Silver King, stallion
Photo: Karen Asherah

Silver King is a mature harem band stallion who was captured in 2010 from the Silver King Herd Management Area in Northwestern Nevada’s Great Basin. Silver King and his family were captured in the Silver King roundup on October 3, 2010.

Stampeded by deafening helicopters, Silver King and his mares, most pregnant, were chased relentlessly over dangerous terrain,.

After the helicopter assault, Silver King and his were forced into a trap at the capture site, where they were held in a pressure-cooker situation with other bands in the same small enclosure.

After hours waiting in the small holding corral at the trap site, Silver king and his mares’ heart wrenching screams rose above the panic of their capture as they said goodbye through the metal bars of the holding pen.

Anyone with any intelligence can clearly see that these horses, like us, are sentient beings with strong emotional bonds.

Grace (Buckskin mare), with colt Haiku with Cali (Braveheart’s mare and filly Amber) in holding corral 201o.

What Silver King did not know, as he fought and defended himself and was loaded onto a crammed trailer and hauled away from his home range, his freedom, his world – was that there were people determined to protect him, and try to reunite him with his family. Return To Freedom, will continue to do what we can to ” save the pieces”.

A determined ally, Laura Leigh followed Silver King to Gunnison Prison.

Through the chutes and onto the semi-trucks to the prison, he stayed very close to a flaxen maned stallion named Galahad who Leigh had also been tracking through the capture. Laura Leigh alerted Return to Freedom and we were able to get possession of Silver King and Galahad.

Galahad with Silver King in Holding. Galahad is still protective of Silver King! Photo: Laura Leigh

Note: In order to simply view Galahad and Silver King, Leigh endured an intensive search of her person and vehicle. Only after that was she allowed to view the horses. Later Leigh received notice that if she was to accompany the driver picking up the horse she had to notify BLM so they could notify S.W.A.T. These actions on the part of BLM were included in Leigh’s monumental win against violations of her first amendment rights in the Ninth Circuit. This has increased accountability and transparency related to wild horse handling during roundups an processing.

RTF tracked down Silver King’s mare, Grace and a few others from his band and moved them to a leased holding area in Nevada.  In the holding area two foals were born after the roundup.

 Thanks to the support given to our work by caring people all over the world, we found a way to undo one terrible injustice—the seeming total loss of Silver King and Galahad’s family.

Since 2011, RTF has had to board the mares from both the Silver King and Calico roundups, at our colleagues, Dreamcatcher Sanctuary in Termo California. SilverKing’s colt Haiku and Galah’s colt Sterling have joined their fathers at RTF’s sanctuary but the mares have been roaming 800 acres in northern California.

This Holiday season, 2015, we will be able to reunite Silver King with Grace and his 2 other mares at Return to Freedom’s American Wild Horse Sanctuary, in San Luis Obispo, California

Silver King with Galahad and Curly at Return to Freedom Sanctuary.
Photo: Karen Asherah

Related Resource Links

Silver King Herd Management Area PDF- BLM 

Silver King Herd Management Area Wild Horse Gather – BLM Report 2010

Photographer wins appeal over access to horse roundup

Silver King, NV 2010- Wild Horse Education post

Silver King Round Up-Death of Braveheart