October 31, 2007 – The Pryor Mountains

As requested, here is panoramic photograph I just took of the Pryors. (It’s pretty big, so click the picture for a full version.) It’s hazy today, so the quality isn’t that great. The snow received yesterday has already melted quite a bit; it had been down Sykes Ridge yesterday afternoon.

Also, I took that same picture and wrote some general locations on it to give an idea of where the range lies on the mountains. The range is on East Pryor Mountain. There aren’t any wild horses on the West Pryor/Big Pryor mountain anymore, though I have talked to many people who used to see horses there quite often. On East Pryor I have a little more detail in labeling areas that I often talk about here. The Bighorn Canyon area is just on the other side of Sykes Ridge.

I am planning to make a nicer looking map and view of the Pryors to post here sometime, but until then this at least gives an idea of what I talk about.

October 24, 2007 – Mountaintop

Last Tuesday (the 24th) was a beautiful sunny day, and I went on the mountain with someone to watch the horses. Due to the warmth, the snow had melted a lot; and there were many horses in the meadows near Penn’s Cabin. The first thing new I noticed was that Teton’s two year old colt wasn’t with the family anymore.

It isn’t a big surprise that he wasn’t with them as he is getting to that age. I did see a pair of bachelors nearby, and he wasn’t with them. There are a few other ones he could be with, or he could be alone. By now, it also wouldn’t surprise me if he is back with the family.

I also got some good opportunities to see Morning Star’s September foal. She looks fairly healthy; but notice the size of her compared to her dun big brother who was born earlier in the summer. It gives an idea of how big foals normally are as they go into their first winter. It’s hard to not get too attached to the little ones sometimes, but it should be kept in mind that winter is a big natural selector on young horses and this isn’t necessarily bad to have this natural population control.

The highlight of my day then was definitely Lakota’s yearling colt. Lakota and Prince’s families were both near the snow fed watering hole in the meadows. Prince’s family was below Lakota’s, but Prince was with Lakota’s family. There was a little ice and water accumulated there, enough for the horses to water in.

As the families started to move out of there, Prince and the yearling colt started playing.

While this was happening, Coronado moved his family into the area and tried to mess with the colt. Prince apparently didn’t approve of this; he postured and kicked at Coronado. Coronado then left.

Prince moved back with his and Lakota’s families while Coronado was moving through, and then the colt started playing with his father Lakota.

By this time, Morning Star has brought his family down; and he came out to play too.

Soon after, Lakota had enough with Morning Star being there; so he got him out of there. Prince saw the commotion and he moved Lakota’s family up towards Lakota.

When the family was all together, they ran up the hill.

Once they got to the top, they started grazing and resting again; and that concluded the colt’s playing. It was a great show, and it was even nicer because I had a borrowed 400mm lens that day. I haven’t been on the mountain since then as I didn’t get a chance to go up during the weekend. It was stormy here yesterday, and I can see that the Pryors have snow on top again. I’ll be going on the mountain this weekend, and I probably won’t need to go as high to find the horses.