Cody Band

Lucky, lucky us....Cody and his little band are just off the road and do not seem to flighty. We get out briefly and snap a few shots of this roan's gorgeous family band.

Cody's new adittion, Goldie,  the palomino three year old filly from Tuscarora's band, she seems to be getting along great!

... she has buddied up with Chikala, from Tashunka's band. She is a 2 year old Cody stole last year. These two seem to be the best of friends. It is great to see.

Cody's mare who stripe goes right we call Hope. She was a little lame today and was taking it easy with her new 2012 filly, Question. Look how healthy they look going into winter!

The mare whos stripe goes left is Cosima. She is tightly bonded with her 3 (?...maybe 2) year old filly, Rosie. Thank goodness Aleta has the horses all organized on a spread sheet. There are too many horses here for one person to remember.
 Do they look alike or what?

Cody did a pass by us to check out the new breed of mustanger..." us"... the modern day wild horse advocate... people who admire their beauty, grace, pride and family structure. We do not believe in helicopter round ups. These horses would be easy to bait trap if some needed removing. PZP has been effective here and people are willing to continue to do this.

We should be working toward making this a National Wild Horse Preserve, but I think other people (not many, but they have strong voices) have other plans for our friends ... like removing 200 by helicopter September 2013 (not confirmed).

Let's work towards more humane management here and work together to Preserve our herd! Please email jwfox@blm.gov. He is the man in charge of the next "gather". Please be nice! Tell him we would like to work together to make sure these Colorado wild horses are saved for generations to come!




 

Cody's Band

It was nice to bump into Cody and his small band. We just got a quick glimpse of them. Here is the handsome roan band stallion. One could confuse him for Dolor, another roan with a similar face.

Cody has two, loyal mature look a like mares. There's one of them on the right, Cosima. She is shown next to her daughter, Rosie.Look how similar there stars are!

 The buckskin you can barely make out behind them is the 2 year old filly, Chikala. Chikala came from Tashunka's band. Her mom is the grulla there, Ska Wakan. Cody stole Chikala last fall (2011) when Ska Wakan was a little sick and had a new foal by her side (Lilka). Ska did get better and this little filly seems content here and very pregnant.

The other mature mare that looks just like her sister, Cosima, except her stripe goes right is Hope. Hope has this new filly we named Question. Her stripe looks just like a wrench! Really healthy looking this one...gorgeous.

Off to the waterhole ...here you can see Chikala very pregnant. Also Hope's 2 year old son, Slate, is missing. I am pretty sure I saw him with bachelors by Lake Draw but can't confirm. He is a grey.

Tashunka and Ohitika's Bands

Often times the two roan band stallions, Ohitika and Tashunka, are seen hanging out near each other. They have done a bunch of swapping around and Wakan Ska, Tashunk's grulla mare is missing. I'll try to explain...

Ohitika's band front to back...Chippewa (sorrel, his original mare), Chippewa's new filly, Wi Wakan (formely with Tashunka), Mina (Tashunka's 2 yr old filly out of Moda), and the stallion. What color roan is he??

Front to back....Moda, Nahmana (Moda's yearling filly, Kangee (black mare), Chikala (Wi Wakan's yearling filly) and Tecomseh (orphan)

Tashunka

Ohitika

The fillies watching the wise old mare, Moda, have a roll.

While I was watching Tashunka ran to meet up with Willie Nelson and Snip, two near by bachelor stallions. Here he is running back to his band. I love it when the stallions do this. Usually when they are gone the youngsters get curious and approach me to investigate.

Mina, the bay, is Tashunka's and Moda's 2 yr old filly who has clearly moved over to Ohitka's band along with the grey mare. There was another 2 yr old in Tashunka's band last year...Takoda. He is now running with the bachelors. he is a stunning blue roan. I have not seen him lately, but confirmed he had made it through the brutal winter.

This is Tecomseh. I first met her about a month ago when she was a newborn. Her grulla mom, Wakan Ska, was with her. I am sorry to report Ska is missing....she was not with her band, nor Ohitika's on this day. This is the youngest foal I have witnessed being orphaned. We will have to wait and see what happens. For now she is clinging to Chikala, her yearling half sister.

You can tell Chikala by her horizonal star and unique coloring. She is the yearling daughter to the grey, Wi Wakan, who is now with Ohitika. She is a yearling. She was born a good three months ahead of Nahmana last spring. She was an early foal.

Last year Ohitika only had one mare, this sorrel we call Chippewa. She had a 2 yr old filly (Skye) by her side, but the filly is gone replaced by this new one. Isn't she a little beauty? This is the first foal I have seen out at Sand Wash with this coloring.

Ohitika is having a scuffle (nothing became of it except a lot of noise) with Cimmaron, who is near by with his one mare (Spice) and her 2011 colt (Pepe). Doesn't Cimmaron look good this year? Last summer he spent quite a bit of time with Bear, Ellie and Flirt as a satellite stallion.

The black mare, Kangee, joined this band late last summer. She has no youngsters of her own, but makes a nice "auntie" horse for the little orphaned roan filly.

Moda (Little Bear) with her yearling filly, Nahmana.

Tashunka's fillies  L to R Nahmana, Chikala and Tecomseh