The Wild West still lives.

[Guy Mancuso]

Now I wish I had a camera on me but I took the day off or at least the morning to play golf. I got to the 16th hole hit a 3 iron, half way to the pin pretty much and got in the cart and looked up to drive. In my amazement I saw 5 count them 5 wild horses on the edge of the fairway . They where absolutely stunning animals. I carefully went slow and around them. My ball was about 30 yards in front of them so I went past my ball and walked back. I thought about a stampede but I figured if I was to go what a way to go by some amazing animals. Screw it I walked up to my ball said good morning they bowed there head and watched me hit. Than they slowly turned around and walked back into the desert. I guess I was so stunned and pumped up I flew the green by 20 yards. It's either that or they just are the golf gods giving me the extra strength. Whatever it maybe I feel honored to have meet them, seen them in all there glory in the Wild West. What a great way to start the day. Happy Holidays

 

[Vivek]

Awesome!

Happy B'day, Guy!

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Thanks Vivek. I'm hoping this good karma

 

[tashley]

Hey Guy, Happy Birthday - sounds like someone should have given you an RX100 II so them horses didn't get away so lightly!

 

[peterv]

Hey Guy, good story! Congratulations on your birthday, all the best.

 

[Michiel Schierbeek]

Happy birthday!

 

[Double Negative]

That's awesome. Must've been quite the sight - and experience. Beautiful country out there and like you said, amazing animals.

Happy birthday too, and thanks for everything.

 

[fotografz]

So guy, you DID like my Birthday gift to you :thumbs:

... horses for (golf) courses.

:ROTFL:

Happy Birthday!

- Marc

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Yes Marc it was very special. I'm still thinking about. It's very rare to see them anymore and even more amazing was 5 of them in extremely good looking and healthy. That surprised me but living around a golf course way out seems like a great place to eat.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

The real, natural birthday gift. Happy Birthday!

 

[f6cvalkyrie]

Nice story, and happy birthday to you, Guy !

BTW, it's Saint Nicolaus day here in Belgium, I hope you got lot's of presents

Enjoy your day !
Rafael
​

 

[D&A]

Guy, that scene must have been surreal and most certainly good Karma for a Birthday celebration. What a great gift to start your special day. Happy Birthday! So many icons of the early days of our nation are slowly disappearing unfortunately, with the old west being one of them. All in all a memory to treasure.

Dave (D&A)

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Thanks Dave , it's very true even here in the West we are losing 1 acre per hour I believe the stats are to land development may even be faster but regardless Phoenix is a city of about 50 square miles of land being taken up by housing and commercial property so seeing our wild life is getting harder and harder to come by. Sure we see coyotes all over the place and I'm pretty far north of the city proper so still a lot of desert surrounding me but javelina, coyotes, snakes are still pretty common. Wild horses have become very rare indeed. I may go back with camera in hand and try and find them again. I played that golf course at least 50 times as it was a development that shortly went bankrupt and only two houses around this nice golf course that still does not have club house built yet. It's very open land and about 15 miles east of me. I been in this house 18 years and I still see 3 out of the 5 really big owls that used to hang out here all the time. They come back now about 3 times a year. What's funny is you know there back too. They are huge and make a lot of noise at night. Lol I go outside with the little dog at night when they are around. Years ago they got a neighbors for breakfast. A lot has changed here in the Southwest over the years but this was extremely rare. I was telling this last night in a restaurant bar and a few folks are going to take a ride out there and see if they can run into them. I could kill myself for not grabbing my iPhone when I got out of the cart. I just was taken aback that it did not even register in my brain. I have to go back and see if I can find them again. I asked the golf attendants about it and they been hanging out for about three years but they still rarely see them. What gets me is there are a ton of ranches up there and no one has tried to capture them. I guess others just leave them alone. Which is great, it brings back some of those Wild West movies we enjoyed as youngsters.

 

[D&A]

Here back east we have a bit of history with wild ponies that exisits to this day. They are the well known Chincoteague Ponies, which make their home on the Virginia/Maryland border and there is a well known round-up of some of them each year. The origin of these ponies is not exactly known but may either be related to the early settlers to this region or descendants of the suvivors of a Spanish galleon which wrecked off the coast of Assateaque island nearby.

You should definitely go back some time for a possible sighting of them.

Here is a link to the history and a few images of the Chincoteague Ponies: (with additional links to pics of their round-up)

Chincoteague Ponies

Dave (D&A)