By Deb Sutherland, Volunteer
(Dec 15, 2022) Trident was born one hot summer day in 2015 in the foothills of the Virginia Range just a few months before his sire Bodie Braveheart died. The first time I saw him he was a tiny foal only a few hours old and was close to his dam Pinkie while his sire Bodie stood watch where they rested. He was a cute little colt with a small crooked triangle star on his forehead and a right hind sock.
He grew up in Bodie Braveheart’s band surrounded by his loving family, which included his older sister Spats, and younger sister Sandra, along with his half-siblings, Rapunzel and Steener. Trident had already become a bachelor by the time his half-brothers PJ, Sherwin, and Paulo were born but now they share the range near each other.
After Trident became a bachelor I would see him run around the range alone most of the time but then I lost track of him and wondered where he went. While I was documenting Two Socks’ band last year I discovered Trident was the Lieutenant for Two Socks, he was his “bodyguard”! Trident’s job was to do the fighting to protect the band and his body displayed the fight marks. Then I realized that Two Socks was getting old and couldn’t handle much fighting. I thought this was kind of amusing because Trident’s sire Bodie Braveheart and Two Socks were rival stallions a decade ago and were always fighting with each other.
A few weeks ago I witnessed how powerful Trident has become when I watched him fight Stockton! Stockton had recently lost his band to Black Hawk and was stalking Two Socks’ band trying to take it over. Trident finally got tired of him and the two fought while Two Socks shuffled his band away from the dueling duo. Trident won that round and Stockton ran off.
During a recent snowstorm I observed Two Socks wandering around the snow-covered range alone crying out for his band, they were gone! I have never seen Two Socks without his band in over a decade. I soon found his band that Stockton had managed to take over, but not for long! Trident tracked down Stockton and again they fought and Trident claimed Two Socks’ band for himself. Time will tell if Trident will allow Two Socks to rejoin the band and share the responsibilities as it has been in the past several years, or if Trident will remain their new band stallion.
Who knows, maybe Stockton will give it another try but I doubt it. It’s been amazing to watch Trident grow from a tiny foal into such a powerful band stallion.
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