America Loves Rune Nevada
Rune Nevada is a beautiful blue roan American Mustang. Rune was captured from his family herd in the winter of 2009 as a wild, 2-year-old bachelor stallion. Today his family still lives in the Rocky Hills Herd management area just south of Elko and Battle Mountain, Nevada.
The horses captured that day were a part of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Mustang Herd Control Program. After freeze brand numbers had been applied to the necks of the horses, they were sent to a BLM holding facility in Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma, There Rune waited for over a year in holding before being selected by a Texas cowboy to be a part of the Mustang Heritage Foundation’s Mustang Adoption Awareness Program. After completing his training, Rune was sent to work on a West Texas cattle and horse ranch.
In the summer of 2014, Rune met his new human partner, Teresa Leigh. To help Rune recover from his previous human encounter, Teresa focused the first 6 months on groundwork and patience, allowing Rune time to settle into his new life. They spent hours together learning and gaining trust. But Rune was not an ordinary horse. He was not just different; he was exceptional.
To support Rune’s sense of humor and expanding curiosity, Teresa started by offering him different items to first to touch, then hold, and then retrieve. Remarkably, Rune was soon able to identify red, blue and yellow colored objects with total accuracy. Next, Rune demonstrated his ability to learn and identify items by name – his toy duck, bunny, chicken, Frisbee, small red ball and one of his favorites, a stuffed toy named Larry the Lobster. The next huge leap in Rune’s learning development was the complex, artistic task of holding the handle of a homemade paintbrush and targeting (touching) a blank canvas. Rune quickly learned to connect the brush with paint, canvas, and movement, and a star was born!
As an artist, Rune is accomplished in both acrylics and watercolors; he likes to use his specially made paintbrushes for different types of painting applications. Rune truly loves to paint.
Rune’s paintings – Father Dancing, Night of the Cougar, Deep Water Play and Little Brown Colt – are evoked by memories he is trying to convey to Teresa from his life in the Nevada desert and from the experiences of a mustang living wild in the American West. Displayed on the back of each painting is Rune’s authentication stamp and the memory-inspired title.
Rune is recognized as one of the very few high-functioning horses in the world, performing an astounding
100 tricks and learning more! He can perform either at liberty* or under saddle, including bareback and tackless riding. Rune’s distinct ability to learn at such an accelerated pace will impress and inspire.
Rune Nevada truly exemplifies the qualities of the American Mustang.