Loading ...the internationally important genetic resource represented by the Ghost Wind Appaloosa breed of horses.
This horse was of legendary importance to the Nez Perce tribes of the Pacific Northwest. When the U.S. Cavalry battled the Nez Perce in the 1800’s they concluded that they would need to extinquish the Ghost Wind horses and remove all traces of its ancestry if they wanted to be victorious. By the time that Chief Joseph surrendered to the U.S. Cavalry in 1877, almost all of the blood of the Ghost Wind horses had been spilled. One account suggests that the mighty Ghost River breed was given a second chance to escape extinction as some U.S. soldiers spared the best appaloosas and transported them to New York State. Later, in the 1950’s, a dedicated horse breeder in Michigan, Frank Scripter, succeeded in preserving an appaloosa bloodline that linked directly back to the famous horses of the Nez Perce tribes. This bloodline was later transferred to a dedicated breeder, Gerry Messer, in Washington State.
On his deathbed, Messer had only one wish – to keep the Nez Perce appalloosa bloodline alive. And that is where Bill and Joanne Greenwood of Saskatchewan enter the picture. In 2010 they got a call that Gerry Messer was gravely ill and his wish was that the Greenwoods would assume responsibility for his prized foundation stallion, Apache Kid Galahed. In Bill’s words, “At that time we made an agreement – it wasnt a contract – but it was a handshake between friends that I would look after the horse and make sure the breed did’nt disappear”. The Greenwoods, at their location near Odessa, Saskatchewan, are part of “The Appaloosa Project” a worldwide initiative by American and Canadian researchers to investigate the nature of appaloosa genetics. The Greenwood ranch website is linked below.
This is a good news story, accomplished across an international border, and based on a handshake between horse breeder friends.