Awful news from Canon City … Hook is dead. According to the email, “He broke his neck when he escaped when they were trying to get him through a chute for gelding.”
Hook is the stallion that jumped out of the alley during sorting during the roundup, right before Cinch broke his neck. Hook also had jumped fences (at least two) shortly after he arrived at Canon City.
One of the big things our group members observed during the roundup was that most injuries – and Cinch’s death – occurred in the alley and chute during sorting and/or processing. That’s another thing we’ve added to our work in the MUST CHANGE category.
He had been a bachelor for at least a couple of years before he finally separated out Ember and Pinon last winter (2010), though he had briefly stolen Piedra and Sage before that before losing them back to Hollywood. Hook had been one of the “low men” bachelors, but in my experience, it’s those boys who have been able to quietly split off their mares. Soon after he went off from Steeldust’s band with Ember and Pinon, Hannah and then Sable (both just yearlings then) joined them. Fierro, likely sired by Mouse, joined the band on the Fourth of July last year, and, of course, Hook raised him like his own.
He got ever so much more attention when he became a band stallion, and I could always see the confusion in him about the attention.
Twister had his full attention on the band when he got hurt this summer, about a week after Indy was born …
Hook was another stallion that people connected with because of his obvious desire to be wild. He will never be forgotten, and his spirit will live on in his foals, when they’re born. Hannah, Sable and Ember all found good homes (Ember and Sable together). I always wondered whether he was related to Comanche, at least. Will never know, but I hope it’s true.
I’m still thinking of a longer photo tribute to Cinch, so I’ll try to put together a combined one now for these two Spring Creek Basin stallions that meant so much to all of us.
