Cosmo's Band

I set out this morning hoping I would come across Cosmo's Band. I had heard he had a new foal back in April, who I still had not seen. He even had been given a name and an ID number for our spread sheet. Well... lucky me, with a little doing, I finally spot Cosmo and the molting little colt we call Milagro. Here he is with his full brother, Astro. 

There are the two  brothers using their "auntie" Jess, for a scratching post. Jess does not produce offspring....at least not so far. I believe she is a young mare, but that is just a guess. She is part of the HSUS PZP study. E mail hhopkins@humanesociety. org for more info.

The grey mare, Tulip, who is Milagro's mom, has had three foals in a row. Her 2 year old filly Juniper, recently left the band and joined Rounder, the liver chestnut who lives near Cosmo.

I can't tell you how glad I was to see this regal band stallion. He is very tolerent of people and lives towards the entrance. Couldn't we set up a baiting system to manage this band? It seems like a sin to chase these docile animals with helicopters. Why not set up corrals with electric gates where we could humanely manage the horses? Why not feed them if they are starving? PZP select mares? Pull out domestics and adoptable horses? This land has been severly manipulated by man. The land and the mustangs are screaming for help. Things have changed, we must think of ways to preserve this herd and the land they call home.

High desert beauties....

This little filly we named Heidi is a looker, a real stand out. She was another late foal last year (born in Aug). Her mom is a grulla and I think she might be too. Just love this filly!

Cosmo

Milagro with his mom, Tulip. Tulip looks very much like the flea bitten mare with Rounder, Pablina. We will have to keep our eye out for that if they decide to "gather"

The colors in this band of wild horses is exquisite!

The little pinto mare is Vogue...she is shown with Heidi (no relation). Vogue joined Cosmo the middle of last summer with her 2009, filly, Gem.

The sorrel front and center is Gem. I highly suspect her sire is Femur, but can't confirm. Real momma's girl this one. Like I have said before the mother/daughter relationships are sometimes the strongest.

Vogue and Gem

That's Tulip, the prolific mare in the harem. She sure has beautiful folas. I think she is part of the PZP study. They administerd the drug in the corrals in 2008 and then darted 50 of the original 63 mares with the drug again last fall (2010)....half with PZP and half with PZP 22. Next year we will see if it makes any difference. The 2008 dosing was a failure as it was given the wrong time of year....we had over 40 foals in 2010. Also in 2009 we had a bumper crop, making me believe rounds ups cause the mares to reproduce even more! We should take more time and see what happens if we just leave them alone for more then 4 years. In the meantime we should be working on a humane bait system. We also should be cleaning up the range, work on enlarging the HMA to the east, close gaps in fence, communicate...Let's show the nation Colorado leads the way in wild horse management.

Heidi