I went out to Britton Springs yesterday to see how the horses were doing. There have been 34 horses and 4 foals removed. The gather is coming to a close; mountaintop gathering operations are over with. During the next week, there will be some more work done on the Dryhead to try again with some of the horses who were not able to be gathered earlier.
The first pen has some of the removed females:
Lily
Kiva
Kierra
Kalahari
Jenny
Next door to them are most of the other females:
Krystal and Judith
Kelly
Kayenta
Kachina and Katrina
The five removed from Jackson’s harem were still together, but they will be getting put into appropriate pens too:
Kaycee and her foal Maria
Kiowa
Lander
LeDoux
Next was the pen with some of the less mature males and females:
Lynx
Kaibab and Lenape
Leo
Lukachukai
Lancaster
La Salle
Next to them are the mature males:
Jumping Badger
Jedediah and Klamath
Kane
Kodiak
(I didn’t get any good photos of Kootenai and Kokopelli, but they were in there too.)
Down from them is where the mare-foal pairs and and other horses needing some extra care are. I think they are all looking really good as time goes on; they are definitely putting on weight.
Joviana
Joviana’s foal Malachi
July and her foal Maverick
Liesl
Next door to them is where the healthier mares go. Juneau and her colt Mendenhall are the only mare-foal pair in there, but Jicarilla is expected to foal soon too.
Juneau
Mendenhall
Jicarilla
That is all (but two) of the 34 horses and 4 foals at Britton Springs right now. I believe that this gather has gone very well. The BLM has put a significant amount of time into this gather; about a month will have gone into it by the time it is over with. In this month’s time, there has also been a pretty good amount of overtime. All this shows, though. There haven’t been any injuries during operations. The horses have been able to be strategically removed so that bloodlines will not be eliminated. I believe that this could serve as a model for proper management.
The date for the adoption of these horses has been set for September 8th at Britton Springs. For more information on adopting a horse, please click here. I encourage anyone interested in the Pryor horses to think about adopting one!
I’ll continue to post updates as needed as we go through the last week of the gather and will be heading back out to Britton Springs again next Saturday.
PryorWild 
Thanks Matt! I like the names Maverick and Maria. Kaycee looks a little thin.
I do too! Jared named them actually. I agree about Kaycee. Jared also commented on Kiva’s body conditions.
Well good for Jared…We need some of his imput in these names! Makes them even better! 🙂
Reblogged this on Wild in the Pryors and commented:
I thought everyone might like to see the removed horses. Matt has some good photos of them.
Beautiful photographs! Wow! I particularly love the horse named Juneau – what a gorgeous horse! Thanks for all the good work you do on behalf of these creatures!
I know lots of folks are upset about the gathers but this one should serve as a model of how to do ti the very best way! I am proud of the BLM for this gather
Please let us know when Jicarilla foals. I like the names Maverick and Maria too. I know a lot of the foal names have been posted, but not all of them. Shawn suggested someone puting together a list and posting it. I think that would be great! He also put together a discussion on facebook where people have been suggesting names for some of the foals that either haven’t been named yet or just haven’t been posted yet.
There really was a lot of good help with naming this year, which is good as it was a hard letter. I have been trying to keep up with all the suggestions and put some of them to the unnamed foals, so all the foals have names now:
Morgana: Icara’s filly. Named after the Arthurian character to match with Merlin’s name.
Missoula: Half Moon’s colt. Named after the Salish name for the Clark Fork River.
Maia: Hera’s filly. Named after the Greek character to match with Hera’s name.
Mercuria: Jewel’s filly. A feminine version of Mercury to carry on the Corona naming tradition.
Moenkopi: Galena’s filly. Named for the Moenkopi Formation of the Southwest in keeping with Galena’s geologic name.
Montana: Fresia’s colt. Named after the state of Montana.
Millicent: Greta’s filly. Named in keeping consistent with Greta’s offsprings’ Germanic names.
Mesa: Sapo’s filly. Named after the geographic feature.
Miocene: Halcyon’s colt. Named after the geologic epoch.
Maelstrom: Firestorm’s colt. Named in keeping consistent with Firestorm’s offsprings’ style of names.
Mica: Feldspar’s colt. Named after the mineral mica, which is often found in association with feldspar.
McKeahnie: Gabrielle’s colt. Named after Charles McKeahnie, a possible inspiration for “The Man From Snowy River” in keeping with Australian themed names for this line.
Moorcroft: Brumby’s colt. Named after the town in Wyoming; Jackson’s offspring are often named after Wyoming places.
Malpais: Demure’s colt. Named after the geologic feature of the Southwest in keeping with his possible sire Santa Fe’s name.
Maverick: July’s colt.
Mendenhall: Juneau’s colt. Named after the Mendenhall Glacier of Alaska.
