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May 2008 • VOLUME 33 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
A unique horse with a unique pastime. Cholla was born in 1985 in Minden, Nevada. His heritage was mixed, with his sire coming from the wrong side of the tracks, some might say. His sire, a mustang, was crossed with his dam, a quarter horse mare. The result was Cholla. His heritage from his sire is clear. A copper buckskin with a deep black mane and tail complete with the dorsal stripe down his back. A dark swatch travelling from his withers to his tail. Even his legs proclaim his ancient and wild heritage with horizontal zebra-like stripes. Now at 15.2 hands and at about 1200 pounds he has found a unique way to earn a living. While other horses might be raced, jumped, or shown, Cholla has found something quite different. Mind you, Cholla’s start in life was not quite so auspicious. His owner, a trained ballerina, recounts how he was originally broken. Coming from an alternate tradition, the cowboys who worked with him ‘sacked’ him out. During the process, the cowboys haltered Cholla then tied ropes to each of his legs. The next step was to trip him and tie him off so he was fully restrained. This to immobilize him while they rubbed empty flour sacks up and down the horse’s body. This may have worked at some level for some horses. This was not one of those horses. Cholla, with his wild heritage, fought, and fought hard. This proud cut gelding fought so hard that to this day he has deep scars on his hind fetlocks. Reaction to the deep rope burns, because he just could not submit. It just wasn't in him. While other horses fight until they submit or are exhausted, he continued to fight in his heart long after his body was done. Sadly, in the process he did learn one thing. A deep rooted fear of restraint, ropes and men. A trust that, as Pluvinel warns, once lost can never truly be recovered. One day, searching for that perfect horse, his future owner came across an ad. It said, "Well-broke, five-year-old gelding Buckskin Quarter Horse Mustang 15.2-hands, $1,200." When she met him, something happened, an instant connection, and from the very first moment, he followed her everywhere without a lead line. So of course, she had no choice, she took him home. It was just before his fifth birthday. The only horse she had ever owned. His distrust of humans was obvious from the very beginning. His wildness made him quite a handful, definitely a horse with a mind of his own. The process was slow, taking years for Renee to gain his trust. But she still sees his wildness, still knows that he still has a mind of his own. Renee herself says that “Owning a sacked-out mustang is fraught with trials and tribulations. In the beginning, he hated any kind of rope, forceful men, trailers, horseshoers - the list was a long one. Gradually, I was able talk him through fearful situations. His intelligence now tells him that he is well taken care of and capable of trust. I'd like to say that I trust him completely, but I can't quite say that. Cholla shows love and trust toward me, but he is fearless - ready to explode into instinctive survival mode at any time.” Each year, Renee would religiously go out and paint the fences. And Cholla would follow every step of the way. He was curious. One day Renee’s husband, Robert, watching how curious and fascinated Cholla was, suggested that maybe she should get the horse to help her, if he was going to keep getting in the way like that. Renee had noticed that Cholla liked to hold things in his mouth and she wondered if he would be interested in holding a paint brush. But instead of getting Cholla to help with the fence she wondered if he would like to really paint, on paper! So on April 29, 2004 she tacked a piece of watercolour paper to the fence. She took one stroke with the artist’s brush across the page to show Cholla that she didn’t only paint fences and then turned to him.
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