Eight years ago, Shane Adams’ horse, Mongo, ran away while he was on a camping trip in Utah. Mongo was 10 years old when the urge to run with wild horses took over, and he broke free from his tether to join a herd of mustangs that passed by during the night while Adams was sleeping in a tent.

Adams told the Washington Post that he tried to chase after his horse, and then drove around the area in what proved to be a fruitless search. For years, he refused to give up, he explained:

“Then I went back every weekend for three years to see if he was there. I reported him missing and tried every person I could to find him. But I never saw Mongo again.”

Fast forward to September 2022 – Mongo was discovered when the Bureau of Land Management found him at the Cedar Mountain Management Area. According to KUTV News, BLM managers noticed that one horse appeared to be trained, and then they discovered that he had been branded. Years earlier, Adams had reported the horse missing to the bureau and that enabled the agency to return Mongo to his rightful owner.

According to Adams, aside from being “a few hundred pounds” lighter, Mongo is the same, seemingly unchanged by his years with the wild herd. Adams said that the horse “acts like nothing ever happened.”

(Stock images via Pixabay)