Cosmo's Band

On this day we get lucky and see Cosmo's band at the Lake first thing. Cosmo has bachelors dogging him all summer and the boys look a little run down.

The bachelors all seem to be after the grey three year old filly, Juniper. Kiowa had her at one point last summer and will not accept the fact that she wants to be with her family band. That's Hoot in the middle, Kiowa on the right. Cosmo does not have a lot of fight left in him and seems to allow these stallions to mingle with his band.

That's Tulip...I wanted to show you the nice wind knot that she has grown. She is the dam to the only youngster in the band, Milagro. He is also the only colt. He is a 2011 foal.

There is the little guy, Milagro, on the right. The big grulla is Grace and the grey on the left is her gorgeous 2010 filly, Heidi.

Heidi

Milagro

As you can see the horses are not as fat and plump as they should be this year. The forage is scarce, especially on the southern end of the HMA where Cosmo resides. The sheep were in all last winter and then we never got any rain (or very little) this summer. This is the worst drought year in Northwest Colorado history. In my opinion we should be feeding them and getting them used to bait trapping, but The BLM still is saying they will do a helicopter round up because of cost. There are many people who feel this is inhumane and will fight to see that our wild horses are treated with respect.

Outlaw looked especially thin and a little droopy. It is hard to see. It would not be that hard to drop them some hay. It would be cheaper then rounding them all up and feeding them in pens. Anyway as we drove on further we did not see many skinny horses. Cosmo has been run down all summer due to the dogging bachelors. At least things seem to be calming down. Cosmo's mares are so loyal to him. It is an amazing thing to see!