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!

Cosmo's Band

This is Cosmo's band.

The dappled grey stallion, Cosmo, looks a little beat up and thinner then normal.

....I think it is because these two bachelors, Kiowa and Hoot, are after his three year old filly, Juniper. Juniper just recently returned to her family band after spending the summer with Rounder's family then she spent some time alone with Kiowa, when Hurricane took over Rounder's mares. She seems to tease the young bachelors, but in the end, makes it clear she would like to stay with Cosmo, her mom (Tulip) and the rest of the mustangs she grew up with.

Kiowa has a big scrape on his side, most likely he has gone to the ground fighting over Juniper (can't confirm).

This band has only one 2011 foal, a colt....this little guy, Milagro. These mares are all in the HSUS PZP study...they would have been easy to dart summer of 2010 because they are very tolerant of people.

Look at his mane! It looks like the mares have roached it for him!

Milagro's full brother, Astro (2010 colt) is missing.

Here is one of those mother/daughter combos that are stuck together like glue. The little pinto is the mom...we call her Vogue. The big sorrel is her 2009 filly, Gem These two were with Femur before Cosmo. Gem has Femur's stripe...but we can not know for sure he is her sire. They have an incredible bond.

Gem

The big Grulla, Grace, with her 2010 filly, Heidi. Heidi was born late in the summer, but has grown to be a strong and sturdy little wild horse.

Heidi

The big dun, Cowgirl.

Cowgirl's other side.

We call this pretty mare, Jess. No foals for this mare.

Will Cosmo be able to keep all of his mares?

The bachelors continue to stalk Juniper.

Rounder's Band

Lucky me....on this day I am fortunate enough to run into Rounder's band. I had heard there were some changes to his harem and it was nice to see for myself.

Pablina, the flea bitten mare, has lost her yearling son, Diego. Hopefully he has struck off on his own and has found some bachelor stallions to roam the range with. This is about the time of the year the first yearling colts leave their families. Diego was born early last spring so he would have been old enough to strike off on his own.

Rounder now has both of Prince's chestnut mares plus both of their 2 year old fillies. For awhile the mares got seperated when Prince's band got "disbanded". Moonlight was with Blazer for a short while, but found her way back to her "twin sister" and best friend, Sunshine. They have a very tight bond. Here you see the mares with their fillies.

Rounder, the impressive liver chestnut band stallion.

That's Juniper, she joined this band sometime between last fall and this spring. She is a 2 year old filly from Cosmo's band.

The only 2011 foal in this band, little Lozania. She is growing healthy and strong and is well taken care of by her family band.

Here are Rounder's original mares, Pablina and her bay friend, Floriano. They came from Lightning's band. They have a very tight bond and are not real accepting of Moonlight and Sunshine yet.

I love this sweet little colt. We call him Cabellero. He is Floriano's yearling. He was born later then his brother, Diego, the one that is missing. Often the colts will leave when their dams have their new foal. I don't think Floriano was bred this year, but I could be wrong. If she doesn't have a 2011 foal, most likely Cabellero will stay with his dam, but nothing is certain out here.

Cabellero is getting to know his new sister, Dusty. She is Moonlight's 2 yr old filly.

Dusty, most likely Prince is her sire.

That's Oda, Sunshine's daughter and Dusty's best friend. I am so glad they somehow got reunited.

The family bonds between these mustangs are strong. We should take this into consideraton if we have a "gather". It is inhumane to chase them with helicopters and rip the families apart. In this day and age we can do better. We should be working on a bait system where we could pull out a few adoptable youngsters if there is a population problem.

Juniper, Cosmo's daughter, Rounder's young mare. She seems content here.

Rounder with his new mares.

Kiowa, the pinto bachelor stallion is challenging Rounder, he would like some mares of his own. He has been "babysitting" two 2 year old colts all summer, but seems ready to have mares. He is strong and fit and it giving Rounder a real threat.

Rounder is a lean machine. He is off to face off with Corona, who is near by.

Nothing much becomes of it and he backs down from the dunalino. Rounder will have to work hard to keep all these mares. He has no satellite stallion to help him. We will have to wait and see what happens.