Wild Horses of the Little Book Cliffs-Billie's Space

Finally got back to the range for a full day again! I took a couple quick "run through" trips in the last couple weeks, but today I got back up there and spent the day.

 

Marty and I went to look for new foals, but could not find the ones we really needed, except for Ashes and Sid's new one. We saw it, but only very briefly as they are a pretty wild band and do not tolerate people very well. I got one photo of it's face, so we know that it is seal brown (like Sid) and has a star. Hopefully we can see this foal again and get more info! We did see Tumbleweed and Journey today and got a few photos of Tumbleweed, but Journey was in the brush, so could not get any of him. We do know that Tall Girl has foaled and it is a paint , but that is it. We did not see this foal today either!  We saw Beauty and Ragtail's Mare today and they have not foaled yet, but look like they are getting close!

 

Medicine Hat now has the largest band on the range. He has a total of 6 horses, all mares. One of them is his yearling filly and he just acquired 2 yearling fillies, plus his original 3 mares. What a stud!! LOL    I wonder how long he will keep them with all the bachelors we have running around! If any of them come over from Monument Rock, he may be in trouble, although he is quite a scrapper.

 

The temperature was great today, but it would have been nice if there was just a bit more sunshine. We have been cloudy and threats of rain for a couple weeks now.  The gnats are also out and biting!

 

We walked down to the Wild Cow tank and it is running strong to the point that it is overflowing a bit! Gives the horses a nice place to roll.

 

Hope to get back up there this weekend and find Tall Girl's foal and see if any other mares have foaled.  Wish us luck!

Remember last week when I told you all about Mocha having all of Phantom's mares and that I thought he was probably dead? Well, it has been confirmed. This weekend some horseback riders found his body. They could not see any visible means of death so I guess we will never know what happened. Not sure if there was a fight and that is how Mocha wound up with the mares or if Mocha just came across them all alone. Mocha has since lost at least two of the three mares. I assume the third mare is still with him because nobody has seen them.   Anyway, just wanted to pass the word about Phantom. He was only 12 years old, but at least he left some offspring. Maybe one of the  unborn ones will get his face marking.

All sorts of goings on today! First of all, three of the lower canyon bands have finally come back to Indian Park, Round Mountain areas. Diamond Rio was first spotted in Paradise Valley near Round Mountain on Friday and then Zoe and I saw him at Indian Park on Sunday! Also in the big field at Indian Park were Nitro and Flame's bands.  Now we are just  waiting for Medicine Hat and Sid to make their appearances and that should be it.

 

The two new bachelors, Lakota and Brownie made an appearance in the big field at Indian Park and were causing all sorts of problems. They were racing around and finally convinced Black Bart and Brumby, from Flame's band, to come run with them. They carried on for a long time! When they were in their own area of the field all was well, but when they came around the three harem bands, then the harem stallions got involved too and the chase was on ! It was a riot to watch. They all looked like they were having a great time!

 

We were having such a good time watching the bachelors that at first we didn't see that Conquista had also foaled. She has a new colt, but this one is plain bay, not an appaloosa like his big brother, Traveler.

 

Meanwhile, out near Round Mountain... Found Boone and Rocket on Boulder Ridge and got to see  Rocket's new filly (the sire is actually Diamond Rio, not Boone). Also found part of a horse leg that still had a little bit of hair on it. I assume, from the color of the hair, that it belonged to Ringo who disappeared during the winter-spring of 2007-2008.

 

 

I guess the biggest upset was when we spotted horses in Big Ed's field. When we went out there we got a BIG surprise!!  At first it looked like it was Phantom and his band. Instead it was MOCHA!! with ALL of Phantom's mares!  What a shock, he is only five and that is young to be a harem stallion. Now the question is... what happened to Phantom. He was not anywhere around. I can only hope he is injured and off licking his wounds, so to speak, but I fear the worst and feel that he is probably dead.  Damn!! what a loss! Now, Chrome really did not like Mocha and kept kicking him and generally being mean to him. The other two mares didn't seem to mind him at all. The next day, Monday, Marty and I went up and saw Chrome with Atomic and Tall Girl with Chief, so now we need to find out if he still has Skylark or if he lost her too. Dang it, what happened to Phantom!!  If he is dead, I hope that one of the two mares that were in his band (and look  pregnant) will get his face marking...

 

Anyway, that is most of the highlights. I am sure there will be lots of changes this year to report.

 

 

WOW!! What a day! Marty and I went to the horse range today and got some of the work done that we needed to do and found a few surprises along the way.  We were in this field looking for a certain mare and when we couldn't find her we decided to look just over the hill to see if maybe she was there. Well,she wasn't, BUT we had a big surprise waiting for us. Durango and TJ, who are from Monument Rock area, were at Round Mountain!! What a shock that was. And, if that wasn't enough of a surprise, they had another mare with them. It took us a bit to figure out that it was Kite. Well, the problem with that is we have thought that Kite was a male all this time! The first sighting of Kite was at one of the tanks at Monument and she was running with a band of bachelors, so naturally, we thought she was a bachelor too. Nope, she is a mare and running with Durango now. What a shocker!  She is two this year and she looks really big!!

 

Meanwhile, over at North Soda.... It seems that Rico Boy has picked up Sandy. Now, Sandy was orphaned during the 2007-2008 winter and stayed with her family band. Last fall she was alone in the big field at Indian Park and that was how it was left for the winter. Well, she was spotted earlier this week running with Rico Boy and we were able to see her today. Also, Rojito was out and about today there too. Still by himself, but looking good. He was so funny, he was standing in the middle of the road and all of a sudden just jumped straight up in the air! Then he bucked, kicked, jumped again and started running. Then he stopped, stood there, posed for photos, ran toward Marty, then turned around and ran off. Too cute!  Hopefully, Doc will get the boot soon and then Rojito will have a buddy to hang out with!

Today was beautiful! Hardly any clouds, minimal wind, warm and horses! Found out that there were two new foals that I had not seen yet, so Marty and I took off to find them. We were lucky and found them both. Marty had seen the one, but not the other, I had not seen either one of them. We found Cat and Bandit's filly first. She is just beautiful! Does not have a lot of white on her, kind of like her daddy ( but he has more than she does) and she is a dark bay like her momma. She is not very old, but very frisky, totally cute!

 

Skylark and Phantom's colt looks a lot like Phantom (except he didn't get Phantom's face, darn it!). Now, however, we are wondering if he will stay a sorrel paint or change to roan as he gets older (like his momma did - she was born bay and is now a red roan). I guess only time will tell. He is pretty frisky too and he also has a big brother in the band to play with.

 

We saw 35 horses today, so it was a pretty good day. Didn't get everything accomplished that we wanted to, but seeing those babies put it in the good category! 

 

Just a warning.... the roads are horrible! They are rutted and rough. I did see the grader at the corrals, but it hasn't started grading yet...soon I hope!! Those roads will really beat you and your vehicle, so if you go, go slowly.  It should get better soon.