Back in the early 80s, there was still a lot of horses loose in the White Sands area of New Mexico. These wild horses were not mustangs but the descendents of ranch stock that the army turned loose when it confiscated the ranches that made up the White Sands Test Area. Some of the old Ranchers in the area told me how the Army came in and forciably removed them from their ranches and turned their stock loose.
Anyway the Army and Air Force was having problems with this stock getting into restricted areas and setting off alarms. They approved for some personnel with the right clearances to go and quietly remove some of these animals. Some friends and I went out and roped several head, by catching them inside fenced areas. We also ran a few down with Dune Buggies. But we always worked in pairs, stringing them out between two vehicles. Generally taking mares and yearlings.
One day a couple of new fellows showed up in a Jeep. These guys had set their eyes on a big Strawberry Roan (the herd stallion). After watching us catch a few they decided to do the same thing, only go it alone. They chased this stallion for a couple of miles, and when he stopped they mistook his stance of defiance for giving up. They circled him with the Jeep a few times getting closer, till they managed to get a rope on him. That's when the action started. They had tied the rope off to the front bumper. When the horse started to fight the rope they put the Jeep into reverse and started to drag the horse. This big stallion realised real fast that he could not win that battle so he tried a different tactic, he went on the offensive.
My buddy and I was sitting on a nearby hill watching. We seen this big horse charge the Jeep. As he ran up beside it he reached for the driver with barred teeth. The driver jumped across the vehicle. The Jeep started slowing down, then turned real sharp, then went up on two wheels, almost turning over. With no driver the vehicle slowed down and stopped, with the horse slamming his front hoofs down on the hood several times. Suddenly these two would be wild horse catchers realised their true predicament. They dove out of the Jeep just as the horse jumped in. They realised that the rope was too long to let them get away on foot. The only protection was under the Jeep.
At this point my partner and I started down to lend assistance before the horse got to them. While I was driving down there, the horse jumped out of the Jeep and went down on his knees trying to reach the men under the vehicle. The big horse ran around the Jeep several times when the rope got caught. The horse set back hard and the rope being against something sharp got cut. Now without the drag of the rope the horse really went on the offensive. I heard a scream, then saw the horse come up with something in his mouth. The horse then went around the Jeep again and back down on his knees. We heard another scream and saw someone being pulled by a foot out from under the vehicle. I slammed on the brakes and grabbed my rifle from the scabbard strapped to the windshield frame. My partner already had his out. We both shot at about the same time. The stallion fell, but kept pawing with one hoof, trying to reach the man he was holding by the foot. As the Stallion weakened the man was able to get his foot out of the animal's mouth and crawl back under the Jeep. My partner and I drove on up to the site. The horse died as we arrived.
Both young men were hurt. One had a chunk taken out of his shoulder, about half the size of your fist. The other had an injured foot and was unable to walk. We drove them in to the base for medical treatment. The Stallion had crushed the Jeep drivers foot inside his boot, breaking several bones.
To this day I feel bad about having to shoot that beautiful red roan. We had wanted to trap him, but he would never go inside any of the fenced areas. One bullet had hit him in the lungs, the other had hit him in the spine just behind the withers. No way to tell who shot which shot since we were both using 30-06s. The next day I drove out there with a loader and buried the animal. The military quietly stopped all wild horse chasing.
