Lori’s second part to her day with Shawn! Thanks Lori! You can also read Shawn’s post from the day by clicking on SHAWN.
Sandy
I would like to start the second half of my report by thanking Shawn and his “co-pilot” Malakai for inviting me on this trip and for the enjoyable time I had. Malaki is a very well behaved Pup and quite beautiful! Thank you Shawn!!! You also are a great “spotter” as you were the one who spotted most of the bands, and found the best way to hike out to them!
After we all had our lunch, including Malakai, we decided to hike around the area where we had heard a horse “noise” while we were visiting with Santa Fe & Two Boots.
I am glad that we did because we came upon Mescalero, Rosarita and Polaris. They all looked to be in fine shape and spent most of their time grazing. We decided to leave them to their grazing and head on down BT road. I was just in awe of how gorgeous these three horses are!
Our next quest was to hike out to the water guzzler where we had seen White Cloud and his harem. It ended up being the location where we observed most of the horses.
First we spotted Grijala, Quelle Colour, and Kohl. We did not see Kindra with them. They were very uneasy with us at first ,so we did not get any closer.
After a little while they just went back to grazing, and then they moved up the ridge.
We moved on because I wanted to check the water guzzler to see if there was any water in it, and there was. I do hope that the Pryor’s get some more moisture though because it is still quite dry out on the range.
Next we saw White Cloud and his harem: Feldspar, Inocentes, Aztec & Mica.
Mica would wander further away from his family and when he got too far away Cloud would run over and snake him back to where he belonged.
They did not seem to mind us being there, and we just quietly watched the group as they grazed. It seemed to me that Mica was interested in Missoula who’s family was just heading to the water guzzler.
We watched as Teton brought his harem up to the water. They were a little cautious of us, even though we were a distance from the guzzler.
I have to respect and admire Teton as I watched him make sure that Missoula kept up with the rest of the family. It was very touching to witness this silent language between the two. He has managed to keep his family together for quite some time now and still has Phoenix, Half Moon with Missoula, and War Bonnet. I pray that Missoula will be able to live his life out wild and free on the range. He is a beautiful horse!
We decided to move on and hike to another area where we spotted Gringo, a very pregnant Jacinta, Beulah, Galadrial and Ketchikan. Shawn and Malakai hiked out to see if he could spot anyone else, while I found a log to sit on and quietly spent some time with this group. They went about their business like I was not even there. I would not be surprised to see a foal from Jacinta very soon. She seemed uncomfortable.
It was time to head back to the vehicle, but we took the long way back because Shawn wanted to show me where one of the mineral “lick’s” were located.
When we were just about to the spot, we saw Doc, Demure, Broken Bow and Mandan. Doc was resting, and even though we were not very close he decided to gather his family together and move on. We waited in silence and just watched them. After they had gone out of site we continued on and back to the vehicle. It was time to head down.
What a wonderful and blessed day I had. I thanked God, Shawn, Malakai, and the wild horses for this special and meaningful experience!
I hope to go again soon!
Lori
Thanks for the update Lori. Glad you got to go up on the mountain with Shawn. And thank you to Sandy for posting this and keeping us all updated.
Thanks Lola. I hope to get up there again soon…but first I need to go out to the DH and hike around there. I just love the DH horses, not that I don’t love the others, but I have visited with them more often and actually they are my favorites. I am hoping to see Merlin and many of the others that I have not seen for quite awhile now.
Sandy, Mica is such a beautiful horse! What are blood lines of these horses, do you know? I’ve never seen a horse with that kind of coloring and marking before.
Julie Great job on the blog! Love it!
Thank you Julie! I am going to give you a link to the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center. This link tells the history of these very special horses. Thanks again! http://www.pryormustangs.org/about_horses.shtml
I’m glad you got to go up BT! I also hope Missoula gets to live out his life on the range too. I think the fact that he has ended up being flaxen will help his case if there’s a future removal. I had hoped that him and Mica would play together since the bands were close, but maybe we’ll see more of that as all the bands get closer together up top. I was hoping Galadriel would be pregnant, but she doesn’t appear to be overly round. I can’t wait to see Jacinta’s foal. I hope it has a big white blaze like LaSalle.
Me too Sarah…….to all of the above!!!
I do believe that as they move up top when it is warmer those two will be running circles around the others! It will be so fun to see.
So glad you had a great day, Lori! And many thanks for sharing. 🙂 I only wish there was still snow out there—just not real deep—for moisture. But maybe spring will bring plenty of rain. 🙂 Nice to see the families keeping together. I’m not surprised at Mica being pretty precocious and keeping Cloud busy “bringing him back”. He was already running out in front of the family to check things out when I saw him at the end of last June. As with many human families, now I guess Cloud knows what HIS father went thru. 🙂 I can hardly wait to see how he looks when he stops changing color. 🙂
It’s good to see that most of the horses are looking pretty good coming into spring. They should make it now, even if there are a couple of freak snowstorms to contend with.
Thanks again for doing the footwork. 🙂
Haha you are so right about Cloud and Mica! I hadn’t thought of that 🙂 I can’t wait to see what he looks like too as he sheds out this summer!
Thanks Linda! We just had some snow and it has already melted into the ground, at least at our home. I don’t now about the range, but I am going to take a ride out there this week (Dry Head) and check it out. We are supposed to have more Wednesday, so hopefully this is helping the range.
I know, I remember Mica last June too…I have some good pictures of him as a little one!! He is for sure very inquisitive and always is a distance from his family. He is a very independent little guy, and it is funny that Cloud is always having to go retrieve him. HA!
Yes, the horses are looking pretty good, with a few exceptions, but Shawn’s photo of HIghtail made me happy because she already looks better than the last time I saw her.
I did notice too that Hightail looked better. I think she’ll be ok.