Wild Mustangs - Part 2

When the last of the wild horses had finally passed across the gravel road and were all quietly grazing on the opposite side of the road, LC and I finally began to very slowly drive further.

We stopped often so that I could photograph these free animals and so that we could both enjoy them.

There is something incredibly peaceful about them...............

As LC and I stood greatly enjoying the huge herd of healthy animals, I found myself continually searching for the female that had so unexpectedly lay down close to the truck and was obviously in some kind of distress.

After she had crossed the road with the young buck-skin and the older stallion (I think that's what they were) she had walked only a short way before pawing at the ground, sitting and then lying down again.

She stood up a few minutes later, walked only a short way and sat down yet again.

And then again.

And then again.

I found myself really worrying about a horse that I did not know.

LC had made the observation that he did not think she was a wild mustang.

If that was the case then she had been dropped off on BLM land and had tried to become part of the herd.

If that was the case she was not used to eating the food that was available, and drinking the water that was available, on BLM land.

If that was the case, it would explain the bite marks and scars on her body.  The herd was rejecting her.

I did not recognize her as a non-mustang while we were out there that night, but when I downloaded the pictures I had taken of her and really had a good look at her I realized that LC was probably correct.

When my neighbor looked at the pictures the next day she agreed.  This was a domestic horse...............

I took many of the pictures above facing directly into the soon-setting-sun and took the pictures blind, having no idea how they would turn out.

When I had finally been blinded by the sun one too many times LC suggested that we drive beyond the herd, see if we could find a side road to the left, and find a place to take pictures so that the sun was at my back.

Great idea!

There was a dirt road just over the rise on the left and that veered off from the gravel road.

After pulling to a stop at the top of yet one more rise on that dirt road, I again climbed out of the truck pleased to be able to watch the horses quietly grazing without the sun in my eyes.

Good deal.............

Rather than the slow but methodical straight-line walking that the herd had been doing when we first saw them, the progress of the horses over the span of the last fifteen minutes had been a casual movement forward as they all focused on grazing.

By the time we had been standing at the top of the rise on the dirt road for fifteen minutes it began to dawn on LC and on me that they were heading irrevocably in our direction.

When I finally realized that, there was a brief period of mild concern.

We were not supposed to be within 500 feet of them.  We were not supposed to interfere with them in any way.

Neither one of us wanted to cause the  horses any concern.

As I watched them definitely continue to move in our direction LC and I stood beside the truck indecisive.

We did not want to leave.  We couldn't go back the way we had come because the horses were all beginning to mill on both sides of the dirt road directly in front of us.

If we drove further away from them we would drop down a small hill and they would be out of our sight.  We wondered whether even starting up the truck would startle them.

We were stationary and quiet.  They were quietly grazing and ignored us.

No.  We would stay where we were.

I had never ever imagined that we would be able to get close enough to hear the horses snorting and communicating with each other as they ate, but we did.

As with so many amazing animal encounters that we have had over the years this one happened suddenly and unexpectedly, and both LC and I were grateful for the experience...........................

Looking west..................

Looking east...............

When the small group of horses in the background of this picture unexpectedly circled up and became noisier I fully expected there to be some kind of tussle.

There was a lot of noise, a few brief flurries of activity as one horse or another pushed or nudged one of their peers, but no full blown fights developed.

Within a couple of minutes they all separated and went back to grazing.

As I watched the entire non-episode develop and then recede it reminded of the posturing that happens on a playground.

Like a bunch of kids, there were the bullies and the bullied and the kids who circle to watch the action..............

There is a rhythm to these horses that is all their own.

Last year we stood for a long time watching them drink at the large pond and then begin to wander away in single and double file at some seemingly predetermined time that was known only to them.

This year we watched the horses as they single and double filed their way across the desert plains, crossed the gravel road and began to graze again.

As one they slowly but assuredly made their way towards us where they grazed in one place again.

And then again - at some point that they all recognized, this wonderful and amazing herd began to slowly move away from our spot, graze their way up the hill and move away from us.

It was an amazing encounter...............

The female did slowly stand up and (on the outskirts of the herd) began to slowly walk in the same direction as the rest of the herd.

We took more pictures as we left and then took many more pictures of BLM land at sunset that I will post in another blog.

It was almost completely dark by the time we made it to the Greybull Highway and turned towards home...............

After I downloaded the pictures that I had taken I looked at our scarred and battered female.

And then looked at the too-thin light brown yearling that we believed to be her baby.

I agreed with LC.  She was not a mustang.

The next day I contacted the Cody office of Bureau of Land Management and spoke on the phone with the woman who oversees the herds out at McCullough Peaks.

After telling her what we had seen out there the night before she asked for a description of the horse and the yearling.  I told her that I had taken pictures of the horses and after getting her work email address told her that I would send the pictures to her.

My first email to the woman bounced back to me.  I resent.  It rebounced.

