IMAGE's Story

Cougar’s Miracle Image

In a mountain valley somewhere on Bald Mountain Herd Management Area, a new life begins; the little bay filly opens her eyes for the first time. She discovers the tall mountains, the sagebrush and her wild herd that she is born into. This filly is born with instincts that a domestic horse will never know; she has the blood of her ancestors running through her veins as she grows stronger every day. The herd teaches her to run with all her heart from any danger, this will help to keep her alive.


Her home is also home to the Mountain lions, she lives in constant threat from them. One nice warm day about the herd approaches a water hole, before moving on to the next grazing spot. The mare and little filly walk to the water, at that exact moment the lead mare catches the smell of the cougar. She snorts and bolts away from the danger, but it is too late, the cougar pounces at the closest horse. It is the little bay filly, the cougar swipes her with one paw and knocks the filly sideways, and miraculously she keeps her feet, and runs off with the rest of her herd. But the little filly has not escaped without injury. Her right hind leg burns with pain, and she is limping. The cat tore muscles, skin and sinew off her leg. But the filly has a will to live, she fights the pain, the soreness, the desire to lay down and just give up.
She is in tremendous pain, as she follows the herd for the next several months. Finally her leg begins to heal it leaves her muscles bunched up and a huge scar.

In January, helicopters come and chase the herd to a trap site. Then she is processed and sent to the Palomino Valley Corrals. No one has noticed the scar as of yet.



After spending a couple of months at PVC, she is selected to become one of the Extreme Mustang Makeover horses in the Tennessee Eastern Stampede. So she is shipped to Elm Creek, then on to Cross Plains, Tennessee, where the youth trainer that was selected to train her for the EMM awaits to bring to North Carolina.
Once again she is loaded into a trailer and comes to Casar, NC to live for the next 100 days. She sees mountains again, but it is not her home mountains where she lived with her herd.

The little filly is scared and doesn’t understand what this boy wants of her; he is an enemy to her, just like the mountain lion that almost ended her life when she was so little, so she runs like her mother taught her to do. After a few minutes, the little filly realizes that the boy is controlling her and making her move. This greatly puzzles her, so she stops, and thinks about this, licking her lips and chewing it over in her mind.

The boy speaks to her in a nice calm steady voice, she cocks an ear toward him, she likes his voice, it is calming. Maybe, just maybe she thinks, this strange two-legged creature isn’t going to hurt her. She takes a step closer, then another… Finally she reaches up and sniffs his hand. She bolts away, but then realizes that the creature didn’t come after her, he just stood there. Hmm, she thinks, what is up with this? She sniffs him again, this time he touches her nose. She likes the feel of his touch, so she takes another step closer, then another, as he is rubbing her face. She likes the way the boy is talking to her.

This boy sees her scar, but doesn’t think it is ugly, but instead thinks it is like a tattoo, but with a much better story. This scar is a tribute to the hardiness of the mustang horse. It shows how this breed has survived in the wild for hundreds of years. It makes me proud to say that I am the proud adopter of 8 BLM mustangs. They have more grit in one hoof than most domestic horses have in their entire body. Our mustangs survive countless dangers on the range, due to that they know how to handle their body, they know where to put their feet, and they will survive.

Please continue to follow the progress of Brady Hickman and Cougar’s Miracle Image through the competition in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on October 23-25. Maybe if you attend you can be the lucky one to win the adoption bid on Cougar’s Miracle Image and take a Miracle home with you.

Written by Janet Hickman. I do not know if the events about the cougar attack are true or not, but this is my imagination of what happened to Cougar’s Miracle Image.