Storm's Band

We spot a large group of horses in the valley below. We decide it is worth the hike to get up close and personal with the mustangs. I was most interested in this small band. I do not see them that often and worry about the development of the colt, RainDance.

A couple of months ago a friend had seen him with bachelor stallions. I am glad he is now back with his parents and hopefully getting some milk from his dam, Blue Sky.

Storm is a wonderful roman nosed dun with no white on him. One could get him confused with Hurricane. He put up a huge fight to get this lovely little mare spring of 2010 when Lightning's band went down. RainDance is most likely Lightning's son.

Here is the handsome dun having a word with Tashunka, the roan. The horses were in a group composed of about 5 bands. For the most part, they were are getting along.

It is hard to mistake Sky with her little lightning splash and great big blaze. I like her white eye lashes.

Storm loves her too...This is a very shy pair. This is one of the best encounters I have had with them.

RainDance reminds me of a little Cowboy or Ranger. He was born late last summer. I know the mare never got darted last fall, she evaded the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) and their darts and PZP. I never saw this foal until this summer. Very elusive indeed.

Happy Mustang!

I hope RainDance makes it through the winter. He looks a bit thin and not as robust as some. Time will tell.

Storm's Shy Band

I wanted to show you this little Sand Wash family that are very leery of people.

The lined back dun is Storm, he has no white on him. He stole this mare from Lightning when his band broke up the spring of 2010. We call her Blue Sky. She had a foal late last summer which I never saw until this year, he is Rain Dance, a colt.

It was nice to get a close look at this shy wild horse that sneaks around The Basin.

Little Rain Dance is not the chunkiest of mustangs, but is wirey and wiley and has wonderful pinto markings. A real momma's boy, being an only foal.

The handsome stallion from another angle. He put up quite a fight to get his one mare. He seems to adore her.

Blue Sky was one of the first mustangs I met in the fall of 2009. She was in Lightning's band, but Haze was also in there, another stallion, who is now a bachelor. She was usually near him which makes him the likely sire of Rain Dance.

I think Blue Sky may be pregnant. I know the HSUS was not able to dart her with PZP last year. I guess that wouldn't make much of a difference this year, but it will for next year... Their experimental study has not been very successful. That's because there is no science behind it and they do not have enough people in the field.

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.