Spring has sprung but we wonder where the grass is? These early weeks of spring can be especially hard on the wild horses as they struggle to find suitable forage to gain back their strength and conditioning from winter. Little ones like this new baby have mom’s milk to sustain them, but mom has to work hard to find enough food to produce milk.
Although there appears to be lots of grass, by this time of year it has lost a lot of its nutritional value. The mares in foal are roaming quite a bit in order to find enough to eat to help them successfully foal out their babies.
The yearlings from last year, like this filly, definitely show the hardships of winter. The green grass is starting to come but it needs a good soaking of rain to bring it on. Then all the horses and other wildlife will begin to thrive again.
Other youngsters, like this boy, like to play in the springtime mud. Its itchy loosing their winter coats and the mud baths and rolling help them shed out. Dad is so disgusted he turned his head away from his son!
This beautiful older mare is pregnant and right now is doing fine spending most of her time grazing. It will be interesting to see what colour her baby is. The sire is a bay as you can see in the following picture.
Taking care of his herd and new son is so tiring!
The rest of the herd is enjoying the warm sunshine. As you can see facial markings can be extremely helpful in identifying individuals. This is important for documenting and keeping track of the herds.
Lunch time. Foals nurse several times a day trying to get as much milk as they can before their mom moves off.
Done with milk. Time for a nap!
The forest and grass meadows are extremely dry right now. We are hoping we get some warm spring rains to help all the animals and cut down forest fire hazards.
