Every morning, we would make a trip up the Dryhead before heading up the mountain. It seems I have had my best luck finding horses in the Dryhead in the early morning. Each day we were able to see several. I was especially happy to see so much of Hidatsa and Johnston. Hidatsa is the full brother to Valerosa, one of the Pryor Horses I adopted in 2009.
Below is the collection of photos I took over the many days that we visited the Dryhead.
The first morning we were treated to a Mustang Flat bachelor run! Fiero was in the mix, I am not sure what was going on with that. But it seems Fiero has to be one of the most ever-changing stallions in the Dryhead, taking the place of a now stable acting Blizzard.
I am pretty sure the horses were: Hidatsa, Johnston, Seattle, Isaquah, Joseph and Fiero.
Another highlight of one of our morning trips was finally being able to see the last foal born in 2013. Bakkens filly Nina, born in mid-late September, 2013. It was good to see she made it through the winter and looked so healthy!
While we watched Nina, Blizzard, Blizzard noticed Fiero approaching. I believe Fiero was going his own way, minding his own business, but then happened to be in the line of fire. I could almost see the “opps” look on his face when he came around a bush and was near Blizzard and his band.
Fiero was last sighted with Strawberry, Sacajewa and her new foal. But today, they were no where in sight.
Sacajewa has always been a very independent mare, heading off where ever and when ever she pleases. Strawberry is the same way. So I am betting they were together somewhere off away from all the bachelor games.
Another morning we caught a sleeping Hidatsa and Johnston right by the road. We took a few photos and left them to their nap. They never made a move while we photographed them.
The next morning we got to see some action from these same boys. I noticed in one of the photos that Johnston had a pretty ugly-looking scare on his left back leg.
During this trip, we were able to see 29 Dryhead horses, including the Dryhead horses that we saw many miles up Sykes.
My next post will be more on our other Burnt Timber Days.
Sandy
Awesome !!!!! they all look great! look at little Niña, she is the coyote dun copy of cascade!
thanks for the updates !
Thanks Alex, it is good to see you comment. I hope Nina turns out to be a coyote dun, that would be great! 🙂
yes it really would ! 🙂
Wow, love the action shots! Not only is it fun to see the action between the two stallions, but I think it provides an awesome contrast between two different shades of grullo. Blizzard is such a lovely colour, is he a flaxen chestnut or red dun? I don’t see a dorsal stripe or leg barring from any of the pictures but I could be mistaken. That picture of Cascade and Nine is precious by the way 🙂
According to my notes Blizzard is an apricot dun.
It is always comforting to know that someone is always there to step in and answer my questions when I am away from the computer . Thanks Livi. 😉
Awesome, thanks! Must just not be able to see his dun factors from the pictures!
I was thinking Matt said that Blizzard is *apricot Dun ROAN*? which is even more rare than Durango and Kemmerer (just apricot Dun) ….. *and so was Sir Lancelot (I think ? ) and maybe Medicine Bow, t00? Matt had a big post about this, early on I believe….
Actually Durango (Blizzard’s sire) is the apricot dun roan and Blizzard is the solid apricot dun. Lancelot (Durango’s sire) was also solid apricot dun. And Kemmerer (Blizzard’s son) is just a regular dun, not apricot dun.
Whoops, I had it backwards! thanks 🙂 (talking from memory, n0t. notes). and was figuring the lightest seasonal 1s were the Roans… another Whoops : meant to type Kokopelli* instead of Kemmerer (Blizzard’s Other 2010 son) . Anyway Thank you again. 🙂
Thanks Abbie!
I was also curious, is there a particular ancestor that introduced the “chrome” into the Dryhead horses? Blizzard and Medicine Bow have so much white on their faces (extending over the lips, muzzle etc), plus Medicine Bow is sabino….just seems atypical of the majority of the population, particularly the Dryhead horses. Are there any other sabinos in the Pryors? Have there been many in the past?
No other Sabinos, other than Medicine Bow currently on the mountain. I am sure you know this, but, Sabino is a color Pattern, not an actual color. I believe that Sabina was also a Sabino, but I need to double check on that. There are many horses in the past with “chrome” Sir Lanelot for one, but I am sure there were others. Without looking at my lists, that is the first that comes to mind.
Sabina being a sabino would make sense, haha! I am not familiar with what Sir Lancelot looked like, I’ll have to see if I can dig up some pictures of him from somewhere. Thanks! 🙂 I find colour genetics fascinating, as I’m sure you have noticed!
Abbie, I am going to post another photo of Blizzard, showing his doral stripe. I also posted a photo of Sir Lancolet on my WITP facebook page back a while ago. If you can not locate it, let me know and I can send you the photo.
I know (or read) that grand old Flash. was Sabino, and flaxen as well. D0 you Know whether Sir Lancelot was his brother ??
Since Seattle was running with the bachelor boys I wonder if Merlin may be with Sacajawea, Oregon, and Strawberry. Although it is also very possible they are just off by themselves. Fiero doesn’t seem to know what he wants to do with Sacajawea. Sometimes he wants to claim her, but then sometimes he doesn’t seem to want to. I think it’s him knowing she’s his mother. love the pictures of Blizzard running! He’s so gorgeous! I have to admit I like this new more stable and responsible side of him. La Nina looks so good! I’m so glad. Bakken looks like she’s got a bit more of a scraggly winter coat than the others but really she looks great for having had such a late foal and nursing her through the winter. Johnston’s really filling out! Love the pictures of him and Hidatsa too. I think that scar is from when Johnston just about sliced a patch of his flank off in some unknown way. I remember it being in a Pryor Wild blog post. I going to see if I can find the post, and then I’ll post the link here.
http://www.pryormustangs.org/mustang_blog.shtml
The link didn’t post right, but it’s from May 11, 2011
Thanks Sarah!
Ah, I can see his dorsal stripe now! Thanks! 🙂 I wasn’t able to locate the picture of Sir Lancelot on your Facebook page but a Google search pulled up this image from one of your older blogs: http://wildinthepryors.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/sir-lancelot.jpg?w=658&h=517 Blizzard does look like him!