A Utah man said his life was 'down in the dumps' until his horse that was lost for 8 years returned home

• A Utah man who had "lost everything" is celebrating the return of his horse that escaped eight years ago.
• Shane Adams said that Mongo ran away to join a herd of mustangs when the two were camping.

Shane Adams got his first pony at three years old and has been riding on trails as long as he can remember.

To him, ponies and horses were part of "just enjoying life," the 40-year-old from Fielding, Utah, told Insider. When his horse Mongo ran off during a camping trip eight years ago after seeing a herd of mustangs pass by, Adams was left devastated.

Adams said he got Mongo when he was in his late-20s living with a couple of roommates who also had horses that Mongo seemed to dwarf.

"He was big," Adams said. "He was just a horse that just made all my friends' ones look tiny. And yeah, he was just a big monster, you know. He had a really cool, calm personality."

Adams said he took Mongo camping in West Desert every year. He never thought Mongo would try to get loose, even if a herd of mustangs ran by – as they did eight years ago when Mongo ran off to join them.

"I never even thought about it. I heard about people having issues with it in the past and horses breaking loose or whatever, and then they were able to go back and get it," Adams said, adding that Mongo "would never even run around for" mustangs in the past.

After Mongo ran off, Adams said he returned to West Desert regularly to look for the horse but eventually lost hope he would ever find him. He told KUTV that "never in my life" did he expect to be contacted by the Bureau of Land Management, who said they located Mongo during a roundup in Tooele County in September. An inspector said the brand on Mongo matched the description Adams had given eight years prior when he reported Mongo missing, Adams told Insider.

Adams said he drove over three hours from his home in Fielding to retrieve Mongo, who he said didn't seem to recognize him immediately but still remembered his training from years prior.

"I hurried up, hooked up my trailer, and was ready to go," Adams told Insider. "He was really cool when we got him and loaded him in the trailer and stuff. He was really good. He remembered all of his trailer manners... backed out nice and slow, walked in nice and slow."

Mongo, who Adams previously referred to as a "big monster," is healthy aside from being a few hundred pounds underweight, Adams said.

"You can't see it now because he's skinny," he said. "I've been feeding him a lot. He eats a lot because he lost a lot of weight. He used to weigh 1,550 lbs."

Adams said the most "inspiring" part of his story was reuniting Mongo with his kids, now 8 and 11 years old, who knew Mongo growing up from pictures and songs they made up about him. On his way back to his home in Fielding where he lives with his mother, Adams stopped by his ex-wife's home, where his children live.

"My little girl came out, and she climbed up on the trailer. She had seen him and was like, 'That's Mongo.' And then my son, my ex-wife pulled up in the car, and my son got down, and he's like, 'There's no way. That's Mongo.'"

Since losing Mongo, Adams said he'd gotten divorced, lost his house, and became disabled after a car accident. Adams said he hopes Mongo's return is a sign that things are turning around for him.

"My life is like down in the dumps, like the car accident. I lost my house, I lost everything," Adams said. "I got my horse back though."