After the second attempt I called her and she gave me her personal email.

A few hours later the woman emailed me to say that she could not open the pictures - could I send only a couple at a time.

I sent three emails containing a total of six pictures, and told the lady that if she still could not open the pictures to let me know and I would bring my lap top down to her office.

Included in my email was a reiteration about our experience with the horse, a reiteration about my concern for her and what I thought was probably her baby, and please let me know how this turns out.

This morning I stopped by the BLM office to talk to the woman more about this horse, and I was told that she was out in the field.  Good.

This afternoon I received an email from the woman.

Definitely a domestic horse that was dumped out onto BLM land.  Probably having problems with the food and water sources out there.  Everyone looked fine when she went out there yesterday.  Thanks for letting me know about her - great to have an extra set of eyes out there.

I was angry.

I didn't know horses. I didn't know BLM policies. I didn't know the cultural or political climate of this place.

But I had worked in Juneau Alaska.  I knew when I was being warmly, and smilingly and politically correctly blown off.

Frustrated and feeling totally out of my element I talked to my neighbor - who can be an annoying old lady sometimes but she is someone who knows horses and knows Cody.

She asked me for the number to the BLM office and I gave it to her.

A few minutes later she walked to the house and told me that she had called the office.

The woman I had been communicating with was not in the office and so she talked to the supervisor there.

She expressed all the concerns that she and I and LC had expressed to each other.

A domestic horse unable to stomach BLM food and water.  Maybe it had been healthy and maybe it had not been healthy when it was dumped off - could it potentially infect the entire herd with something?  She was not welcome in the herd and was getting beaten up.  Her baby was too thin.

Why aren't she and her baby being taken out of the herd?

The man agreed with my neighbor and heard her concerns.  He is going to talk with the woman I had been communicating with and will call or email me back when they have decided what to do with them.

Sounds simple enough. 

I was eternally grateful to my neighbor for making the call. 

I should have made the call but was intimidated by things I knew little about and I should not have been. 

It was not rocket science.

I should have made the call but regardless, I am glad that somebody did.

I will write more when I know more..................

Wild Mustangs - Part 1

We had the most extraordinary and unexpected adventure yesterday.

Around 6pm last night I asked LC if he wanted to go out to McCullough Peaks to see if we could find the wild horses again.

We had not seen the horses since shortly after we arrived back in Wyoming a few months ago.

On that evening we found a small and young herd located close to the highway, and some of the mares were obviously pregnant.

I wanted to see if babies had been born, and now that the days are slowly but irrevocably becoming shorter I wanted to see them before the weather finally changed and it was cold here.

Leaving Jamie at the house we headed out the Greybull Highway for about 20 miles, turned left off the highway and entered BLM land.

As soon as we pulled onto the gravel BLM road we saw them.

A surprisingly large herd of antelope on the left side of the road, all grazing quietly.

Wanting to take pictures of these skittish and very fast moving animals, we stopped at the entrance and parked the truck.

Some of the antelopes immediately raised their head, wary and ready to bolt at the first sign of potential danger.

This was the closest we had been to antelopes since last year and we stayed in the truck, not wanting our movements to scare them away.

While talking quietly, LC had the best view of these strange looking speed-demons from his side of the truck and I handed him my camera, imploring him to take pictures of them.

Many of the pictures we took that I will post in the next couple of blog entries are a little faded out. 

"Close" is a relative term when talking about free ranging and free roaming animals.  That includes antelope and that includes wild mustangs.

With the fading sunlight and the distance these animals were from us, my little digital camera worked overtime as I (and we) shot over 300 pictures in the span of about 90 minutes last night, as we encountered many animals.

Click on any picture and a slide show of enlarged pictures should show up..............

After watching them contentedly and quietly graze close to the edge of the road for a long time LC eventually started up the truck again.

At the unexpected noise multiple heads popped up out of the sage brush, and when LC finally put the truck in gear and slowly pulled out of the dirt parking lot, these sweet and strange looking creatures bolted across the road and across the BLM land.

Thankfully we were driving slowly because as we rounded the bend in the road (above) we saw a young antelope nursing on its mother part way into the road. 

When they saw us both mother and baby made a run for it, quickly catching up with the saftey of the rest of the herd..............

A picture of the herd in real distance and real time..............

When the herd finally decided that they had put enough daylight and distance between us and them they stopped running.

LC stopped the truck in the middle of the gravel road so that I could take a few pictures of them out in the open..........

We were both so pleased to have unexpectedly seen the antelope but we were on the hunt for horses, and as LC slowly made his way along the road he looked deeply through endless wide-open plains to the left while I did the same to the right.

A mile or so later my excited man exclaimed "there they are!" 

I followed his pointing finger and saw them, appearing way off in the distance and all moving in the same direction in one very long line of slow moving, wild and free mustangs.

