Bounce is another elder stallion, but I see this guy all the time as he hangs out with Hollywood’s band. He’s a mostly quiet companion, and it’s good to see him with company.
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Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
TJ, can you estimate his age?
He was aged at 20 at the 2007 roundup (he was captured and released, as he was again in 2011). At the time, I didn’t think that was quite accurate, but by now it’s probably close. Maybe by now he has even passed the 20-year mark. He still looks very healthy and hearty, but he does show some age. 🙂
Thank you TJ! How about Duke? Who else may be around or over 20? Mares too.I am asking because I have been compiling “lists” from different HMAs (and areas not federally protected) to use when people (including the veterinarians) start throwing around “8-10 yr life span of wild horses” and how “lucky” my mustang is that I “saved” him from an early death etc in the wild. “” are mine, they really believe it. Picture is worth of thousand words so that’s how I start :-). Numbers help, lol.
Duke, Poco, Traveler, Houdini and possibly David are our current elders. I’m comfortable saying they’re all older than 15 – but it seems like I’ve been saying that for a few years! Also at the 2007 roundup, Molly was aged at “older than 20.” She died (natural causes, I think) in the fall of 2009. Ceal was not captured, but she also seemed to be an elder mare and died the winter of 2007-08. Interestingly, both those mares had foals the years they died (and those foals were “adopted” by the bands the mares had been with last). Stallion Steeldust was aged at 20 when rounded up in 2011. He had lost his band to one of his sons just a year or so earlier. (Before that, his band was the biggest in the basin.)
In my opinion, at 8 to 10 years old, mustangs are at wonderfully peak maturity, with many more years of good, healthy living ahead of them. (This is one reason I believe the Burns Amendment, which seems to discard horses older than 10, is so wrong.)