Bachelor Stallions & 3 Year Old Colts

Rounder. He is one of the four stallions dogging Cosmo's band. He is an ex band stallion. He "appeared" out of nowhere spring of 2010 when he stole Lightning's mares.. The HSUS girl told me she had never seen him before that (its that big out here) and she had been documenting since 2008 (summer months). He is a beautiful liver chestnut. He is looking a little run down....he wants a mare! He challenges Cosmo, but stays away from the other doggers.

Last year he had quite a few mares, maybe too many. His band splintered last fall.

This is Hoot. For now he seems to have claimed Cosmo's 3 year old filly, Juniper. But he is still with Cosmo. He goes back and forth with Kiowa and Outlaw.

Kiowa. He had Juniper for awhile last fall, but she ended up with Cosmo and her family band. He is relentlessly trying to get her back. He is a fighter. A true American Mustang!

This is a different scene....a different day. These are young East Side bachelors, Sir Duke (Grey) and Clyde (Sorrel). Lots of folks have been seeing these 3 year old colts...Sir Duke seems to change daily with his looks. The greys are hard to ID. I am so glad The HSUS is going to help us with the ID cards. I think together we can have a pretty good documentation. I think this will help the wild horses if they are gathered as planned, Oct 2013. The HSUS has spent hours and hours studying their markings.

This is an older East Side bachelor, Sundown. He was "babysitting" the two previous colts on this fine day. I like this photo because it is a good one for an ID card. It shows his leg marking and facial ones too. I would say he is somewhat of a submissive stallion. I have not observed him with any other mares since the 2008 gather.

Another encounter.... I have been seeing quite a bit of this beautiful blue grey bachelor and I think I have finally figured out who he is! Takoda from Tashunka's band. He would be a 3 year old colt. He has befriended Tripod our disabled colt. He is a lively guy who is very bold and likes to have fun with the other colts.

The pretty palomino is from Maestro's (Bug's) band. He is another 3 year old. There are a lot of these 3 year olds. The HSUS reported more then 60...(.we have 50 some recorded). These are the post 2008 gather babies. I personally believe round ups cause larger foal crops the next year. It is wrong to gather the entire herd at once. It would make more sense to deal with the horses band by band in a larger period of time if some need to be adopted out.

Anyway shown with Nick is Tripod, the disabled perlino colt. It is nicwe to see him with other horses. I observed him really playing hard...rearing up, getting down. It is amazing to me how he has adopted to his deformed hock.

* Note... I have learned The HSUS has names for the band stallions. Out of courtesy to them I will start using some...So Bugs become Maestro. The most important thing about names (to me) is that we are all using the same ones.

Tripod's injured hock. He sustained this injury as a newborn. He is the 2009 colt out of Corona and Cheyenne. The HSUS mentioned they were interested if any one would like to give him a home.

The chestnut is actually Voodoo, a band stallion. He left his 2 mares and came to have a romp with the young bachelors. I love to watch them play! The palo is Skip.

Good ole' Lightning. He has left his pasture by Two Bar to join in the Cosmo fiasco. He really looks good and is giving the boys a run for their money!

Outlaw is a scrappy little guy. He has a wonderful flaxen mane and tail. He is out of one of Prince's chestnut mares. I saw a foal photo of him pre 2008. he is also involved in taking over Cosmo.

These three have been observed together all week. The whites are two older stallions, Snowman and White Out. White out is the likely sire of the darker grey 3 yr old, River. This is the first time I have observed a colt returning to his band stallion without his Dam.

I think of Snowman as the guru of SWB. He is quite timid, but friends to a lot of horses. Occasionally he gets real beat up and then one of his friends will help him. White Out is more bold and will still challenge other stallions.

Copper's Band

I drove up north hoping I would bump into Twister's (Deuce's/HSUS name) band. The HSUS lady and I had seen them earlier this week from afar. We could tell by looking through glass Copper Girl had a foal by her side..

But out at SWB you never know who you are going to see, as fate had it I did not see Twister, but lucky, lucky me I spot Copper and his harem.....also known as "The Dark Ones" I had seen them once before this spring, but not close enough to get photos.

That's Copper front and center. he has four white socks, but hard to see these horses' legs in this thick sage. To the right is Scarlett, his solid bay mare. The black behind is his 2 yr old son, Coal, and the little muley guy on the right is an yearling colt, Boomer.

This grey mare is new to Copper's band. I think t may be Wi Wakan from Ohitika's band, but can not confirm. She has no youngsters with her. Copper has also lost a mare to WildWind....These wild horses really know how to mix up their genes!

Copper has these two amazing black mares. they are very wiley and our good moms. This one with no white on her face we call Ebony.

The other one has a small dot star. We call her Evita.  Both mares have two colts with them. I can not tell if they are pregnant again. Last year they both foaled in May.

Scarlett.... to me she looks like a domestic, but she sure acts wild. Plus she made it through the brutal winter of 2011. Not just any horse could have done that. 

Here are the two 2011 colts ... Red and Boomer out of the black mares.

