Tuscarora band

We saw Tuscarora's band today. He has a few new horses and one that came back... let me explain.

A couple of months ago one of Tuscarora's mature mares (Gaia) was found dead by Lake Draw. About the same time his other lead mare, this one, Talia, dissapeared leaving the grey stud with all young fillies and a 2012 colt. Anyway, today I see Talia has returned and she has a beautiful, vivacious greying out colt by her side. We'll call him Tokio. It is a mystery where she went. I am so glad she has come back to help Tuscarora with this large band.

Isn't he cute? Maybe some stallion stole Talia when she went to have this little guy, but no reports of anyone seeing her with another band.

The little red roan filly is Lucky. She joined Tuscarora with her little colt, Mike. Lucky is only 2 years old!

There's Mike. He is small, but looks super healthy and has three other foals to play with in his family band.

This is Arctic. Her mom was Gaia, the one who died. She is doing good along with her little sister Comet who was born early this spring.

Not a great photo but wanted to show you Comet's body condition. This is pretty amazing considering we are in severe drought and she is getting by without any milk.

Tuscarora now has both of Centauro's yearling fillies. Actually this is Arctic again, but Isis, from Centauro's band, is also a palomino. The grey pinto behind is Tierra, the other Centauro filly. No one has seen Centauro's band for awhile so wonder what is going on with that band.

Tierra, she was one of the first foals born spring of 2011 to Reyna from centauro's band. . I love her exquisite coloring.

I can't tell you how glad I was to see this mare, Talia! She has been with Tuscarora since the 2008 gather. It was so strange how she vanished when the other mare died.

So there they all are...twelve horses all together. Ten of them are three years or younger. The other new horses here are Makani and her colt Watson. Makani is out of Sunspot and Jet. Watson was most likely sired by Femur.

Tuscarora's Band

On the hill we see Tuscarora's little band. I am curious to see how they are doing as the grey stallion has lost both of his mature mares. Gaia was found dead at Lake Draw of unknown causes and Talia is MIA. Now Tuscarora is left with 2 year olds and under.

He has added a two year old filly from Centauro's band, Tierra. She is a beautiful filly, she reminds me a bit of Sugar, the grulla/pinto mare in WildWind's band.

That is Tasca, she is a yearling filly out of Talia. I am so curious to know what happened to Talia. She was very bonded with her daughter and it is unusual she left her. Hopefully she will show up.

The strawberry roan is Lucky. Tuscarora added her after she gave birth to the little sorrel colt, Mike.

Comet is doing good even though she lost her dam at such a young age. Luckily she was born earlier this spring and can survive on grasses.

Tuscarora with his very young family band.

This is Comet's full , yearling sister, Arctic. I am amazed how white she still is. I believe she will be a palomino.

Tuscarora

Mike plops down and takes a short nap. He has a long winter in front of him.

Tuscarora's Band

It's always nice to see the grey band stallion, Tuscarora, and his band of mares and fillies.

This is a shy band. Here they all are minus Tuscarora.

One of the two 2011 fillies, Tasca. She was born after her sister.  She hides behind her elegant dam, Talia.

In my opinion Talia is one of the most beautiful mares on the range. Here she is showing off her filly. Talia did not have a foal last year.

Here is the older of the 2011 fillies, Arctic. Isn't she a beaut? She was born early this spring and has turned into a leggy palomino.

The palo missing the ear tip is the dark mare's (Gaia) 2009 filly. I think she was born during that winter, but can't confirm. We had an usual amount of foals in 2009 because of the Oct 2008 round up. This disrupted the social structure of the herd. We know better now and there is no need to destroy family bands...it is cruel and inhumane. Hopefully the HSUS (The Humane Society of the United States) will help the horses. They are out there doing a 5 year PZP study which ends next year. We can only hope they are doing something to help these mustangs!

Tuscarora's mares...Talia and Gaia.

Tuscarora....Long May He Run!

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.