Tashunka's Band (feat his three 2011 fillies)

I was really glad to see the bay roan, Tashunka, on this day. This was one of the first bands I met in 2009, it has been interesting to see his family grow and shrink..he always has beautiful foals. This year his three mares... each had a filly. This one is Lilka, daughter to Moda, the bay mare missing both ear tips (not shown). Lilka is shown here with her loyal band stallion. It is a beautiful thing to see the stallions interact with their foals.

The primitive look of a Sand Wash Basin Mustang...the grulla mare, Ska Wakan, has it. This is another mustang come back story. After this mare gave birth to Tecomseh, her 2011 filly who was born early this year, she became rail thin and was having a hard time keeping up with her band. But her sisters waited for her and stayed by her side. She now looks great and her new filly looks better too!

Tecomseh, the first born out of the three fillies. I am so glad she is looking so good. When her and her mom her weak Cody took Ska's yearling daughter, Chikala, this is nature's way of keeping the herd strong. It works wonderfully. I believe if we just left this herd alone (maybe do a little bait trapping), nature would take care of the horses and the horses would take care of their land, especially if we enlarge the HMA to the east.

The third filly is a bay we call Ladore. She is the daughter of Kangee, the black mare, who, to my knowledge, has not had a foal since the 2008 round up. When Kangee went off to foal, Haze, a bachelor stallion, got her and little Ladore and was running them around the range. Kangee somehow made it back to Tashunka.

Lilka

The wild horses look good for going into the winter. This filly has an experienced mare to show her the ways and supply her with rich milk.

The mustangs did not want to be bothered and moved off fairly quick. Here I got a back end shot of Nahmana. she is Moda's yearling filly, sister to Lilka. So all horses here accounted for. Ohitika's band used to always be by this band, but they have splintered off, but not before Ohitika took Tashunka's 2 yr old filly Mina and his grey mare, Wi Wakan.