SPIRIT.

The true essence of the untamed west, Spirit was born into the Cimarron herd, as the only foal of the lead stallion Strider's mare, Esperenza. From a young age he showed his father's reckless courage and impressive speed, and was often quite the handful for his mother to look after.His foalhood was mostly uneventful, up until he grew into a beautiful stallion with a golden coat and dark locks. By then, Spirit had become leader in his father's place. He was tasked with the responsiblity of looking after mares and foals of the herd, and protecting it from danger. Unfortunately, at that time the horses of the old west were facing much newer threats than mother nature and cougars alone.At that time, humans were still adapting to the nature of the west's dry terrain, and a transcontinental railroad was in the process of being completed. One clear night, Spirit noticed a distant bonfire and the sound of music being played far into the distance. Against his mother's advice, the stallion immediately went to investigate—and found himself face to face with a band of sleeping human rustlers.With no prior knowledge with the strange twolegs, Spirit's curiosity got the best of him and he woke up the band, beginning a chase on horseback. In order to keep the humans from discovering the rest of his herd, the young stallion fled into the canyons—where, to his shock, he was lassoed and captured.With ropes tied around his head, Spirit was torn away from his homeland and dragged across the badlands. He was eventually brought to an American Fort, where soldiers attempted to break him into submission. It was only with the help of a captive Native American, by the name of Little Creek, that he managed to escape.Reluctantly the stallion was taken to a village by Little Creek and his companions—where he lived for several months with a young mare by the name of Rain. Despite his previous intentions, Spirit began to grow ever understanding of the people of the village and developed feelings for the paint mare. However, Spirit was still ever hopeful to return home--and it seemed that he may have finally gotten the chance to, had the cavalry not attacked Little Creek's village.During the attack, Rain was injured, and Spirit was once again pried away by the cavalry men as she lay close to dying. Heartbroken, the once proud horse allowed himself to be sent to a camp near the mountains, where he would be used to pull one of the trains uphill across the near-complete transcontinental railroad.He was reinvigorated by the call of the wind and the thoughts of reuniting with his herd--his family. And when Spirit realized that the humans were building into his homeland, the horse began to fight back, and thought up a trick in order to escape his tack and free the other horses pulling the train. Through a series of events, Spirit was not only managed to escape the camp, but reunite with Little Creek as well, and the two began to fight for one last push for freedom from the Cavalry.It proved successful. The two were chased into the canyons by Cavalry soldiers, until Spirit made a final leap of faith over a ravine to safety. His insurmountable determination earned the respect of the Colonel, who allowed both boys to go free.After over a year's worth of separation from his herd, Spirit was finally able to return home. But not before Little Creek brought him back one final time to his village. There, Rain emerged from the smoke, having survived her injury. Little Creek set the mare free to live with Spirit, and the two horses said their goodbyes to their human companion and made their way back home.The year-long adventure proved to change Spirit's outlook on life forever. Having returned to his herd with Rain, the leader of the Cimarron herd does whatever he can to keep his loved ones safe as more humans continue to flood into the West. He will defend their freedom for future generations.