A quarter of a mile later we came to an intersection in the road - gravel road continued straight ahead and dirt road veered to the right.

We had been down the dirt road before, when we were in Wyoming last year and knew that they were coming from a large watering hole that was located behind a hill not far away.

They were a few hundred yards directly in front of us, and as I sat in the truck for a few moments watching them I realized two things:

1.  the entire herd was headed.......somewhere........only they knew for certain exactly where

2.  this was the biggest herd we had ever seen to this point

They were slowly making their way from the watering hole, and in one long single-minded line were headed across the road and into the shallow hills on the opposite side of the gravel road.

I climbed out the truck mesmerized by them.

I was always mesmerized by them.  They are so beautiful.

Some had already crossed over the road but I followed the line and realized that there must have been well over a hundred animals.

I snapped a few quick pictures without zooming my camera in, trying (unsuccessfully) to capture the magnitude of this very large herd...................

I looked to my right and realized that a van was headed in our direction, and quickly recognized it as being one of the vans that brings tourists on trips to view the horses.

As it drove closer to us LC walked over to talk to the driver while I continued to snap pictures of these beautiful animals who were slowly and methodically working their way to a place only they knew................

After leaving us the van turned onto the gravel road and slowly drove up the road, beyond the cattle guard where the horses had been crossing, and then disappeared from view.

As LC and I climbed back in the truck he told me that the driver had said a mare within the herd had died just recently, but he did not know how she had died.

With both of us thinking that the last of the herd had finally crossed over the road LC started the truck and slowly began to make his way further up the gravel road.

We got only a few yards before I looked to my right and was surprised to see three horses running right at us.

I quickly told LC "There's more horses.  Stop the truck!"

You cannot see them in this picture, but three horses all in a straight row were indeed running towards the truck.

I snapped this picture quickly, and then pulled my camera down and out of the way so that I could watch them.

They were obviously trying to catch up with the rest of the herd, veered to the right a little as they got closer to us so that they were now in front of us, and then slowed as they approached the road.

LC and I watched in amazement as these three horses backed down to a walk only 20 feet in front of the truck.

We had fully expected that they would simply cross over the road and meet up with the remainder of the herd.

But something was wrong................

These pictures were taken from inside the truck.

The dark brown horse led the way and as it got closer to us we at first thought that it was a stallion because the horse seemed to be so scarred up.  Quickly we realized that he was a she.

Stallions get scarred and bruised and beaten often in these herds as males battle for dominance and breeding rights.  But the girls.............why was she scarred up?

Neither of us could fathom a reason for her appearance and I watched her more closely, suddenly wondering what her story was...............

Wonder very quickly turned to worry.

This horse had been running when I first saw her.

As she walked closer to the road I had expected her to cross over but she did not.  She turned back from the road, walked in circles a couple of times, pawed at the ground a couple of times and then sat down.

And then lay down...............

LC and I sat in the truck looking at this horse and wondering what was happening.

Was she pregnant?  Was she in labor?

I did not think that she looked big enough to be pregnant, but had been so surprised by her actions that.................maybe she was.

She continued to lay there and LC and I continued to watch her, suddenly wondering and worrying about a wild horse that we had never seen before and did not know.

I found myself greatly hoping that she was alright.

She had been running.  She had not walked as though she were injured or sick.

What????

The light brown yearling and the older black horse had been traveling with her, and when she went down the two others stayed close by, refusing to leave her............

The younger horse particularly seemed disturbed by her laying down, and as I looked at this very beautiful young horse I realized that she was very thin, and that possibly this downed horse was her mother.............

After laying on her side for 5 minutes or more, the adult finally sat up and then eventually climbed back up to a stand.

She was not pregnant.

Together the three horses walked in front of the truck, walked across the gravel road, and walked towards the rest of the very large herd.

LC and I stayed put, continuing to watch the threesome, wondering what was wrong with this horse.............

Looking to my right again I was surprised still one more time.

Did this herd never end??

These were all males, all healthy, all strong, all traveling together.

These stallions had an aura about them.  An aura of superiority.

They ruled this herd and ruled this land and they all knew it.

They slowly and methodically walked together - part of the herd but separate from the herd, owning the herd and ruling the herd.

I imagined that they battled fiercely among themselves when the time came, but for now they were one.

My Mountain Boy and I watched them, enthralled by their surprise appearance and their royal demeanour, as they crossed over the road and headed towards the rest of the now grazing herd.................

As the males pulled up the rear of the herd LC and I watched as they slowly began to graze and blend in with the rest of the herd.

I smiled at these beautiful animals.

They are truly wonderful and we continued further with our adventure last night, which will be another blog post.

As in wonderment as I was with the herd I was worried about the female.

She crossed over the road and was barely 30 feet onto the grass on the opposite side of the road before she again pawed at the ground, sat and then lay on the ground.................