Mateo's Band

Renegade's Band

Look at the gorgeous grullo we call Renegade. This is my first time seeing him with a band. I have always known him to be a bachelor or just having one mare and maybe her youngsters. He has blossomed into a gorgeous boy! He seems to show off his small harem.

This is Crazy Horse. She is his lead mare as she is by far the oldest. When I knew her 2009-2012 she was always with Jib and her "sister", Jill, the grey/white. Crazy is an amazing looking mare, to say the least! I wonder what happened to Jib, Jill, her daughter Dash ... also Crazy's 2009 filly, Callie. I have heard Jib still has Jill but no recent photos, maybe when foaling season ends we can concentrate more on the yearlings through 5 year olds.

Here is one of the new 2014 foals. It would not be hard for me (or you) to find out the name and gender of this one. There are double documentations on face book. One on the SWAT page and one on Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses, the page I started in 2010. It has become real competitive to find a foal and put a name on him or her.

The band Stallion. He really has a primitive look, looks like the wild animal that he is.

I am guessing this is Loco. Crazy's yearling filly. She has the coloring of her most likely sire, Jib.



Renegade's band minus the lead mare, Crazy Horse.

?, Riddler, Renegade, Genie, ? , Loco    missing is Crazy horse and her 2014 foal. Names would be appreciated, I can go back and fill in.
Thanks!

I recognize this mare because of her unique stripe... Riddler,. We voted for the name on face book, when she was new her stripe resembled a question mark. I remember finding her as a newborn in 2011 (?) could have been 2012.... but like I've said we now have the means of looking this data up. Aleta W has done an amazing job with our spreadsheet. We have proved we, as citizen scientists on face book, can work together and get a somewhat accurate portrayal of the herd we all love so much.



Here is the stand out filly again.



According to Heather this is a yearling filly called Genie from Ash's band. It is rare for Heather to be wrong. She lives in New Zealand , has never seen this herd in person but she is our lead documenter. She works with SWAT and The Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses page. Without her we would have lost track a long time ago.

There you go ... The 2014 Renegade Band of SWB!

Blue's Band

Lucky me! The first band I see is Blue's. I heard he had a spectacular pinto filly we call Sapphire. There she is on the left! A real jewel! The black is her sis, Serendipity, and the pinto is her dam, Destiny. Destiny is a young mom, I believe she is only 4 now. Both of her parents are dead. .. Kira and Viggo. Little Sapphire carries on their legacy, she is something to see in this high desert.

I'll never forget the time Carol and I , with the help of a few bachelor stallions, helped Destiny and her filly friend get back into The HMA from the wrong side of the fence. Also I saw her as a newborn , seemed like we waited forever for her to be born ... it is fun to be out here with these memories. The wild horses have become so much of my life. I just love them!

I am so pleased to see all the mustangs looking so healthy.

This guy was real vivacious!

Drifter

She is a looker and seems to know it! I hope she makes it past her first year when a little foal is so vulnerable.

Sapphire

Serendipity and band stallion, Blue.

Brothers. The yearling on the left is Midnight Blue, a yearling out of the other mare in this band, Ohyehee.

He is going to look  a lot like Blue!

Unflattering, but an ID photo of Ohyehee another mare who got separated from her family band at an early age. Not shown is her thin stripe that is quite distinctive.

Someone has been eating his tail ...

... and I think I know who!

This older white mare showed up last year. We believe it to be Sunspot from Jet, Centauro. It seems like if a band has only young moms an elder will join and help them learn the ways of Sand Wash Basin.  We have only begun to understand wild horse behavior. I hope these wild horses can be left alone so we can observe their natural behavior and how Nature does the selecting. I find it fascinating.

Warrior's Band

Warrior's band! Warrior is this nice white stallion. To the right is Diva, his daughter.

Warrior has spectacular youngsters, including the two pinto colts.

The mare on the left is Shiva, she has been Warrior's lead mare since the round up. She is a minimalist pinto and an excellent brood mare. She has had a new foal this year, but she does not have one every year.

Shiva

Warrior

Diva, with the unusual stripe, is Shiva's daughter. I believe she was born in 2010. She has her own foal now. Most likely sire is Mr Bojangles, Warrior's faithful satellite stallion.

