‘A Morning with Mustangs’

Fun and education promised for Saturday event

The second year of an event designed to be both fun and educational will take place Saturday at the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center east of Lovell.

A Morning with Mustangs will be held on Saturday morning, Sept. 14, at the Wild Mustang Center, 1106 Road 12. The event promises to be “a fun morning with wild horses, free refreshments and games for kids,” a promotional poster states.

The fun begins at 9 a.m. with attendees invited to meet Whisper, a “miracle mustang,” and the other wild horses living at the Center. Kids will be able to travel the Wild Horse Trail and win prizes.

From 10 to 10:30 a.m., local singers Amanda Bennion and Emilie Asay will perform songs about the area.

From 10:30 a.m. to around 11:30 a.m., the keynote speaker, Dr. Tim McCleary, will present a talk about “Horses in Crow History.”

Dr. McCleary is a professor at Little Bighorn College in Crow Agency, Montana, and through his studies he has examined various aspects of the historic and contemporary culture of the Apsaalooke people (Crow Indians). He teaches a college course on the history and culture significance of horses among the Apsaalooke.

His presentation will focus on the connection between the Pryor mustangs and the Apsaalooke people.

“What we were really looking for was a bit of an end-of-summer celebration after a busy tourist season, and we wanted a way to bring the local community and the surrounding area into the Mustang Center -- just an informal celebration,” Mustang Center Director Nancy Cerroni said. “And one of our main goals is education, so we wanted to provide an educational presentation.

“This year we’re bringing in Dr. Timothy McCleary. He was recommended to us, and we thought it was a great connection with his talk on horses and Crow history. He’s very excited to come down and do this presentation for us. This land is so rich in Crow history, and it just seemed like a logical thing.

“The cool thing for me is that Reverend Schwieger (a founder of the Mustang Center) had that interest in the Crow history, as well. And he (Schwieger) was friends with Chief Joseph Medicine Crow, who was a longtime historian for the Crow people. He was one of the best-known storytellers of the Crow Indian Tribe. He was buddies with Reverend Schwieger, and McCleary knew him well. I just felt that that was a neat reason to have Timothy McCleary come, because it carries on this thread of Crow history.”

First the fun

Cerroni said families will enjoy meeting miracle horse Whisper and playing games from 9 to 10 a.m. Whisper was born on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range on September 26, 2022, and her mother died when she was just a few months old, Cerroni said, adding, “As a very young horse, her chances of survival in the wild were slim.”

Steve and Nancy Cerroni offered to take care of Whisper, and the Bureau of Land Management agreed to capture her and take her to the Cerronis’ place, which they did in January of 2023.

“She was very small and very thin and malnourished,” Cerroni said. “And we just nursed her back to health. And now it’s almost her second birthday, and she’s doing remarkable. She is always going to be small -- the Pryor horses tend to be small anyway -- but Whisper will be smaller than normal because of her malnourishment. Her growth was stunted, but she is a sweetheart. She’s very halter broke, very gentle, and she’s just a good horse to be around.”

Cerroni added that the Wild Horse Trail game is like a cake walk, with winners receiving “a horse prize.” The game was also featured at the Family Fun Night during Mustang Days.

Cerroni hopes the public will turn out.

“We really would love to have community members come and join us. There’s something for everyone,” she said. “And they can come for all or part of it. If they have small children, they can just come for the morning part of it.”