October 22, 2009 – Dryhead Update

Yesterday I headed out to Bighorn Canyon to see how the horses there are doing. I first saw Cappuccino and his harem on Mustang Flats.

This man-made harem seems to be getting along okay. Cappuccino was pretty wary of us; he had his eye on his from the moment we started hiking to them until the time we got back.

I am very interested to see how long these guys stay out on Mustang Flats. I think that Guinevere is one big reason they are out here. She was originally a Dryhead horse, and she spent many years of her life on Mustang Flats. She is 19 years old now.

Cappuccino was also born in the Dryhead, though he was soon after stolen with his mother, ending up in Burnt Timber.

In the area I also spotted Blizzard and his harem, but I didn’t get close enough to them to photograph them. Otherwise, it was quiet on Mustang Flats. Heading back down we saw Exhilaration off in the distance, and we could tell he was limping a little. We went down to see him, and he has a puncture wound on the back of his right front leg. I am not sure what caused this; but if I were to guess, I would say it had something to do with a confrontation with Admiral. I think that he’ll be fine, but I just hope that his bad luck will run out soon. (Please click here to view a video of him walking with this injury. His clip is the last one.)

I am not sure what he’s been up to, but his forelock and tail are completely caked in cockleburs.

Nearby was Admiral’s harem. The colt, Exhilaration’s little half-brother, is getting big and sure is looking like his big brother.

October 21, 2009 – Mountain Update

On the 21st we headed out to the range. After seeing only Sitting Bull and his harem in the Lower Sykes area, we decided to head up Burnt Timber. The snow had melted a lot since I was last there, and nearly all of the puddles in the mid-slope were dried up. Scoping to the top of the mountain, we could see that there was still a good amount of snow up there still. However, there was also a good amount of horses up there too. Drifts blocked our way, so we had to walk in to the horses.

Going down the cirque, the first horses we saw were Starman’s harem as his daughter Isadora peeked out at us.

Up from them was Two Boots and his harem. The colt foal was still missing, and so I think that he is probably gone. As we continued to walk in, we came upon Lakota and Baja’s harems. The black colt in Baja’s harem is definitely striking, much like Isadora is above.

This foal, like the others, is getting big and is growing in his first fuzzy winter coat. Crossing over the hill, we came upon a number of horses – the harems of White Cloud, Teton, Bolder, Blue Moon, and Mescalero. Custer and Coronado’s harems could be seen in the distance.

There was a little interchange up there. White Cloud’s black mare Pococeno wasn’t with the harem, but his two year old daughter was back from Morning Star. I couldn’t see her with any of the harems I saw.

There really was a good amount of snow on the ground, and there’s not a whole lot of available forage in some of the areas the horses were in due to these seasonal conditions. The snow does provide water for them; and, judging from a lack of water in the mid-slope, I guess that was a big reason the horses were up there. Not all of the horses were up on top, though many were. Some, like Jackson below, had their harems down there still. I’m not exactly sure where they watered, but they are definitely able to take advantage of the great forage that is present in these areas right now.

Also, I have been receiving a number of inquiries on the health of some particular horses. White Cloud and Firestorm are the topic of many of these inquiries. While up on the mountain this day, I took some short video clips of them moving around so you can see how you think they are looking. You’ll also see Exhilaration there walking; there will be more on him in the next post on the Dryhead horses. To view this movie, please click here. (Note: I disabled comments on this video so that any relevant comments can be put here so that it is easier for others to read them.)

October 9, 2009 – Mountain Update

It’s been really unpleasant here this week. It has been cold, windy, and snow has been falling all around the area. We had a semi-decent day yesterday, which has turned out to be the literal calm before the storm. (There’s a big Canadian cold front moving through now, and it’s even more unpleasant!)
I took advantage of yesterday and headed out to the range to get some observations in. It ended up being a very successful, though chilly, day out there.

I started out by doing some scoping into the Burnt Timber area. The first harem I saw was Doc’s.

This is the best I could do with my camera, but I actually can get right in on them with my spotting scope. Many cold-weather observations are done through my scope as this is the most efficient way to do it. Also, I can see just about everything I need to see with the scope. If I see anything that seems off about a horse through the scope, then that may warrant a trip where I get closer to that particular horse.

During this scoping, I also saw Baja and Two Boots’ harems. Here was a case where something was off; I noticed that Two Boots’ colt foal wasn’t visible. I then headed over to Burnt Timber itself. This would allow me to get a closer look at Two Boots’ harem while also letting me find more horses in Burnt Timber while being able to go to some vantage points from which I could scope out Sykes.

The first horses I saw on Burnt Timber were Lakota’s harem.

Nearby was Prince and Ireland, and just up from there were Mescalero and his two mares. Down from Mescalero was Santa Fe and his harem. Scoping out into Burnt Timber again, I could see Duke’s harem and the bachelor Ferdinand. Further in was Jackson’s harem; Littlefoot was down the ridge from them. Jackson’s mare Brumby is one I get a lot of inquiries on; she is the mare who tied up during the roundup. She and her foal are doing quite well now.

I hiked down to Two Boots to see them next.

I just want to once again express how impressed I am by Two Boots. Would you ever guess that he’s 20 years old? As I got down there and walked around the harem, I saw that the colt foal really was missing. I’d last seen him with the harem on September 23rd. It’s hard to say why he disappeared. Maybe it was weather related, it isn’t uncommon for young horses to disappear during big storm events. The foal’s mother is the mare Sequoyah.

Her daughter in the harem also had a foal this year, and she was looking pretty good yesterday.

Scoping to Sykes, I was able to see the harems of Blue Moon, Custer, White Cloud, and Coronado. Some of these horses were really high on Sykes while some where nearly to the lower, arid parts of the ridge. All seemed to be just fine, even the tiny foal in Coronado’s harem.

The last horses I saw were the bachelors Galaxy and Fiesta. They looked pretty intent on getting whereever they were headed. By this point, the sun was pretty low; and it was getting a lot colder.

Besides the blue paint and missing family members, you’d not really know these horses have recently been through a huge roundup. I’m not really seeing any soreness, and the horses are acting like you’d expect them to act this time of year. I really like being able to get a large set of observations in this time of year. It was only six harems and one bachelor I was unable to find in Burnt Timber and Sykes, so that is a pretty good day considering the weather. I’m going to be out of town for the next week, and so I look forward to getting back to the mountain to see how all of the horses are doing.

October 5, 2009 – Stiles Update

The weather has turned cold up here. Many areas around here are receiving snow, especially the mountains. The Pryors have snow coming down pretty low, but we haven’t received any significant snow here in Lovell yet.

It shouldn’t be long now before Stiles heads down to New Mexico, and he is doing very well up here. He was with the veterinarian to get gelded last week, and he is recovering very well. Stiles has now made many more friends at his temporary home.

He’s also making all of us like him a lot. My mother has described him as a gentleman. He is still a little apprehensive of us, but he is perfectly happy to come up and eat from our hands now.

Even with his new friends next door and his calmer attitude, he still acts like a wild horse. He even maintains two stud piles – He has one in the round pen and another in the corner of his adjoining sheltered pen.

Despite this, it seems as though Stiles would make an excellent companion given time and patience. It will be great to see him running wild with his future family in New Mexico too, though.

I’ll be making another visit to the wild ones soon, as soon as the weather settles enough for me to hike around and find them. I should be able to get to some of them a little later this week, and I will post more on what I see too.