AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A beloved wild horse known for his disdain for fences has died. The stallion was named JW, and he lived in North Carolina's Outer Banks. But JW was fondly known by the nickname Jumper because of his habit of jumping the fence at a local park - a skill that he passed on to other horses, too. Jumper lived well into his 30s, which is a long life for a horse. But he fell ill, and one of the people who helped take care of him in his final days was Meg Puckett of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. It works to protect and care for the area's wild horses. And Meg wrote a remembrance of Jumper. She's here with us now. Hi, Meg. I'm so sorry about Jumper.
MEG PUCKETT: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. He lived a long, wonderful life.
CHANG: So what was he like? I mean, he was obviously notable because of his nickname.
PUCKETT: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
CHANG: (Laughter).
PUCKETT: So he - there's a little county park, you know, where the horses live up in that habitat. There are houses, but there's no paved roads, and so it's very rough. But there is a - there's a county park, and there's about a 3-1/2-foot-high fence around it, and that's primarily to keep vehicles out of the park. But Jumper jumped it (laughter). And so that was a very common phone call that we would get - you know, 'cause sometimes every day, multiple times a day - that there's a horse stuck in the park. And so we would always have to, you know, explain to people, he's not stuck. He jumped in, and he can jump out. So...
CHANG: I love that.
PUCKETT: ...You know, he was one of those horses that we...
CHANG: He refused to be straitjacketed by your rules.
PUCKETT: That's right. You know, we would go in and kind of move him out, open the gate and get him to go out, and as soon as we turned our back, he would be jumping right back in there. So, you know, it was kind of futile to try and keep him out of there.
CHANG: I'm just trying to picture Jumper interacting with the other wild horses there. What was that like? What was the dynamic like?
PUCKETT: One of the things about JW is that in the time that I knew him, he was a bachelor.
CHANG: (Laughter).
PUCKETT: He never had mares. He never had a group of mares with him for...
CHANG: Yeah.
PUCKETT: ...The whole time that I knew him. But he had his friends that he hung out with, you know? And so a lot of times it was the older stallions that - they had known each other their whole lives. And then sometimes, it was the younger stallions. And so that's always really neat to watch. These older stallions join up with the younger colts that have just recently kind of been kicked away from their mom. And they really do teach the youngsters how to behave, you know, and how to act...
CHANG: Yeah.
PUCKETT: ...Like a grown-up stallion. And they play fight. They learn manners. They learn how to interact around each other. You know, you just think, there's always going to be a little part of JW in those colts that he was with. It's - in a way, they never die.
CHANG: Yeah.
PUCKETT: And so that's really special.
CHANG: Well, in your remembrance of Jumper that you wrote on Facebook, you said that there's a particular quote that gives you solace. This quote is from the environmental writer Rachel Carson. And she wrote, those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There's something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night and spring after winter.
Can you talk about why that quote particularly resonates with you?
PUCKETT: Sure. You know, we have, you know, over a hundred horses in this herd. There's always, you know, old horses that are going to be passing away and baby horses that are going to be born. And there's a great comfort in that, especially when you're saying goodbye to a horse that you loved and that you were attached to. And...
CHANG: So true.
PUCKETT: ... You know, it can be very hard. And we - with a population this large, we go through that a lot, you know? And so you really have to learn how to cope with that and how to come to terms with it and live with it.
CHANG: The world keeps on regenerating.
PUCKETT: Yeah.
CHANG: Meg Puckett is director of herd management at the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and memories with us.
PUCKETT: Thank you for having me. It's great to come in and talk about him.
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