million years ago - to fossils of crocodiles and turtles from what was once an upper coastal plain in the Lower Cretaceous Cloverly Formation - Pryor geology was as diverse millions of years ago as it is today. The Pryors are home to endangered peregrine falcons, rare spotted bats and the Yellowstone cutthroat trout. These mountains protect some of the most diverse plant life in Montana, among which are the rare shoshonea (a mat forming perennial) and the bladderpod. Ten species of bats live in the hundreds of caves and abandoned mine shafts - cougars cry from the high limestone cliffs - and a small, but enduring herd of Big Horn Sheep scrabble up and down the Pryor's sheer rock outcroppings in search of forage. But today, the Pryor's biggest claim to fame may well be the wild horses that thunder across the Pryor Mountain National Wild Horse Range...the first ever such area designated for the preservation and use of the wild horse. Through the years, the animals which we call wild horses have been maligned and abused, worshipped and coveted - but only lately have we begun to understand them. Popular belief has maintained that the horses ranging the Pryors are nothing but lost stock or run aways from local farms. Some folks believe that the horses are remnants of government re-mounting programs for the military around the turn of the century. But, while both these sources may have added some new blood to the Pryor herd, the herd itself has a much more exotic pedigree than anyone really imagined until recently. It is a matter of record that wild horses were in command of the dry coulees and breaks of the Pryors long before any of the earliest homesteaders to the area can recollect. Some of the Pryor horses carry the markings of Spanish breeds from hundreds of years ago. The Spanish horses descended from the durable breeds of Northern Africa - the barb and the Arab. These horses were known for their hot blood, almost legendary endurance of heat, poor forage and little water. The horses of Arab tribes were also considered animals of tremendous heart. Historians say that these horses conquered Spain for Islam. They were tough and resilient over 1,000 years ago - and they are tough and resilent today. Living in family groups, commandeered by dominant stallions, the Pryor horses have a genetic diversity supported by their small groups and good management. Since 1968, when Congress set aside 31,000 acres for the horse's survival, these horses have been protected and monitored, adopted and studied. Such studies have given us a lot of insight into the history of the horse on this continent. Horses actually evolved in North America. Later, they crossed the Bering Land Bridge to Asia which linked Alaska to Russia. Because of possible climate changes and over-hunting by the first Americans, the native horse of the North America's became extinct about 10,000 years ago. The horse did not return to the shores of its native North America until the Spaniards brought it back - about 500 years ago. And when the Spaniards brought these horses to America, they brought mobility and power to the nomadic Plains Indians. Once a nation of poor hunter-gatherers, who alternately starved or feasted depending on the weather and the whims of the buffalo, the Plains Indians readily gave up their dog travois for the "gift of the white man". Horses were trained to help in the hunt, the moving of the villages and for warfare. They were a sign of wealth and a banner of power. Tribes such as the Nez Perce began sophisticated selective breeding programs of their own to create horses of striking color and mettle - the Appaloosa. The Plains Indians became Horse Indians and a powerful adversary for the new white settlers in America.

The local Crow tribe, a people of legendary trading powers, was said to have the most horses of any Indian tribe during the 1800's. It is quite possible that the Pryor horses owe much of their lineage to the Crows....who got their horses from the Navaho, Comanche and the Shoshone...who in turn got their horses from the Missions of Spain.

The Pryor horses retain unusual colors (dun, grulla, blue roan and sabino) and unusual markings such as dorsal stripes down their backs, wither stripes and zebra stripes on their legs - legacies of their ancient Spanish ancestors. Lately, genetic studies done on the horses at the University of Kentucky have re-affirmed the horses old Spanish lineage.

The Pryor National Wild Horse Range is just a short drive from Bridger Country. And it's well worth the visit.

Additional information about the area, travel conditions, adoptions of wild horses and other topics concerning the Pryor Mountain National Wild Horse Range can be obtained from:

Bureau of Land Management Billings Resource Area 810 East Main Street Billings MT 59105 (406)-238-1540 or Chief Plenty Coups State Park P.O. Box 100 Pryor, MT 59066 (406)-252-1289

Hope Ryden, a former ABC news correspondent, has written a number of books and articles about the Pryor horse herd and their relatives in other states. Check at the local library for "America's Last Wild Horses" and "Mustangs - A Return to the Wild" available through inter-library loan from Billings.

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