Photo of the Week – 9/22/19

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Barcus area stallions. The bay on the right is Shiraz. I know I say this a lot, but he’s one of my favorites out there. 😉 I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years, so this was a wonderful and overdue sighting. His gray buddy is quite a looker as well. (Piceance-East Douglas HMA, CO.)

Photos are for viewing purposes only. Most images are available online at: http://www.NickolesPhotography.com. Images by Pam Nickoles Photography, along with all site content are copyright protected and owned solely by Pam Nickoles Photography. Photos and/or text may not be used, downloaded or reproduced in any form without express written permission from Pam Nickoles Photography. Feel free to share, but please respect my copyright. You can follow me on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/pamnickolesphotography and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamNickolesPhotography/

Wild Horses Overhead :)

An early morning encounter with horses on a high ridge above us. Piceance-East Douglas, HMA. (Colorado, 6/2019)

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The band stallion is the gray (almost white) guy on the far right (known as Seven).

I’ve been spotted!

This mare is known as Honey.

This little one is getting angry, pinned ears from a mare that is not his mother.

Hurrying towards mom.

Last year’s foals. The perlino has blue eyes and the sun makes her squint.

The little bay foal on the far right does belong to “angry ears.” 😉

The band is being followed by a gray, bachelor stallion.

Coming down from the ridge.

And into a small meadow where we left them to graze. A cute parting glance from the youngest member of the band. 🙂

Photos are for viewing purposes only. Most images are available online at: http://www.NickolesPhotography.com. Images by Pam Nickoles Photography, along with all site content are copyright protected and owned solely by Pam Nickoles Photography. Photos and/or text may not be used, downloaded or reproduced in any form without express written permission from Pam Nickoles Photography. Feel free to share, but please respect my copyright. You can follow me on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/pamnickolesphotography and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamNickolesPhotography/

Available For Adoption @ Rocky Mountain Horse Rescue

Please visit my Facebook page to view the complete album of horses available: (https://www.facebook.com/NickolesPhotography?ref=tn_tnmn#!/media/set/?set=a.2281107704044.2108639.1139356307&type=1)

These horses are located at Rocky Mountain Horse Rescue in Arvada, Colorado. I apologize that I don’t have complete information about each horse.

Descriptions of the horses available for adoption can be found at this link: http://www.rockymountainhorserescue.org/Information.htm

There is more about recent impounds (available for adoption as well) at this link: http://www.rockymountainhorserescue.org/April_2011_Impound.html

If you fall in love with any of these horses, please contact Bini Abbott directly at 303-424-0037 for more/complete information about each horse (you may use my images to help with identification). Thank you for your interest and please feel free to share this album. Hopefully, some of these horses will find good homes through networking.

A few of the horses available…

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Thoroughbred mare.

Arabian mare and colt.

Tomboy (Arabian)

Thoroughbred gelding - Triveni.

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Photos are for viewing purposes only. Images by Pam Nickoles Photography, along with all site content are copyright protected and owned solely by Pam Nickoles Photography. Photos and/or text may not be used, downloaded or reproduced in any form without express written permission from Pam Nickoles Photography. Feel free to share, but please respect my copyright.

Colorado Vacation Highlights – Part One

While not exclusively horses, I thought I’d share some images from the southwestern area of Colorado where Tom and I just spent 10 days.

Our first stops were the Monte Vista and Alamosa National Wildlife Refuges.

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The brightly colored Yellow Headed Blackbird

Ruddy Duck

A Coot youngster

An American Avocet

Ain't I something? 🙂

First thing next morning, we were on our way to spend the day on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad – America’s highest and longest coal fired, steam operated, narrow-gauge railroad. Cool! I’ve been on the Durango Silverton and the Georgetown Loop, but this was my first time on this train. Our adventure began in Antonito, CO and ended in Chama, NM with a lunch stop in Osier, CO. Loved it and what a wonderful fall trip this would be!

Our mighty little engine

Making last checks before heading out

Blow out!

Known as the Speeder, this little car hangs back and follows the train to put out any cinders that may hit the ground thus preventing a fire.

Indian pictograph along the route - gotta be quick to catch this. The train doesn't slow down! 🙂

Los Pinos River valley

During our ride, we met a young family from Ohio; Ryan, Carrie and Aiden. Ryan is a railroad buff and had been on a section of the route once before. He explained quite a bit about the mechanics, history, etc. of trains and when he remembered a particularly scenic or dramatic scene along the way, he always alerted me. Thanks Ryan! 🙂

Hi Ryan!

Aiden spent most of the day on the observation car (as did I - I have cinders in my camera sensor to prove it). The red booster step was his constant companion.

Our lunch stop - Osier, CO. The train from Chama, NM (going the opposite direction) is already there.

The Chama train departing Osier and heading towards Antonito, CO

At the Cumbres Pass Summit (10,022 ft), we are greeted by a guy and his dog on an ATV. Hi!

Last blow out before coming into the Chama station

End of the line - Chama, NM (we rode the bus back to Antonito).

What a great day – a bit sunburned and windburned (but not bad) with a few cinders in the teeth and eyes (trophies – HA!), but so worth the incredible views. I’ll be back!

I’ll also be going back to Stunner Pass just to the SW of Antonito, CO. A bit high, but very doable (especially if you come from the southern side – you’re up against mountain the majority of the time) and absolutely gorgeous scenery. We camped one night just below the summit. Just a perfect trip. And did I mention something about it being GORGEOUS?! 🙂

The pass follows the Conejos River for quite a ways.

We ran into these guys on the road in the little town of Platoro, CO along our route. My kind of place!

