I know I said that I was only going to post one post before I left for the adoption. I have a million things I probably should be doing. But I could not stop looking at my photos that I took and decided I might as well let everyone else see them too! So here you go.
The morning of day two of our trip was a pretty quiet morning. There were not many horses out. Teton’s band walked by us in the early morning. They were joined by Mescalero and his band. We saw these two bands together the rest of our trip. They would graze together and then when one group decided to move on, the other did as well.
Missoula really seemed to like this band and hung around them fairly close. They seemed to like him too. I thought Polaris looked better than I had seen her for a long time. She has put on some weight and looks good.
Not far behind were Topper, Topper Too and Chino. The Toppers seemed to pause a tiny bit longer this time. Were they starting to get used to me? Probably not.
After watching them head towards the pond, I decided to go check on Lakota. The memorial was still intact and I added another Red Tail Hawk feather that I had found.
Amber and I saw Blue Moon and Custer’s band not too far away, napping. Instead of going down to see them we decided to head for the pond and see who we might see there.
When we arrived at the pond, there were other people there, so we decided we would rather go back and see Blue Moon and Custer. So, we saw Blue Moon on a Blue Moon, it seemed fitting!
We hiked closer to them. Here were two more bands together. Custer and Blue Moon are full brothers. I had never seen these two bands together before. I always said that they were such opposites. Custer is a devoted band stallion and very caring towards his family. Blue Moon on the other hand seems to be the exact opposite. He is the “carefree” band stallion, leaving his band often to go goof off with whatever bachelors that might be near. However, this year I felt that maybe finely Blue Moon was starting to grow up and perhaps that is why his older brother Custer choose to be near him.
We watched them for a while. Then both bands decided it was time to head towards the pond.
We watched Custer follow Blue Moon until they were out of sight in the trees. I wanted to see what Mystic Pond looked like, so we continued down the road to see it. I knew it would probably be dried up, and I was right.
Amber and I spent a few hours hiking around. Most of the horses seemed to be in the trees. It was a pretty warm day. We hiked back to Krueger Pond. The people were still there, I wondered if they were planning on staying there all day. I hated the thought of them interfering with the horses drinking so long. We decided to hike to the other pond across the road. We saw White Cloud’s band in the trees on our way there. I wished I had taken a photo of the pond, but neither Amber or I did. It was really only a big mud puddle now. We sat above it for a while, but nothing came to drink from it. After stopping to take a couple photos of Mica and Feldspar, we headed back towards our camp.
The quiet morning continued into a quiet afternoon. We did not see the other people all day. We had most of the mountain to ourselves. They must have stayed at the pond. We decided to stay away from the pond, to give the horses more space to drink from their only water source. It did not seem right to make it any more crowded.
It was early evening before we saw more horses. It was Teton’s band and Mescalero’s band, still together, heading towards us. Little Missoula was really interacting with Mescalero and Mescalero was being very patient with him. Teton did not seem to mind the interaction and kept grazing. Half Moon was not concerned either.
Coronado Band was next to come by. This time they were without Baja and his band.
It was starting to rain and almost dark when I saw Garcia, Greta and Millicent. Little Millicent was pretty far behind them and it seemed they did not care. I was worried about her. As Garcia and Greta headed into the trees, I wondered if Millicent would find them. About an hour later in the dark we heard a very long shrill whinny. It sound like a foal. I got out of the truck to look and less than a minute later I saw Garcia, Greta and Millicent, walking together. This time Garcia was staying where he should have been an hour before, behind Millicent making sure she kept up. I was sure that they had been separated. Hopefully Garcia has learned his lesson and will be more attentive.
The wind and rain started to come down harder. I hoped that it would really pour. It did rain for a couple of hours, sometimes hard, but not enough to form mud puddles.
The next day our plan was to go down Burnt Timber, visit the horses at Britton Springs and then head back up Sykes.
I will share that day with you soon.
Sandy
