We thought we would let everyone know how well little Chaska, the late born colt, is doing. When we saw him the other day as he was having fun tearing around with his siblings in the herd.
Here he is with two of his siblings being protected by their sire. The stallion always keeps such a close eye on all members of his herd.
One of his beautiful mares and her foal.
Another beauty with her foal. Where do the genes that dictate colour come from? As you can see by these photographs, all the horses, including the youngest, are all in excellent condition for this time of year. This is encouraging since its almost the end of January already.
As we continued in our travels that day, we came across this group enjoying the afternoon winter sunshine on an exposed side hill.
The sunshine just totally highlighted the golden mane and tail of this beautiful mare who is part of the same group.
These young stallions put on a display for us. As is typical with young boys, they were challenging each other to see who was stronger. This is an important trait they must learn in order to eventually challenge a mature stallion to get some mares of their own. It is fun to watch. Again it is mostly bluff and posturing with no harm coming to either. Soon they wandered off feeding peacefully together.
Below them was another large herd, led by the stallion we call Thor. As you can tell by some of the mares in this group, the mare pictured above is one of their offsprings.
Can you see me? Further along our travels we came across some familiar boys including this wonderful grey boy feeding amongst the bushes. He paid absolutely no attention to us, as he was very focussed on getting his feed.
We admired the shiny coats of these two young studs, who were very interested in our dog, as we hiked along taking pictures of their herd. Here you can see there is absolutely no snow which allows for easy access for food and one of the reasons that they and their coats are in such excellent condition.
As the sun began to set for the day, we found Raven and his herd feeding close by. He displays such classic Spanish-type characteristics – fine ears and head, long mane and tail. He is truly a magnificent specimen of how beautiful our Alberta wild horses truly are and why they should be allowed to remain free and wild.
