- Jan 29, 2011
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The Pryor Mountains -
The Pryor Mountains, named for Nathaniel Hale Pryor of the Lewis and Clark expedition and called the Hitting Rock Mountains by the Crow people, is a mountain range in southern Montana and northern Wyoming. Feral horses are documented as living in the Pryor Mountains by the early 1700s, although they may have been there since the late 1600s.
Thousands of feral horses lived in the area by the time
American pioneersbegan settling near the Pryor Mountains in the late 1800s
. Between then and the 1930s, many domesticated horses were turned loose on the range, accidentally or on purpose; domesticated stallions were turned out to mate with mares on the range with the goal of producing cavalry remounts for the military.
In the early 1900s, many of the unbranded horses were rounded up, to allow domesticated livestock to graze the range without competition, and by 1964 there were only around 200 horses left. It was widely believed that the Pryor Mountains horses were direct descendants of the Barb horses brought to North America by Juan de Oñate's expedition to explore America north of the Rio Grande in the early 1600s. Bloodlines may also include American Saddlebred, Canadian, Irish Hobby, and Tennessee Walking horses. In the early 1900s, stallions of Thoroughbred and Arabian ancestry were also turned out onto the range. However, the breeding of the Pryor Mountain herd was in dispute for many years. One horseman hired by the federal government during the 1920s to round up excess feral horses on the range stated, "The whole country around was overrun with thousands of homesteaders' horses ... but this little band... were, and are, the genuine Spanish horses and there were about 70 head. I did not try to get them and hoped that no one else ever would." Other people claimed that the horses were nothing more than local domestic horses which had escaped to the wild. Studies, however, have shown that the horses are indeed mainly descended from Spanish Barb.
( source = wikipedia; information listed is not my own, all credit goes to the original author(s) )The Crow Nation -
The Crow, called the Apsáalooke in their own Siouan language, or variants including Absaroka, are Native Americans, who in historical times lived in the Yellowstone River valley, which extends from present-day Wyoming, through Montana and into North Dakota, where it joins the Missouri River. Today, they are enrolled in the federally recognized Crow Tribe of Montana.
Pressured by the Ojibwe and Cree peoples (the Iron Confederacy), who had earlier and better access to guns through the fur trade, they had migrated there from the Ohio Eastern Woodland area via a southwest move to settle south of Lake Winnipeg, Canada. From there, they were pushed to the west by the Cheyennes. Both the Crow and the Cheyennes were then pushed farther west by the Lakota (Sioux), who took over the territory from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Montana; the Cheyennes finally became close allies of the Sioux, but the Crows remained bitter enemies of both Sioux and Cheyennes. The Crow were generally friendly with the whites and managed to retain a large reservation of over 9300 sq km despite territorial losses.
Since the 19th century, Crow people have been concentrated on their reservation established south of Billings, Montana. They also live in several major, mainly western, cities. Tribal headquarters are located at Crow Agency, Montana.
( source = wikipedia; information listed is not my own, all credit goes to the original author(s) )
United States Army Remount Service & Fort Keogh -
A part of the Quartermaster Corps, the U.S. Army Remount Service provided horses to U.S. Army units. Evolving from both the Remount Service of the Quartermaster Corps and a general horse breeding program under the control of the Department of Agriculture, the Remount Service began systematically breeding horses for the United States Cavalry in 1918. It remained in operation until 1948, when all animal breeding programs returned to Department of Agriculture control.
Fort Keogh is a former United States Army post located on the western edge of today's Miles City, Montana. It is situated on the south bank of the Yellowstone River at the mouth of the Tongue River.
In the wake of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Col. Nelson A. Miles founded the post in August 1876 as a base for cavalry patrols, to prevent the Cheyenne and Sioux involved in the battle from escaping to Canada. It was originally called the Tongue River Cantonment for the first year or so. When relocated a mile away it was renamed Fort Keogh in honor of Captain Myles Keogh, who died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In 1877 the fort became the headquarters for the newly created military district, the District of the Yellowstone (a sub-unit of the Department of Dakota), commanded by Miles. He was promoted to brigadier general in September the same year.
In 1900, the infantry and cavalry post at Fort Keogh became an army remount station. Infantry troops were withdrawn from the fort in 1907. During World War I, Fort Keogh served as a quartermaster's depot. The Fort Keogh remount station processed more horses for World War I than any other post, shipping them all over the world.
( source = wikipedia; information listed is not my own, all credit goes to the original author(s) )
Plot -
The year is 1914. You are just one of the hundreds of Pryor Mustangs who roam the lush plains of the west, and a descendant of the great Spanish horses who were given the opportunity to be among some of the first foreign creatures to set foot on American soil. Life can be tough, the winters long and bitter, and summers blazing hot. Every spring, a new challenge arises; you must always be on your toes for bachelor stallions who may want to fight you or take you away from your herd. There are even humans out there who want you, or your offspring, for their own selfish needs.
Life, however, can be just as rewarding and wonderful as it is dangerous. You learn how to cope with its negativity by creating bonds, forming alliances and herds, siring the next generations, and learning important lessons. Heck, life can even be fun if you want it to be. You have what feels like the entire earth to stride in the plains, friends at your side, foothills to explore, dirt to roll in, water to bathe in.
Aside from having to evade the constant threat of other creatures and your own kin, maybe being a Mustang isn't so terrible after all.
