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.

The Save

Well, we were up north driving around looking for Coffee Pot Springs... I know this sounds unbelievable, but after three years of exploring The Basin I could not tell you which hole is Coffee Pot. Anyway we are driving down CR 67 and come upon this scene. It is Destiny and Ohyhee (Blue's fillies) on the wrong side of the fence and a group of bachelor stallions and colts on the other side.

My first thought is where is Blue? Blue is their band stallion. I think it might be the horse on the right, but can't confirm. He looks too little and not roany enough? I know in the winter he turns a solid color... maybe it is him?? My next thought is how could I help? They clearly wanted out!

Destiny (the pinto) is the clear leader of the two , 2 yr old fillies. Blue got her as a yearling. It is very rare for a yearling filly to get separated from her family band at such a young age, but not unheard of. That was back in 2010, the other little bay came from Cobalt's band (dam Mahogany). Blue got her this spring.

I had to come home to ID these stallions but here we have from L to R Shane, Pete (the guy who had the rope around his neck), Renegade, Half Moon and ?? Is it Blue?
These are some horses I had on the MIA list, so good to see Renegade especially (the grulla). It looked like he had been with a foal as his tail was chewed off...
Also good to see the rope is no longer around Pete's neck
One could mistake Shane, the sorrel pinto for Falcon, but he is out of Shiva from Warrior's band (3 yr old colt).

The fillies stay on the fence line, the studs on the road.

Blue (?) and Half Moon, the beautiful red roan who I think is a 3 year old, but could be wrong. He could be older...Look at how good their feet look! That is a trait of an American mustang.

The fillies turn the other way and head towards a gate we have opened for them. They seem to be asking for help. These young horses have seen plenty of people, this helps in a situation like this. They do not panic.

I slowly herd the fillies down the fence line. All of the other horses take off except for Half Moon. He comes charging down the road and sets himself in position to push the fillies. We work together to herd the young mustangs to the opened gate. It seemed like eternity... maybe a quarter of as mile? We keep them at a walk. My biggest fear is they will take off to the right, but they don't. I cross my fingers and hope they will go through the waiting opened gate! I see the gate....When Half Moon hits that spot he runs left and the fillies follow!
I am smiling ear to ear as I close that gate.

I can't tell you how happy I was to see them gallop away, back into the HMA (Herd Management Area)! They are safer here where we can keep track of them and help them if needed (wishes).  

Blue's Band

Look who I bumped into out by Sheepherder Springs the other day...The very handsome stallion, Blue and his two young fillies Destiny and Ohyhee. I had not seen him with Ohyhee, but John had. I am almost certain she is Cobalt's 2 year old out of Mahogany.

The fillies. I am glad they have each other. Destiny ran alone with Blue last summer. For some reason she got separated from her family band (Viggos) as a late yearling.

This filly has a distinctive thin, long stripe.

I love her black tail, little tuft of a dark forelock and one blue eye. She wears the shield of a Medicine Hat.

Blue roans out beautifully.

Blue, Destiny and Friends

Here is a photo of Blue and Destiny. Blue is the hansome stallion and Destiny is the little medicine hat filly from Viggo's band. She is a yearling who somehow got seperated from her family last spring. At first she was with a group of youn bachelor stallions, but then Blue came along and has really claimed her as his own. He is very possevive of her and will fight hard to keep other stallions away.

On this day he had a large possee of young colts (mostly 2 year olds) that are not a threat to him. He even lets some of them interact with his filly. This was quite a sight. I am never ceased to be amazed how colorful these mustangs are. This was such a handsome group...I will try to explain who they are..

Blue on the right with two, two year old colts, Ziggy and Snip. Ziggy is from Bugs band (dam is Rita) and Snip, the black, is a Picasso baby. His dam is Olga, who is now with Vegas.

These colorful pinto are both 2 year old colts. Tango and Flash. Tango, on the left, is from Picasso and Mingo and Flash is Pablina's son, the most likely sire is Lightning. Aren't they gorgeous?

The palomino, Nick, is a bit of a mystery. I do not know what band he came from. He might be a 3 year old, but can't confirm. If he is a three year old he was not rounded up in 2008 as all weanlings were removed from the herd. Anyway, Nick is a nice mustang who is very social. He is usually with a large group of "boys".

Close up of Nick.

Blue stands out with his wonderful coloring. A blue roan at its finest! Destiny is safe with this guy.

The grey is Tonka, who was near by and came to have a word with Blue....nothing became of it. Tonka is a band stallion with a good size harem.

Picasso's 2 year old colts, Tango and Snip. It is nice to see them together. They are best of friends and half brothers.

Blue comes to get a closer look at me.

Miss Destiny otherwise known as "Miss America".

She has half a bonnet and a very nice shield. I don't know if she is a true medicine hat, but she sure is special.

Off they go!

All of these wild horses looked great and this was a really fun encounter!

Mysteries

Here is an elusive little family. This is the first time I have seen this foal that is with the dun, Storm, and his mare, Blue Sky. Sky came from Lightnings band. She ran off with Storm last June. He keeps her well hidden. We need a name on the yearling. I don't know if it is a filly or colt.

Destiny is now with this black stallion who I believe to be Harlan. Destiny is Viggo's and Kira's yearling filly who ended up seperated from her family coming out of winter.

I am pretty confused about this band...I wonder if one is Tuscarora's 2 yr old filly, Dolly? Tuscarora was near by. I think the yearling is the one we called Slate? We need to do some research to ID this little band. I think the black stallion is Slick, who I need to get in an album.

This is a band I am slowly learning about. They have two crazy looking pinto mares, who look like they could be sisters. We named them Splash  and Luna. Splash has the 2 yr old sorrel colt, Roosevelt. He is easy to tell apart as he has a pinto marking on the side of his neck. The band stallion is one of the duns, I always forget which one. Both duns need ID's along with a yearling chestnut filly we have not recorded. I do not know who her mom is. I will add the duns along with the filly to our albums. I am going to do a whole post about this encounter. Please be patient!

Wow, this band was spooky with their new foal. I think the sorrel stallion is Solaris, who had a large band last year. The grey mare is Frosty, the roan yearling is her colt, Flare. The other horses are the bays Sedona and Mesa. Hope to see more of this band.

It was good to see Silverado, the white/grey, with his band. Nothing has changed here except for the mare's (Celeste's) new foal. I did not get a gender. The yearling filly is Bird. The black is a stallion we call Skerik. I don't know how he fits in. Satellite stallion? Aragon was dogging this band.

This is the white stallions, Warrior, band, minus Warrior. The mare and her 2 yr old colt (Shiva and Shane) are pintos. The new filly we call Diva. Bojangles is a satellite stallion for these guys. Cortez had this mare and her colt last year.

Cortez, the dun with the hour glass blaze, with his two mares, The white mare is Asha, she is nose to nose with her son, Aspen. The bay mare (Athena) was with Solaris last year. She does not seem to have foals.

I was lucky to find Vegas with PJ and Olga (from Picasso's band). This mare had joined them with her newborn.  I have better photos of this mare and will do some more research. I just want to make sure we don't count horses twice.  

I finally saw Tuscarora (another grey/white stallion) and his two mares, the yearling palo, Goldie, and the two new foals. This one belongs to Gaia, we named her Arctic. Talia's is younger and is also a filly . So nothing has changed too much here (phew) except his 2 yr old filly, Dolly is missing. These mustangs were not into being photographed on this day ....Talia (the grey mare) was very shy with the new filly.