Meriwether: Madonna’s filly. Named for the explorer Meriwether Lewis (though traditionally a male name, its meaning works for a female too).
Malachi: Joviana’s colt. A name meaning “Messenger”
Maria: Kaycee’s filly.
Maclean: Kerry’s colt. Named for the Montana author Norman Maclean.
Malayna: Kaelia’s filly. A name meaning “Free”
Madrid: Kiva’s colt. Named for the city in Spain
Meadowlark: Washakie’s filly. Named for Wyoming’s state bird.
Thanks Matt! and also for giving the meaning behind them. Really like them all!
Matt, thanks a lot 🙂
Thanks Matt!
Have some of them changed from what it was originally? I had heard Gabrielle’s colt was Mocha and Demure’s was Mandan.
Yes, there were a few changes.
Thanks so much for the list of names. And for the pics and updates on the horses at Britton Springs. Wish I were coming out to get one…
I am sooo glad to see that Liesl is doing well, and Jovianna and foal, too. And perhaps little Malakai, the messenger, will help spread the message about how special wild horses are and that they need help.
Awesome Photos Matt, I always look forward to seeing them.
Great comments too!!
Your pictures brought tears to my eyes..these horses are so beautiful and special…it makes me sad, but I understand the reasons, and appreciate the way that the range is being managed.
Maverick’s color change is fantastic. He’s really going to be good-looking as he matures. Thanks for the photos, too.
I still think they should release Kayenta she appears to be a unique Color if not rare. 😦
Thanks for the updates and photos. Yay for names, great job! 🙂
Hello- I am wondering if anyone could give me an idea of how the adoption day for these 38 horses is anticipated to turn out. Will there be many people and organizations trying to adopt these horses? Is bidding expected to be competitive because there will be more people wanting to adopt then horses are available? I ask because my husband and I are interested in and excited to give one of these horses (preferably a colt or filly under 18 months of age) a home, but we have a long distance to travel to Lovell. I’m just trying to get a feel if these horses are basically all “spoken for” or if it is worth the trip for “regular” people like us to come out and try to give a home to one of these horses. Thanks in advance for any info!
Hi Allison, I am sure Matt will be able to answer you….but I thought I would say, as a “regular” person, I adopted in 2009. I did have to pay 1,400.00 for my Isolde (Valerosa), but I feel it was worth every penny. Where would you be coming from? You just never know and I would certainly not want to say you would not have a chance to adopt. I will be coming from Potomac, Montana in hopes of adopting again. I would say it is worth the drive for sure.
Oh, and I should add, that many went for less, but some went for more.
Allison,
The horses will most likely be adopted out through a competitive bidding process. If I horse doesn’t get any bids, then they try two more (I think this was what it was anyway) times to find a home for it. I have uploaded a spreadsheet showing the prices each horse (or mare-foal pair) brought during the 2009 adoption – Please find it by clicking here. You can also see the bidder number on there to see how many unique parties there were adopting the horses. There are ten horses (this number could increase) available for adoption now that are less than 18 months old: 6 colts and 4 fillies. I sure hate to think that there are people out there planning on adopting a large number of horses as I like to see them go to as many different homes as possible. I have heard from a few people planning to come out and adopt one or maybe two horses, and some of these people are also from more distant locations. If I hear anything more for certain, I will be sure to post it here. Otherwise, I highly encourage you to come out and adopt a horse!
I really appreciated this update. It was good to hear that things were going much better then I’ve commonly been hearing. I wish they didn’t have to stop living in freedom but I know they can’t all. These are so beautiful that it seems they’d easily be adopted.
I love me some spreadsheets…seriously! LOL! Thanks for the chance to see the range of prices these horses can bring. Very interesting. Wish adopting was in the cards for me. Good luck to everyone adopting…you are very lucky!
And Lori – the shelter for the horses the Center will adopt is looking good. Yay!
Thanks Lola! It is coming along fine. Tomorrow we are going to paintthe shelter…somewhat to match the rustic color of the Center!
Two horses will be very lucky!
I will send some pictures to Matt at the end of the week and maybe he can post them on the blog so that everyone can see the progress of the project! Thank you to everyone for your caring support. this would not be possible without all of you and many more who don’t even read Matt’s blog.
Lori, nice photo of the new shelter and grounds! Hope Jimmy is getting plenty of thanks and hugs, too. ” Glad things are coming along well. Thanks for the info.
I always love seeing the yearlings, they grow so much! Pity they won’t ever get to go home, though.
I will be there…Lord willing and the creek ain’t dry. Matt, can you have Steve Cerroni call me about transporting a horse my way?
I plan to buy at least one.
Bess Carnahan
Any news on if Cecelia has foaled?