June 6, 2012 – Updates

I took a trip to the mountain on Sunday heading up Sykes Ridge. The first horses I saw were three of the Dryhead bachelors: Jemez, Johnston, and Jalisco. All three are looking great.

Jemez

Johnston

Jalisco

Just up from them was Fools Crow. In addition to Belle Starr, Fools Crow now also has Jewel and her filly; they were previously with Hidalgo.

Fools Crow

Belle Starr

Jewel

Jewel’s filly

A bit higher up from them was Hidalgo. He still has Cascade and her yearling Lewis.

Hidalgo

Cascade

Lewis

I think it is always interesting to watch these situations unfold where a young, new harem stallion has come to be. It will be neat to see how Hidalgo’s story will unfold next.

Two other Dryhead bachelors, the brothers Hawk and Issaquah, were near Hidalgo.

Hawk

Issaquah

This was the highest I saw Dryhead horses on Sykes Ridge. The ones I saw were all in fairly close proximity to the water sources there. Many of the Dryhead horses were quick to learn the locations of these water sources and are thus able to take advantage of the forage available on Sykes Ridge. This is some of the most productive range land on the Wild Horse Range.

As I continued up the Sykes Ridge Road, I could see a number of horses on the mountaintop with my binoculars, and I was soon up there with them. Mescalero, Blue Moon, Bolder, White Cloud, Custer, Morning Star, Tecumseh, Galaxy, Baja, Jackson, Duke, Teton, Santa Fe, Grijala, and Garay’s harems were all up there within a fairly close proximity to each other. I thought I’d post some photos of horses that I haven’t shown in a while and some of the foals that I haven’t yet posted photos of.

Knight was with the Sykes Ridge bachelors Irial and Jupiter. Knight didn’t quite seem to fit in with the Forest Service bachelors, and so I am not surprised to see him with these two.

Knight

Jupiter

Irial

Right now, Baja has Washakie, Lukachukai, Bacardi, and Jicarilla.

Baja

Washakie

Lukachukai

Bacardi

Jicarilla

I found that Juneau was with Garay and that she had a new colt. However, Gold Rush was not with them nor was Jasper.

Garay and London

Juneau

Juneau’s colt

I also saw that Lincoln and Lemhi were not with Mescalero’s harem. Isadora was not there either; she was with Blue Moon.

Mescalero

I saw that Kalahari was also not with Jackson; but I found that she is with Grijala, who is putting together quite a harem of K girls. (That is Lakota at the bottom of the photo.)

Grijala’s harem

Though there are a few horses whose whereabouts are unknown to me, there are also a number of foals that I haven’t posted on yet. Below are some of them.

Demure’s colt

Sapo’s filly

July’s colt

Madonna’s filly

Brumby’s colt

It is not optimal for all of these horses to be on the mountaintop already. Last year, they didn’t start going up until the end of June; and that was probably a bit early too. You can notice in the photos that there isn’t a lot of grass sticking up, especially if you compare it to the areas that the Dryhead horses shown earlier are in. We have had a very dry spring, and so the guzzlers and other water sources that allow the horses to stay in the midslope are virtually all dried up. There are some horses down lower, though. Doc’s harem was on Cheyenne Flats while I ran into Cappuccino’s harem down even lower as they were coming back from watering at a small pool of water.

Cappuccino

Gabrielle

Gabrielle’s colt

Lily

Kodiak

Kootenai

Blanca

I plan on traveling to the Range again soon, so I will try to post more photos of that trip as soon as possible.