Wild Horse Graduates from Yosemite Academy
Stan & Koal’s Excellent Adventure
by Mark Struble, Carson City Field Office

The majority of wild horses in the West spend their lives running free, while others are adopted by humans who bond with them in special ways. Over the past year, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ranger Stan Zuber of the Carson City Field Office has been cementing a bond with a very special five-year-old wild horse that was born on public land north of Winnemucca.

"Koal" is a tall, black and energetic horse who was first only known to humans by the freeze mark number applied to his neck by wranglers. Born sometime in 1999 in the Buffalo Hills Herd Management Area in northern Nevada, Koal was rounded up with other horses due to over-population pressures on the range. His traits indicated he would make a good working horse and he was enrolled in an initial gentling/training program at the Nevada Department of Corrections’ Warm Springs facility in Carson City, Nevada. The prisoner- wrangler assigned to Koal gave him his name because of his rich black color. Koal and the prisoner trained so well together that BLM’s Warm Springs Program Manager Hank Curry called Ranger Zuber and mentioned that he had a young horse with the kind of special qualities that might make him an excellent patrol horse for BLM.

Koal spent five months in early 2003 in the prison gentling program. While his fellow wild horses were adopted out to private families, Koal moved across town to BLM’s Silver Saddle Ranch in Carson City. Stan and two horse trainers have continued his training to this day. Koal was joined by a female burro and baby from the Bureau’s adoption program to provide Koal with companionship and help calm him during his transition to a BLM patrol horse.

By October 2003, news of Koal’s presence at Silver Saddle had circulated within the ranks of local 4-H Clubs who love horses. Three young girls from 4-H and their mothers asked if they could hone their grooming and training skills by caring for Koal. Stan, who knows a good deal when he sees it, quickly crafted an agreement for the girls to feed, groom, and help with Koal’s training.

Making it in the Big Leagues
How best to proceed with Koal’s advanced training?

"No BLM wild horses or BLM rangers had ever been enrolled at the National Park Service’s Mounted Horse Patrol School," said Stan. "The school in 2004 was going to be held at Yosemite National Park and it turned out that this school was the best thing we could have done for Koal. I learned a lot, too."

Stan and Koal traveled together to Yosemite. The training took people with very little horse experience (and in this case a horse with very little people experience) and trained them to be Mounted Patrol mounts and officers. Koal was the only wild horse in the class and was the first BLM horse to complete the academy. Of the four men and eight women in the class, Stan was the only BLM employee; the rest of the riders were from the National Park Service.

The five-week long academy has long hours and was physically demanding. The rider-horse teams learned riding skills, jumping, sensory training, and police work such as vehicle stops, control holds, hand cuffing, formations, and crowd control.

"Koal still has wild horse instincts and we started out rather rough, but we both learned and adjusted quickly to the academy routine," said Stan. "Six of the Park Service horses were also going through the class for the first time. Koal did very well."