Last week, Zoe and I hiked up Coal Canyon to look for horses. We found Magnum and Laramie right near the road, almost passed them by! I always, jokingly, glass the hills up under the rim looking for horses, checking to see if Cliff is "home" ( Cliff is a horse we saw up that high a couple years ago, haven't seen him since). I didn't see anything at first, then on another sweep I spotted horses! It looked like two blacks, a sorrel and a foal. Finally identified the sorrel (Jaggs) and the foal is her foal that we have not seen yet. Still could not identify who the blacks were, nor which was the stallion. They were so far up the hill you could not see them without binoculars. Marty and Debbie went back the next day and found them near the same spot, still way up there. They were not able to figure it out either. A few days later, Marty, Debbie and I went again and found them farther back in the canyon, but slightly lower (not much though!). We climbed part way up to get a better look, still not sure who they were or which was the stallion. But, it looks like the foal is male, so got that much accomplished! We went through the lists and thought we had it figured out, but it just never really fit. While we were watching them,the two blacks BOTH acted like stallions, posturing and kick threat. Now we were really baffled. Late that night I was almost asleep when it hit me. I jumped up out of bed to go check photos to be sure. Yep, it all matched up . The two blacks are really two blue roans, Snoopy Jr. and Gideon. They  were seen in Main Canyon last year off and on, then Jaggs disappeared this last fall, so it all fit.  So, it looks like Jaggs got picked up by these two brothers and we now have another band with a satellite stallion.  Finally, mystery solved. HOORAY!!! I will post pictures later, but they are not very good and really hard to see the horses, but it will give you some perspective of how far up the side of the hill they were.

 

 

I went up Main Canyon today as far as Spring Creek. Only saw two bands, Spin and Gunsmoke. Hooray, Gunsmoke has come back finally and Kiva, Shoshoni and Ruger are all back with him. They weren't with him when I left the upper ranges in the fall. On a sad note though, Kiva and Gunsmoke's 2008 filly, Metate, is not with the band. There is a very remote possiblity that she is with another band (maybe with her sister Rocket who is with Boone), but not likely. She is probably dead. I did not notice an engorged bag on Kiva, so Metate most likely disappeared quite some time ago.  But, on a lighter note, they all look really good.  Gunsmoke is showing a few ribs, but then he usually does. He is 17 this year, but still going strong !  Gunsmoke's band was on one of the sunny, bare hillsides, just over the saddle across the creek.

 

Spin and his group look great. They are all fat! Ajax is growing up and is so fuzzy now with his winter coat. Inca is kind of small, but personality plus! They were at Dog Bone today.

 

Jerry Creek is really full and, although it is frozen over, it is easy to break through the ice. I know, because I stepped on a place I thought was solid and went in over my boots! Live and learn! The snow is still several inches in most places, except the hillsides that get the sun, they are bare. The snow is crusty now and harder to walk through, but what great exercise! 

 

The temperature was only in the 20's today, but that is warmer than it has been! It was mostly cloudy and there was a breeze. Not the best day, but it was good to be out since I didn't go last week at all.

 

That's it for now. I hope to go again this week before heading back to work.