To me Flame is a stand out, he is a 2 year old colt and a full brother to Red.

The other 2 year old colt out of Ebony, Coal.

The band stallion, Copper.

"The Dark Ones"

Eagle's Band "The Bird Herd" (Feat Robin)

We drove miles and miles without seeing a horse the we came along Eagle's band. This family is almost always spotted in the same area year round. Eagle has just one mare. The two pintos are her yearling and 2 yr old colts....
 Meadowlark and Falcon.. By the way they are acting we can tell they have a new foal! We see the ears first..

Then the little guy gets up. It is a perfect little sorrel. I can not determine gender.

We just get a glinpse of the newbie and then his mom is a good wild horse mare and leads him off.

His dam is Lark. She is one of two mares I know of that is not part of the PZP study. She is prolific. I am not sure who her 2009 offspring was...either Hoot or Sparrow.

Big brother, Falcon. This is Lark's 2 year old....the mustang with a perfect Thunderbird on his neck.

Pushing off.

This new foal will get used to his rambunctious brother play fighting.

Mystery Band (Bay Stallion & Sombrero Mares)

I had heard there was a Leopard Appaloosa mare in our herd and OMG there she was! This is an obvious domestic. Maybe from The Sombrero string next door in Sheep Head Basin. It is no secret the wild horses share some of there west fence line in the winter with a large herd of domestics. Of course things like this happen.

She walks towards us! Well, now we can say we have EVERY color horse here in the most colorful herd in America! The BLM and Sombrero know about this. I don't know what will happen. The bay stallion is really spooky.

Here is the other domestic mare. You can see her brand.

See the brand on the right hip?

The third horse with the bay is a mystery for now. I would have to take the time to research my photos. Maybe a filly from Copper's band?

I can not confirm who this is. I originally thought it was JimmyDarkSand, but can not prove this with this photo. Plus Jimmy usually travels with Chief and "The Mob" The other horse it could be would be Thunder? I just don't know. Stay tuned...

Femur's Band

I had not seen Femur since last fall, but had heard he had lost his pinto mares and his three, 3 year old filies, but had kept the 2 year old fillies. These fillies came from Jet's band. Jet's band splintered spring of 2011 and Femur ended up with most of his mares and all of his youngsters.

Named for the shape of his stripe by The HSUS. Femur is a layed back stallion and is quite tolerant of people. He is usually in one general area year round. He has had mares come and go. At one time he had Yellow Cat and Vogue. He has also been alone. He does not seem to mingle with other stallions. For now he is raising these two beautiful fillies.

I had Nimbus ID'd as a colt, but she is a filly. Her mom is Sun Spot. Sun Spot is currently with Centauro. She left Nimbus as a yearling. Nimbus is refined as her sire, Jet.

This filly ID'd as Kinstry is exotic. She has stripes down her legs and other primitive markings. Her dam is Zephyr, who is a grulla. This filly also got separated from her mom at a young age. The pinto mares helped raise her then somehow ended up back with Jet. The pinto mares never settled with Femur and it is nice to see them back with The Black (Jet).

This photo does not due her justice. She has a prominent dorsal stripe and little black marks above her eyes.

Nimbus is a very feminine filly. Femur seems to be looking after her and her half sister well.

Lame Foal in Warrior's Band (Shakti)

Twister's Band

It sure was nice to see everyone in Twister's band was doing good. There were 10 horses which means things haven't changed since last fall. 

When I first met Twister he had two beautiful grey mares that look like they could be sisters. This is the darker one, Shady.

The elegant white is Windy. Both of these mares are excellent wild horse mothers and have been quite prolific. Windy has had 3 foals since the 2008 round up and Shady has had 2.

This is Shady's 2 yr old filly, Whisp. She is a real stand out. She has striping on her legs and a dorsal stripe.

I am confused on the sorrels here. There should be 4....Twister, Breeze (Windy's 2010 colt), Callie and Coppergitl. Callie and Coppergirl are fillies (3 yr olds) from Jib's and Copper's band, respectively. I think this is Coppergirl, but can not confirm. Any help would be appreciated!

 This is Windy's 2011 filly, Sunni. She was born about a month before her half sister, Promise. This encounter was short and the horses were pushing off. I was lucky to get the few photos I did.

In 2010 Twister had just one son, Gus, the grey here. Twister has kept him as his satellite stallion. I am pretty sure the sorrel here is Callie from Jib's band. She is pregnant.

This is the other 2011 filly from Shady. We named her Promise.

Now I am confused. I just can't seem to sort out this sorrels. Is this Coppergitl? It is hard when they are in the deep sage and I can not see any leg markings. Also they are still shedding out so their color is different.

I am pretty sure this is the 2 year old stud colt, Breeze, from Windy. He really looks like his likely sire, Twister.

As I was observing Twister's band I could see Jib and his family in the distance. Jib is another sorrel that lives near Twister, Callie came from this band. It was nice to see nothing had changed here either. Jib has his 2 loyal mares, Jill and Crazy Horse and their 2011 fillies, Dash and Riddler. I will have to get up here and again and get some better photos for our public documnetation.