I love this old guy. He takes good care of his small family. I have noticed he is much more tolerant towards people. To think their are people thinking about giving our stallions chemical vestectomies sickens me. They would have to shoot them from a helicopter with tranqualizer guns then due some weird procedure. It would be a "pilot program". Myself and other friends of these mustangs are going to make sure this doesn't happen! I believe SWAT has taken a stand against this.

The grey/white pinto is stunning! A real stand out! My friend called him by another color ... I remember when he was born, I saw him as a newborn. He went lame his first year for awhile, but recovered completely.In my opinion, he will be totally grey like his sire.
Shakti

There are a couple of people who have focused on finding new foals this year. They are the ones who put names on them, you can go to Sand Wash Basin Wild Horse face book page and see all in the 2014 foals album. Here the photographers have come together and created a beautiful album. Heather Robson of New Zealand compiles them. It really is a group effort. The naming usually goes well, but can cause tremendous strife among advocates. We all love this herd equally and have different ideas on what should or should not happen to them. We have 2 documentations going on the 2014 foals, the other is by Aleta on the SWAT face book page. Hopefully this winter we can work on the yearling-5 yr old albums. This is a lot of work, but many of us feel like it will help the wild horses to have them recorded.

Warrior's amazing colts
Shakti and Arroyo

This is Mr. Bojangles, Warriors satellite stallion. He is really good at what he does, he helps Warrior keep his family together and safe.

Hurrricane's Band

Well it has been almost 2 years since I have done any documentation of the Sand Wash Basin Wild Horses. I would like to continue my work and join forces with the other photographers to make sure we are supplying accurate numbers to The BLM.  It is good to be back with my friends, the wild horses. This is Hurricane's Band.

The first thing that catches my eye is a new foal for Pablina, the elder grey/white mare who I first met in 2009 when she was with Lightning. She joined Hurricane, along with her bay friend, Floriano, a couple of yesrs ago. The band has added two additional mares, Dusty and Rudi, both I recognize.

This is Dusty's 2014 filly. She was named Allie. Now a days the photographer who spots the foal first gets to put a name on it. It is then added to a spreadsheet, given a number and reported to The BLM. The link between the documentation and The BLM is a group called SWAT. They came on to the scene a couple of years ago. They mostly focus on PZP and counting foals, much like The HSUS did when they were here.  They have put  our herd over AML (appropriate management level) of 363 wild horses. I believe this number is high as their is no way to determine a death/escape rate. Many of us continue to advocate on The Sand Wash Basin Wild Horse face book page where we are biased towards the horses.

This is my first look at Hurricane's "Twins". I had heard a lot about them through face book and have seen them grow up through other people's photos. They are not actual twins. One is from Dusty , the other from Pablina. They are both colts, have stripes on their legs and are a handful for Hurricane! Please check The SWBWH page under 2013 foal albums for their names. They are just stunning!

Our main documenter is from New Zealand. I took these photos for her and others so we can tell the two apart. The BLM is talking of "chemical vastectomies" for our stallions. I am against this.  

The bay is Floriano. She does not have many foals of her own. She had a beautiful colt in 2010, Cabellero, he stayed with the family for a long time, but has now left. I have not seen a photo of him for a long time. I am more concerned with keeping track of the ones gone missing.  Maybe this winter we can focus on that.

After the round up of 2008 Hurricane was young and ran with the bachelors, but it did not take him long to steal a couple of mares. We have many dun stallions here. Hurricane has a snub nose, a trait admired by mustang lovers like myself.

Dusty is a 2009 mare out of Prince's band. I remember when she left her family band. She was briefly with Picasso before settling in with Hurricane. Back then we tried "sponsor a wild horse" for fun on face book. A person got paired up with a horse and was going to keep track of him and her.

Some folks say we are too emotionally attached to these animals, that from a management point of view that makes no sense. The BLM asked me time and time again "How does the social structure affect the way we mange these wild horses"?
I think it matters a lot and we should interfere as little as possible. I think we should have a say in which mare receives PZP and their should be a public album where we can see which of our mares have been darted.

This beautiful band displays primitive markings.

What does the future hold for this filly?