Looking back on Platoro

Summitville, CO

This was both a gold and silver mining location

Something old, something new

Lots of really pretty runoff streams along the way

Approaching the summit

So peaceful

And there's still snow up there! 🙂

At the end of the drive, we found ourselves just west of South Fork. We weren’t sure where we’d end up, but this worked out well since our next destination was Creede, CO.

Downtown Creede

There's a loop you can follow just north of town that takes you to some of the old mines and buildings.

More streams...

We took a road we'd never been on and ended up at the Last Chance Mine. It's location is not for the faint of heart. It sits on a cliff edge and it's about a 2000 foot drop. Gulp!

It’s a very intesting setup and history however. You can find out more about it on their website: Last Chance Mine

They rent cabins for donations (again, cliffy, high locations), there’s a museum and it’s the home of Creede’s Amethyst Vein (my favorite stone). If we’d had more time, maybe I would have tried my hand at “mining” (also part of the activities available).

Some of the items attached to the outside of one of the cabins.

This sits out over the cliff - I will never have to go that bad!

And so does this deck. Sitting out there is one brave individual.

You can see this as you leave the Last Chance Mine.

Looking down at Creede

We stayed just west of Creede at Freemon’s Ranch and enjoyed a horseback ride along the river and into the foothills. The folks there are very nice and next door is their little store that they claim has the best burgers and ice cream around. We tried both and they may be on to something. 🙂

Hi cowboy! 🙂

We spent another day just driving around enjoying the sights and critters around Creede and Spring Creek Pass.

North Clear Creek Falls

Cow moose and calf

Chippy with his face stuffed in a dandelion (see all the seeds spread all over?). I have a whole series of images with this little guy. He was too much fun to watch.

Our state flower - the Columbine.

I just love these colors.

And, a very curious marmot shared his home with me for a bit.

My follow-up post to this trip (Part Two) will include some more incredible Colorado locations as well as many horses. 🙂

Photos are for viewing purposes only. Images by Pam Nickoles Photography, along with all site content are copyright protected and owned solely by Pam Nickoles Photography. Photos and/or text may not be used, downloaded or reproduced in any form without express written permission from Pam Nickoles Photography. Feel free to share, but please respect my copyright.

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Dream Horse

Every once in a while, I’m gifted with stories that lift my spirit. Yesterday, one such story came my way so I thought I’d share. I cried, I laughed, I jumped up and down – and I still am.

Last January I received an e-mail from a young girl who wanted to know about a horse on my website. He looked like her “Dream Horse” that she called Abafalth. The photo was of one of my favorite stallions, so I told her all about Utah from the McCullough Peaks HMA in Wyoming. (a link to a previous post about Utah and his family with more photos: https://nickolesphotography.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/utah-mccullough-peaks-wy/)

Tess and I continued to correspond and she’d periodically ask me for updates and photos of the handsome stallion, which I would send her. It was pretty apparent that Tess was quite taken with this boy.

In June, Tom and I made a trip to the Rock Springs, WY BLM holding facility. There, I took photos of the horses that I planned to post on Facebook in hopes of generating some interest, possibly getting a few adopted out. As I went through my images, I kept thinking one of the horses looked very familiar to me. I had posted a photo of her and her brand new baby on Facebook and each time I looked at it, I kept wondering about her.

Finally it hit me and I was devastated. The pretty little pinto mare had been in Utah’s band and the beautiful baby at her feet was the spitting image of her sire.

Two Bears, Shakira and Utah in the wild

Utah and Two Bears

Two Bears (the mare) had been rounded up the previous Fall and had given birth to the foal after her capture. I was heartbroken. Of course I told this story on Facebook and Tess read about it. She contacted me right away and wanted to know how to adopt the filly. I passed along the information to this 19 year-old from Missouri and then wondered. I never doubted for a moment that Tess was sincere about giving the foal a home but since I didn’t hear from her after that, I figured that’s as far as it went. I’ve never been happier about being so wrong!

In Tess’ own words:

“It’s a long story, but to me it’s almost a fairy tale. This story to me has creation, determination, the certainty of defeat and at the end, even through it all, a happy-ever-after.

The creation started when I created a wild stallion dream horse, since my parents said I was too young for a real horse yet. He was jet black with white markings. His name was Abafalth. Years later I found out that he existed in the real world, only this one was called Utah. I found him through Pam Nickoles’ photography website and contacted her, telling her the story and keeping tabs on Abe/Utah.

The determination came when I found that Pam had taken pictures of a mare from Abe/Utah’s herd. She had been rounded up and she and her new little filly were up for adoption. I called the BLM and kept tabs with Kathi Fine, calling every couple of weeks like a paranoid mother hen. When the little filly was ready to adopt I – long story short – found a hauler, signed the papers and everything was set… or so I thought.

The certainty of defeat hit me when the hauler backed out on me, leaving me 2 hours to find a new hauler or give the little one up. I didn’t find a hauler and when Kathi called for the non-existent hauler’s information I never cried so hard in my life. Kathi apologized profusely as she told me that another woman wanted the foal if I couldn’t get her. We said good-bye and I thought that was the end.

And then came the happy ever after as Kathi called back with news that the lady had backed out and that a contract trainer for the BLM had agreed to take one more horse into his shipment of trainees. I called Steve Mantle and he agreed to let me adopt her. We found a new hauler and with painstaking work and hectic communication between Kathi at the BLM, the horse haulers and Steve, the filly was finally unloaded December 11th into the corral at my home.”

Video of the filly’s arrival:

(The following photos were provided by Tess)

Tess and her new filly

A remarkable and determined young woman for sure. I’m so happy for Tess and for “Little One” (the filly’s nickname until Tess comes up with the perfect name).

With much anticipation, I look forward to Tess’ updates as she begins her journey with the very lucky daughter of her Dream Horse.

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