Rounder's Band

Lucky me....on this day I am fortunate enough to run into Rounder's band. I had heard there were some changes to his harem and it was nice to see for myself.

Pablina, the flea bitten mare, has lost her yearling son, Diego. Hopefully he has struck off on his own and has found some bachelor stallions to roam the range with. This is about the time of the year the first yearling colts leave their families. Diego was born early last spring so he would have been old enough to strike off on his own.

Rounder now has both of Prince's chestnut mares plus both of their 2 year old fillies. For awhile the mares got seperated when Prince's band got "disbanded". Moonlight was with Blazer for a short while, but found her way back to her "twin sister" and best friend, Sunshine. They have a very tight bond. Here you see the mares with their fillies.

Rounder, the impressive liver chestnut band stallion.

That's Juniper, she joined this band sometime between last fall and this spring. She is a 2 year old filly from Cosmo's band.

The only 2011 foal in this band, little Lozania. She is growing healthy and strong and is well taken care of by her family band.

Here are Rounder's original mares, Pablina and her bay friend, Floriano. They came from Lightning's band. They have a very tight bond and are not real accepting of Moonlight and Sunshine yet.

I love this sweet little colt. We call him Cabellero. He is Floriano's yearling. He was born later then his brother, Diego, the one that is missing. Often the colts will leave when their dams have their new foal. I don't think Floriano was bred this year, but I could be wrong. If she doesn't have a 2011 foal, most likely Cabellero will stay with his dam, but nothing is certain out here.

Cabellero is getting to know his new sister, Dusty. She is Moonlight's 2 yr old filly.

Dusty, most likely Prince is her sire.

That's Oda, Sunshine's daughter and Dusty's best friend. I am so glad they somehow got reunited.

The family bonds between these mustangs are strong. We should take this into consideraton if we have a "gather". It is inhumane to chase them with helicopters and rip the families apart. In this day and age we can do better. We should be working on a bait system where we could pull out a few adoptable youngsters if there is a population problem.

Juniper, Cosmo's daughter, Rounder's young mare. She seems content here.

Rounder with his new mares.

Kiowa, the pinto bachelor stallion is challenging Rounder, he would like some mares of his own. He has been "babysitting" two 2 year old colts all summer, but seems ready to have mares. He is strong and fit and it giving Rounder a real threat.

Rounder is a lean machine. He is off to face off with Corona, who is near by.

Nothing much becomes of it and he backs down from the dunalino. Rounder will have to work hard to keep all these mares. He has no satellite stallion to help him. We will have to wait and see what happens.