Rules -
➟ All BYC rules apply
➟ Keep things clean. Some violence is allowed, so long as it's kept fairly PG-ish. Explicit (you know what I mean, ahem) stuff does not belong here. Horses can breed, yes, but you don't need to go into detail at all (seriously guys, ew). I also ask of you to refrain from cussing, as that's the law all over this website, but it you absolutely must, you need to censor it fully.
➟ Please be realistic. No magical sparkle ponies, kawaii animu bishies, god modding, objects that do not belong to the time period, Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus, etc.
➟ These horses are all Mustangs. No Gypsy Vanners, Marwaris, Shetland ponies, Zebras, or the like, please. Some runaways and breeding horses set loose by the cavalry for their remounting programs will be accepted, however. The runaways and breeding horses must be either Thoroughbreds, Arabians, Standardbreds, Morgans, Cleveland Bays, Anglo-Arabians, Hackneys, Belgian drafts,Appaloosas, other Mustangs, or any mixture of the listed breeds, however.
➟ Try not to throw one-liners.
I understand that it is sometimes unavoidable, but when you can, be creative. That's the fun of role playing and writing.➟ Keep things clean. Some violence is allowed, so long as it's kept fairly PG-ish. Explicit (you know what I mean, ahem) stuff does not belong here. Horses can breed, yes, but you don't need to go into detail at all (seriously guys, ew). I also ask of you to refrain from cussing, as that's the law all over this website, but it you absolutely must, you need to censor it fully.
➟ Please be realistic. No magical sparkle ponies, kawaii animu bishies, god modding, objects that do not belong to the time period, Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus, etc.
➟ These horses are all Mustangs. No Gypsy Vanners, Marwaris, Shetland ponies, Zebras, or the like, please. Some runaways and breeding horses set loose by the cavalry for their remounting programs will be accepted, however. The runaways and breeding horses must be either Thoroughbreds, Arabians, Standardbreds, Morgans, Cleveland Bays, Anglo-Arabians, Hackneys, Belgian drafts,Appaloosas, other Mustangs, or any mixture of the listed breeds, however.
➟ Try not to throw one-liners.
➟
Please use proper grammar, too. English isn't everybody's first language, I know, but do your best. To role play
with someone who uses nothing but text talk gets pretty annoying after a while.➟
I'm not the supreme overlord of this thread, what I say does not go 24/7. That being said, I am open to suggestions and want to make this RP fair and enjoyable for all parties involved. The only thing that I do ask of you during a disagreement, however, is that you remain polite and mature. Whining is not fun to deal with; neither is fighting.➟ Oh, and speaking about fighting, only one blow per post when role playing a fight.
➟ To check that you have read all of the rules, please type in "hi" in the "other" section of the RP forms.
➟ To check that you have read all of the rules, please type in "hi" in the "other" section of the RP forms.
Herds -
The typical herd is comprised of a lead mare, a stallion, lower ranking mares, and their foals. The stallion is in charge of keeping the herd safe from other horses (mainly bachelor stallions), and is the highest ranking horse alongside the lead mare. The lead mare is the most dominant mare in the herd. She moves the horses to new land and bodies of water, and is typically feared by her fellow mares, unless faced with yet another dominant mare. Foals will be weaned around six months, and are kicked out of the herd between 8 months and 2 years of age to prevent inbreeding. Colts form herds of their own or join other bachelor stallions, while fillies are usually snaked away.
Gold Herd:
This herd is typically more prestigious than the rest. It has been in existence for about one hundred years. Many members boast that they are among the most pure descendants of the original Spanish horses to become feral in the area, and tend to stray away from horses who do not come from nearby. Despite their haughty reputation, the Gold Herd horses are really just like any of the other herds at heart, and simply want to spread their genes and survive.Grass Herd:
One of the newer influential herds. A little mysterious, and occasionally feared by those who do not know it well, but otherwise known for having horses of a more agile and cunning stock.
Crow Herd:
The term herd, in this case, is a bit of a misnomer, or at least when one refers to it as a wild herd. Crow Herd is semi-feral, meaning the horses are free to roam and mix with theiry feral counterparts, all while remaining the Crow Nation's property. They are free to gather in corrals that open up into the mustang plains, and may sometimes interact with completely domestic horses and the members of the tribe. Every so often a young horse is taken to be trained and/or sold, and those who are released back with training may be herded up and taken on a ride. Unfortunately, the special treatment that the Crow Herd horses get sometimes has them labelled and called names by the horses with little to no human contact. If they stray from one of the Crow villages, the Crow Herd horses can be easily identified by a branding on their shoulder.
Other herds or groups:
Not all horses belong to the three influential herds; in fact, many belong to small herds known as 'bands', some of them being offshoots of each other. Bachelors, stallions who have no mares, may band together or roam alone, and you may find an occasional mare or two on their own.
Joining Forms -
You may leave these in the comments section or PM them to me. Whichever you prefer.
Name of horse:
Sex:
Herd:
Age:
Appearance (markings, body type, height, etc. Colours must be realistic):
Personality:
History:
Other:
Picture:
BYC username:
All categories are required save for the image.
Characters, Announcements, etc. -
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/at-the-feet-of-the-pryors-info-page
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any images that may be seen on this page or any of the above links, credit goes to their rightful owners. I am also not liable for those who steal images and/or claim them as theirs in the name of this
role play
game. Credit also goes for DutchGirl for introducing the idea of horse-based role plays on BYC. Thank you.
Last edited:
aranormal
