What a beautiful time of year to travel into wild horse country. The fall colours are brilliant and the weather is picture perfect. Taking advantage of this, we travelled out west to photograph the landscape and the wild horses. The roads and trails are dry making access into some areas much easier.
We weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the dry roadways. Here the lead mare is taking her herd toward a little stream just down the way. It was a spectacular day and we came across a large number of horses to enjoy and photograph.
We came across these two young stallions enjoying the warm sunshine in this open meadow. There was plentiful grass for them to eat but they decided to engage in typical young horse behaviour – play fighting. The unusual colouration of the roan boy was interesting to see. If you look closely at the first picture you can see he has a white dorsal stripe running down his back, where normally many other horses would have a black one. Usually neither parties will sustain any serious injuries.
This beautiful dappled grey stallion has a small band standing near a mineral lick and fresh water just in front of him. His foal has grown and is strong and healthy.
As we travelled we enjoyed seeing the herds doing so well. Just look at this beautiful mare and her foal.
The day that we were out the west winds were blowing strong and a great many of the herds we came across were taking advantage of the wind to keep the horrendous little flies at bay. Here is one of our recognizable herds which has several colour variations in its members. This was the case in almost all the herds we saw. This made the day special with lots of horse colours and the fall season colours too.
Another beautiful coloured mare and here you can see the black dorsal stripe we mentioned.
As we rounded a corner on a back trail, in a meadow we found a large herd with these two adorable young colts. The stud was a powerful red roan and there were four other coloured variations within the mares, so neat! As the mares fed peacefully in the clearing, these two young hooligans ran off and started to push and shove playfully. They kept it up for a long period of time until reprimanded by their mares.
Another tranquil scene.
We came across another herd with this mare and her tiny foal, likely only about three weeks old. The mare is in extremely good condition, strong and healthy, and should be able to sustain her baby going into the winter. Every once in awhile we come across these late foals and as long as Mother Nature is not too harsh, they can survive. The baby was able to follow the mare and her herd through this clear cut debris without too much difficulty. In such clearings next to the logs, grass can be found that is still fresh and green providing excellent nutrition.
Not everything we find is at it should be. Here this young colt has apparently lost his mare and we looked all about to see if she was around. It was just him and we presume his sire by themselves. As we watched, the two walked off together. We are hopeful that the stallion will be able to afford it enough protection and guidance to him that he will survive. We will be trying to find them again to see how things are going.
We are pleased to announce that our 18th edition of our fundraising calendar is now available. We have been able to keep our costs the same as last year, so $25 each which includes postage and handling. This will be our only major fundraiser at this time.
The link to order is now open and you can find it at the top of the WHOAS website page. We want to thank everyone for your continued support during these difficult times. Stay well.
