One of the first groups of horses I saw this week was the new – and growing – boy band, led somewhat intermittently by Duke. He seems to let them go when they wander outside what I’ve come to think of as his territory … but he blew that theory out of the water this week by leaving the boys “home” and wandering (alone) halfway across the basin. When I first saw them, Duke and Twister were standing together and three boys were playing together.
Wait, three? Was Storm back with Cuatro and Ze? No, wrong coloring (and he’s still with Baylee and Tenaz). But from the distance, I couldn’t tell.
When I got to a better vantage point, I found Duke above Spring Creek (which is NOT a flowing creek in the usual sense of the word – it never flows continuously – it has some water seeping up in places), looking down into it, and I thought the boys had found water. I waited, Duke walked along the top, crossed, came up the other side … climbed a hill – alone. Change happens just that fast! With no two-legged the wiser. I have no idea where they went, whether they outran Duke … or whether he let them.
The next day, I spotted four boys waaaaaaay over on the western edge of the basin, and I started to have an idea about that fourth mystery horse. I found Duke later, alone, far from “home.”
The current make-up of the boy band is a 4-year-old and three 2-year-olds (one will be 2 in about a week).
And this is the new familia:
Though Iya looks like Bones in color and her big blaze exclusively, it tugs at my heart to see her with Poco and Roach – in *their* home territory. By a friend’s weekend photos, this happened sometime after Sunday morning. You know who that fourth horse is now, with the boys? I never got close enough to their end of the basin before they left to take pix, but Sage has joined the boy band. (Insert guitar riff here. 🙂 )
I’ve decided to name the colt Cougar after our encounter last week with a mountain lion just southeast of the basin. I hope it will serve him as a talisman of protection, rather than a jinx. It’s a bit of a tough-guy name for a baby, but it’s a great name for the stallion I hope he grows up to be …
Roach’s solo adventure of a week or so ago left him with a collection of healing scabs on his neck. And speaking of Roach … an odd happening with another stallion has me wondering whether Roach’s roach all those years ago may have been natural after all. I have no explanation for either. To come.
