July 26, 2010 – Stiles

I’m sorry for my delay in putting up this post on Stiles! Here are some photographs and information on Stiles from photographer Lynne Pomeranz and Sandi Claypool (of Monero Mustangs).



Sandi shared the following information with me:

Stiles has a 17 year old black and white mare named Pinta. He and Pinta are totally devoted to each other. In addition, he has taken in some other horses that don’t seem to have another band to fit into. We call them the misfits. He first took in Jefito, a two year old stud colt, and has been treating him as his son, teaching him to be a stallion. Then along came Kokoman and Bob the Donkey. He accepted Bob right away, but it took him a while on Kokoman. He seemed to feel that the four year old gelding might be a problem. All differences have been ironed out, though, and Stiles is very proud of his band. He recently also took in a yearling stud colt (Oops) that was in bad shape and came in for a while until he is on his feet. Stiles enjoys it when other young bachelors come by and visit and play. The young white bachelor Platadero is one that comes by, but Stiles always makes sure he doesn’t get too close to Pinta. We have so enjoyed Stiles and his easy going attitude. As you can see from the photos, his favorite pastime is eating! He is such a character, and so good and tolerant with all the other boys who hang in his band.

Here are some recent photographs of Stiles that Lynne Pomeranz sent me.

Copyright Lynne Pomeranz

Copyright Lynne Pomeranz

Copyright Lynne Pomeranz

Copyright Lynne Pomeranz

We were talking recently about how we missed seeing Stiles up here. We are very happy to know he is in such a great home, though. The Monero Mustangs sanctuary is a great place for wild horses like Stiles. It is also a lot of fun to visit, and I’d recommend it to anyone that is down in that area. For more information on Monero Mustangs, please click here.

July 16, 2010 – Reality

I answer many questions for people about the horses. Some of the more commonly asked questions relate to such things as good viewing areas, who individual horses are, and the like. Lately, though, I’ve been getting more and more questions that relate to some particular things people have heard about here in the Pryors. It culminated yesterday with someone asking me about things they had read about in a recent mailing they’d received. Based on all of this, I have a conclusion worth sharing: There are definitely some dramatic things being said about the current activities up here; and most, if not all, of these things are simply not true.

I just really want everyone to know that there is a lot of this type of misinformation out there. There’s no real reason that this should be happening. In my opinion, it isn’t helping out with much of anything. In fact, I feel that it is actually hurting things. If you have any questions about what is going on up here, I’d invite you to ask. You can contact us here at the Center or contact the employees of the BLM’s Billings Field Office. There’s nothing being held back. In fact, up here we are really proud of the way many things are going; and we wish we were able to talk about them more than we do now. Thank you very much!

Photo taken on July 14, 2010

July 13, 2010 – Exhilaration

Exhilaration is one of the more well known horses here. He first became well known due to the fact that he is the only surviving member of the 2004 foal cohort. Since then, many have enjoyed seeing him grow up. He’s pretty hard to miss with his unique face marking.

July 2, 2010 – Forest Service Horses

During the 2009 gather 29 of the 57 horses removed were from the Forest Service. Thus, most, but not all, of the horses living off of the Range were removed. Around ten horses were unable to be gathered, and these remained out there. Due to the fate of the horses that were gathered, I have been pretty worried about the future of the remaining Forest Service horses.

Last night, I was coming back from a trip to the mountaintop when I had two good surprises.