Famous last words.
Last weekend, I didn’t go looking for the pinto family because I didn’t think Kiowa was too close to foaling. But I wrote in the post “Maybe she’ll surprise me.” Ha.
When I went out to the basin this evening, I saw them from the county road. I hiked in to see them closer, mostly because I hadn’t seen them for a couple of weeks. And there I saw, at Kiowa’s hooves, a spotted little bundle of joy.
Today – May 1 – is my brother’s birthday. Kinda cool. The baby may have been born yesterday or the day before, but I’m going to go with today as its birthdate in his honor. Happy birthday, little brother.
I confess that I’ve had this baby’s name picked out for weeks. I’ve always wanted to name a pinto foal Spook, and I love that the foal looks black and white – mama is dark bay/brown.
That’s Chipeta in the lead, followed by Kiowa and Spook and Kiowa’s yearling filly, Reya, who was so covered in mud she looked grey! Shadow is still with them.
Intruder alert. I finally got into a position where the wind was blowing at all of us from the same direction instead of blowing it right from me to them and was kneeling low behind some sage to take the above pix. In the back of my mind, I was wondering where Bruiser was, thinking he must have been blocked by some of the sage in front of me. Then I happened to look slightly to my left – boom. There he was, looking straight at me – and from his view, I was totally in the open. The photo above is from when he came to investigate. I knew the jig was up at that point and didn’t even bother trying to follow the horses. The upshot of this story is that the pintos have a fully watchful stallion looking out for them!
I’ve been able to get closer to the bands than I thought would be possible with the babies, so my plan has changed somewhat, and I don’t plan to pursue them in the near future. Checking on the foals from a distance will suffice for my observations, but it won’t provide very close-up photos for viewing on this blog.
I believe Alpha and Mahogany are pregnant … Roja is a possible … Jif and Chipeta are possibles … Piedra is a possible. Despite having seen her with a developing udder a few weeks ago, she is as slim as ever. I know Alpha usually foals in May, but she doesn’t look nearly as big yet as I’ve seen her get in the past. Still surprises to come! Meanwhile, we have four beautiful, healthy foals in Spring Creek Basin!
I almost forgot to say that I was planning to stay out there overnight, but temperatures here have plummeted, and it was FREEZING out there last night, especially with the wind, so I wimped out. I did see the bachelor band with the two pintos – Corazon and Cinch – and they were with all the other boys in that group: David, Ty, Mesa and the muley bay (someone please suggest a name for that boy!). I also saw Bounce and Alegre and Gaia – little girl was bouncing around and galloping circles around mama! – as well as Grey/Traveler with his little family: Houdini and Iya, Twister and Two Boots and Jif. When I first saw them, they were spread out, and I thought Grey must have things well under control because he’s not keeping them as tight as he was last weekend. Also saw Seven, Roja and Molly. I just don’t know about Roja’s possible pregnancy status. They were a little distance away, but I had a clear view of them – enough to know there were no foals hiding in the sage nearby.
A big cloud of dust out north of Flat Top alerted me to Steeldust’s band being dogged by the Bachelor 7 – which included Kreacher, who was alone Tuesday, but missing Duke now. Hollywood was defending the band against a two-pronged attack from Comanche and Mouse when I drove closer. When I showed up, they separated into two camps, and the boys stood calmly – pure innocence. 🙂 Ember was close to Luna, but I was able to get a clear look at her through the binoculars.
I received a note from David Glynn on the Lakota pronunciation of Iya’s name: Say “EE yah,” not “EYE yah.”
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 