Kate MacDonald-Special to the Sun

Ranger, a six-year-old mustang, was tied to a tree in the forest for months without adequate food or water. But he's in horse heaven now - an earthly one, in Southlake, with other mustangs and even a couple of burros for company, with lots of fresh hay and even a lake view.

"He was skin and bones," said Karen Knippel, a Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program volunteer. "He had dull eyes and was lethargic. He was barely hanging on."

Nadia Lane shows off a much healthier and happier Ranger, a mustang saved from oblivion.

Ranger's story is one as tangled as a mustang's tail and is an example of how adopted BLM horses and burros can fall through the cracks of the system, starting out with a good home but ending up in a bad way.

He was originally captured from the rangeland and offered for adoption at the Ridgecrest BLM wild horse and burro facility. He was adopted and trained to carry a rider. But one day, Ranger spooked, maybe because he wasn't ready to handle the traffic on the road. His rider bailed off and broke a collarbone, Knippel said. The adopter lost his confidence with the horse, and began asking if anyone wanted him, so the Knippels offered to house him temporarily. During that time, Knippel worked with the horse and found him friendly and easygoing.

A BLM employee then said she would take Ranger, and the Knippels and the original adopter, feeling the horse would be going to a good home, agreed. But the BLM employee passed him along to a relative, who then sold Ranger to a man from Bakersfield, identified only as "Paco." Paco moved Ranger and three Great Dane dogs to a piece of property he'd purchased in Wagy Flats. He tied Ranger to a log, and left some hay and a bucket of water. Ranger was supposed to be able to drag the log and move to a nearby creek to drink, but Knippel said, "He was being stalked by a cougar. There were paw prints all over down by the creek. He was scared to go down there to drink."

Paco brought a bale of hay every week, and apparently thought he was providing adequate care. But it was "horse hell," Knippel said. She thinks that if not for the company of the three Great Danes left in the forest with him, "he would have been cat food."

Months went by while Ranger tried to survive, alone in the forest. The situation was finally brought to the attention of authorities when Kern County Sheriff's deputy Daures Stevens went to the area on a domestic complaint. A citizen approached him and explained about the horse and dogs apparently abandoned in the nearby forest. Office Stevens checked it out an immediately notified Animal Control.

Animal Control's Tracy Wolfe drove up to check on the condition of the animals. "He was actually tied to a log," Wolfe said. "He was 50 to 100 pounds underweight. He had no water, but there was a stream nearby."

Wolfe also noticed the freeze-brand on Ranger's neck that identifies him as a BLM mustang. She contacted Dennis Knippel. He is the Wild Horse and Burros specialist for the BLM, the government agency that has authority over the wild herds, and he is Karen Knippel's husband.

Dennis Knippel shaved the mustang's neck to better see the brand and it verified what he and his wife already suspected. This was Ranger, the horse that had spent time in his own backyard. But since the original owner had completed the one-year adoption and had legal title to the horse, the BLM no longer had any authority over it. So it was a matter for Animal Control, and Wolfe tracked down Paco and advised him to correct the situation. Under the law, horses need to be fed and watered at least every 18 hours. But Paco "didn't take the recommendation" to improve the care of the horse and dogs. "He wasn't intentionally neglectful, it was just ignorance," Wolfe said. "He just didn't know." When the situation didn't improve for Ranger in a week, Animal Control seized the animals. Ranger was brought to the shelter in Southlake.

When a horse is seized by Animal Control and the owner signs a release, it is then sold at public auction. The Knippels knew that could mean the end for Ranger. "Either being sold by the pound for dogfood, or to another (irresponsible owner)," Karen Knippel said. She feared Ranger would end up with someone whose training methods include "starving it or beating it into submission, using cruel methods of control." She contacted Nadia and Joe Lane of Southlake, knowing they might be interested in rescuing Ranger; they had adopted several mustangs. But the law is the law, and everyone thought that there was no way around the rule that once seized, Ranger must go to auction.

At first Nadia Lane was afraid to even go see Ranger, who was practically in her backyard as their home is located just a short distance from the animal shelter. "I was horrified when I heard (Ranger's story),"she said. "I didn't want to see him and get my heart broken if we couldn't save him." But she did go see Ranger. "He was super thin, but calm and friendly. We really liked him. I couldn't stop thinking about him."

Several weeks went by while Ranger waited in limbo at the shelter.

"One Sunday, I said to Joe, I'm not going to be afraid, I'm going out there and love him. He needs a friend." Twenty minutes later, Karen Knippel called with good news. Wolfe and Debra Anson, who runs the shelter, had researched the codebook and found a way that Ranger could be sold to the Lanes. It only took a few days to complete the transaction. On June 18, Joe Lane walked over to the shelter and led Ranger to his new home.

"He loves it here," Lane said. Ranger now has some company, both horse and human. The Lanes have 10 mustangs including Ranger, two donkeys (named Willie and Nelson) and four ranch horses. He's got a nice safe pipe corral and there's a five-acre pasture to stretch his legs.

"My whole spirit is connected to being with and speaking softly with these horses," Lane said. She even lies down with her mustangs when they're napping. She and her husband hope to use their place in the future for natural horsemanship clinics, to help mustang adopters get their horses trained gently.

"This horse thing. It's so much cooler and more interesting with wild horses. How special - a wild animal that teams up with you and chooses to spend time with you," she said.

So Ranger's story has a happy ending. "He'll grow up to be a trail or pleasure horse. He's part of the family. We'll just enjoy him," Lane said.

"The fact that he's a mustang is the only reason he survived his ordeal," Karen Knippel said. "But the reason there's a good ending is because of the teamwork from the BLM and Animal Control. Tracy and Debra should be commended for going to such lengths to save Ranger."