According to the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center and TCF, Ginger has discovered the first known foal to be born on the mountain for 2014. I had a feeling Waif would be one of the first to foal this year based on how large Norte was when I found him the end of April last year.
Waif and Corona had a colt. Ginger has named him Orion.
Waif, born in 1997 is the daughter of Twiggy and Cortez. Corona, born in 1997 is the son of Sorita and Sam.
Aw yay! That’s so exciting and I love the name! Can’t wait to see pictures! 🙂
Me too! 🙂
I posted this question on th NPS update post but I thought maybe I should repost it here as that post is from a few days ago-I hope you don’t mind!
Does anyone know the most recent update in regards to Demure and Mandan? I know I read somewhere this winter that they were missing from their band….
Also, has Amythyst had any other foals besides Fools Good? She was one of those “A” fillies to get the experimental PZP I believe and I know Fools Gold was born out of season…. Just wondering if she ended up having more foals (like Aztec) or just her one filly!
I know I have a lot of questions, thanks for being willing to answer them!
Hi Abbie, I have not heard of anyone seeing Demure and Mandan. But Ginger is there now, so hopefully she will see them.
In regards to Amythyst, Fools Gold is her only foal, at least the only one that is on the record books.
Ok, thank you! 🙂 hope someone does spot Demure and Mandan-they are both so lovely! That’s a shame about Amythyst-she’s such a pretty mare. Makes me wonder just exactly went wrong with that PZP administration to allow some mares to return to normal fertility (albeit much delayed!) and some to be able to conceive once or twice and at odd times of the year…. And then of course there are the mares who remain barren….
Yes, me too. Sorry it took me so long to answer your question. I wanted to spend sometime and go back and double check the records I have to make sure I knew for sure.
Yes, on the surface, PZP seems like a good answer, but when you start digging, observing and studying, I am not so sure. Of course it is still better than big removels. But at what cost? I think we need to be careful how aggressive this program gets.
I’m not saying PZP is perfect, but I believe out of season births have more to do with human error, more specifically applying it at the wrong time of year, than the drug. As far as I know, PZP has come along way since it was first used.
Out of season births is not my biggest concern about PZP, (although I don’t want them of course), and I agree it is not the fault of the drug itself. It is the other more “hidden” side effects that I think we need to watch.
True, as long as both mare and foal end up being healthy out of season births aren’t the worst side effect. Out of curiosity, what do you mean by “hidden side effects”?
I guess maybe I choose the wrong word, not hidden, but maybe more like “less noticed”. I have made several posts on that over the last year. Some I have shared and others I have just made notes on to watch.
Yeah :D. Congratulation for the mother.
Whats “the letter” this year ? M or O ?
May we be find a lot of names for all the foal ?
Thank you!! It is an “O” year. Here is the link to the post that I did this year. Feel free to add to it! 🙂
http://wildinthepryors.com/2014/01/06/the-name-game-2014-the-o-year/
Thanks and ok i ‘ll find some names with a “O” in a few days.
Cool! Can’t wait to see Orion 😀
Me too!!
I had a feeling a foal would end up with the Orion name. 🙂 It’s one of the constellations painted on the beautiful ceiling at Grand Central too. How exciting the mares are starting to foal!
Very cool! You should take a photo for us and I will post it in this post too! 🙂
Can’t wait for pictures! Thanks for the update Sandy!
You are welcome Lola!
Oh it’s not a problem! You didn’t even take that long to answer haha 🙂 I just decided to repost it as I wasn’t sure how frequently people look at the older posts.
PZP use is so complicated. It has so many advantages but the disadvantages are really scary. I agree that making sure that the program implemented is not too aggressive is key.
Thank you Abbie!
Yay!! Can’t wait to see pics!
🙂
And so it begins! The joyful season of births on the range :), and also the sadness of who is “missing”, at least from our limited view, after the long winter :). The Circle of Life. My heart aches for the ones who go missing, or are found to be deceased, but I choose to dwell more upon the joy of new life. I’m sure we are going to be treated to the vision of another beauty from Corona and Waif, and what a lucky foal it is to have such parents. Corona seems to have inherited Sam’s deep dedication to his family and Waif is such a loyal mare. 🙂 May they all have long and happy lives on the range. It will be cool for Norte to have Orion to play with, and to chew on his ears when he lays down for a nap! 🙂 🙂 And Sandy, I do hear what you’re saying about possible issues with PZP, and I fully agree with the thought that it wouldn’t be wise to go “hell bent for election” into it, even tho my dream solution to herd management would be to never have another gather. I guess my conclusion at this point is that it is the lesser of the evils to deal with. As we all know, life is such that there is no guarantee on anything, including the possibility of Nature dealing crushing blows to the foal crop, such as in 2004, when Exhileration was the ONLY surviving foal. The herd as a whole, is subject to all kinds of threats to it’s health, and it is my hope that the humans charged with being the stewards of their care from the human factor side, are honorable and respectful, as well as educated in these matters, always. I will be interested to see what patterns emerge from you, and others, who take the time and effort to track these things. It is truly a challenge to draw conclusions about things in the wild, since there can be so many unknown factors at work that are not observed, (like who really is the sire of some foals, without DNA tests). With the mares and their ability to reproduce, one really has to consider that there can be things such as other causes of infertility, like injury to the mare’s system from difficult births, health conditions similar to the ones that cause infertility in women, etc. And now, on to the joyful stuff. Sure wish I were going to be joining you on your next trip to the Pryors, but, I just can’t have everything I want— I’ll be there in spirit. 🙂
Thanks Linda! Yes, it would be great if you could do a spring trip with me sometime. I know I will be thinking of you and most likely pick up the phone and talk to you sometime while I am on the mountain! 🙂
Looking forward to hearing from you! Maybe I can aim for that for next spring. This year will have to be early summer, summer, or early fall. 🙂
I’ve also noticed that, although it may have to do with living primarily in the Dryhead, the sons of Sam seem to have smaller bands, and are also very close to the mares they do have.
As you can tell by Sandy’s posts, there IS a lot of competition for mares on the Dryhead. There needs to be a few filly foals down there. 🙂
Reblogged this on Sunny-Stables.com.
Has anyone heard what colour Orion is yet? 🙂
What a cutie!! I think Waif looks a bit better than last year 🙂
I also find it interesting that even though there were three years in between Waif foaling she went back to being one of the first mares to foal. Jewel and Icara were the first foals of their years and Halo was one of the first foals of her year. And then she went right back to that time frame with Norte and Orion. And after three years of girls, Corona now has two sons. Waif does seem to be looking a bit better than last year.