Photo Of The Week – 9/22/11

An attentive Piceance Creek HMA band (Summer, 2011).

I spent a good deal of time with these horses this year; learning about them, their families and the area they call home. As I post this, there is a roundup underway in this HMA. How many of these gorgeous horses, these inquisitive faces, these peaceful souls will lose their home forever? Such a loss for all of us. I will just never understand or accept this method of management.

I will miss every horse removed that I had the privilege of spending a little bit of time with…

There is a recorded information line updated daily about where and when to meet to view the daily gather operations if you can attend: 970-878-3837.

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Photo Of The Week – 8/17/11

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This is Bolder’s band (last year) from the Pryor Mountains of Montana enjoying the early morning. It’s not a particularly beautiful image, but it “feels” peaceful to me.

From The Cloud Foundation, The BLM Billings Field Office mailed a Scoping Letter to interested parties on July 28th, stating their intent to reach an “Appropriate” Management Level (AML) of 90-120 adult wild horses, one year of age and older in the Pryor Mountains. If they carry out this plan 45 to as many as 75 horses would be removed in 2012. Please write a factual letter to the BLM using some of the information at the following link: Pryor Facts for Scoping Input 2011. Letters need to be postmarked to the BLM by August 30th. No e-mails will be accepted. Letters can be addressed to:

Jim Sparks, Field Manager
BLM Billings Field Office
5001 Southgate Drive
Billings, MT 59101

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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Divide Basin Bachelors

It seemed like we were driving forever before we finally spotted some horses. I got out of the Jeep and peered through my lens. Looked like a group of bachelor stallions. What a sight they were against the mountains in all their wildness.

I walked towards them. As with most bachelor bands I’ve run across, they’re the most curious and these guys were no exception. They started towards me as well.

The big bay is trying to catch my scent.

I admit it - I have a thing for the palominos. This boy just shimmered in the sunlight. What a gorgeous animal.

Buddies

As I was admiring the boys, something spooked them. Look at those quick, cutting horse moves to get out of harm's way. Amazing.

They bunched up and took off. I never figured out what set them off.

Taking another look

You are a beautiful, beautiful horse!

Putting on a show for me by running back and forth as I stand still and watch

Before I made them too uncomfortable, I decided to back away and leave them alone. As soon as I did, they quit moving and stood for this parting photo.

Always such a privilege to spend time with the wild ones…
(September, 2010)
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Though we had trouble finding horses in this area (only 4 bands after a full day of searching), there is a roundup scheduled for this herd management area next year:
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_b2c60626-5049-521b-ae90-4eca3ee230d3.html

(Click on the images for a larger/sharper views)

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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.

(Photos are for viewing purposes only. Images are copyright protected and owned solely by Pam Nickoles Photography. No reproduction or downloading permitted. Feel free to share the link, not the images. To share, click on the blog entry title. The permanent link will be displayed in your browser’s address bar. Copy this address to share.)

West Douglas, CO Wild Horses – July, 2010

This was our first visit to the West Douglas HMA. I heard there were around 90 horses left there and the plan was to zero them out entirely in October. I wanted to see them before they were gone. Seems our wild horse trips were becoming more and more about missions to document and then say goodbye to the beautiful animals we observed due to impending roundups.

I’d contacted the BLM Range Specialist in Meeker about how to find this group of horses. Had she not given me directions and a general location (we still got turned around and ended up on a narrow and somewhat cliffy road somehow-UGH), I am certain we would never have found them. Even after having finally discovered an area with some horse sign, we only managed to find two groups of horses – just nine in total (one I didn’t manage to get a picture of).

As we approached the top of Texas Mountain without a single sighting, finally, there on the corner of a turn was a group of three horses. Our first West Douglas horses. Two mares and a stallion and I think they were pretty surprised to see us. I can’t imagine that they see many people – not where we found them.

Click on the image for a larger/sharper view.

West Douglas mare and stallion

At first I thought the stallion was missing his left eye, but once I was able to blow up his images, I saw that it was there, just kind of set back. It looked like he may have been kicked or something on that side of his face. Obviously, a tough fella.

And the little mare was so cute – so small (probably young) and curious.

Such a inquisitive, sweet face

The other mare was definitely not as curious. She was a nervous horse. Not interested at all in hanging around while I took pictures. She was agitated and went back and forth before taking off for good, taking the other two horses with her.

We continued up the road and came upon more horse sign. Stud piles mean there are wild horses in the vicinity!

We drove some more and I got out and hiked. Nothing. We didn’t see or hear any horses.

Almost at the top of Texas Mountain

There were good sized horse trails, just no horses.

Stud pile and horse trail

I followed the horse trail out to this burn area

I could see a lot of area and it was pretty up there, but still no horses

We hit the end of any road we could follow (there was a tiny trail, but we decided against it), so we turned around and started to backtrack. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash. A horse, but you could barely see her. Had she not had the bright white blaze, we might have driven right by. And there was a little one beside her too.

I got out to see if I could get any closer, but none of these horses were particulary interested in us either. I watched them follow a path that ran right along the edge of the mountain. I grabbed these really quick shots as they passed by.

The band stallion

Look closely at this boy’s chest. That was quite a wound he had there and yet, he appears to be fine and healthy and strong enough to maintain a family band. The Mustangs are miraculous healers.

Pretty mare

Hi little one

I didn't figure out the gender on this one, but to me, he looks kinda studly. Maybe he's a younger stud still hanging with the band until the big guy decides to kick him out

After these guys disappeared over the side, we never saw another horse even though we continued to drive around the mountain and look for quite a while. It wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but at least I knew that these few would always be remembered in my photos. They’re not just numbers or “excess horses.” They’re individuals with families and histories. I just wish I could follow one through its lifetime without losing it to a roundup.

There is a lot more pressure of late for the BLM to end the roundups until a more humane and scientifically based management plan can be studied and implemented. I hope everyone’s efforts will bring about a moratorium in time to save these horses and all the others slated for removal this year. Thanks to all of you that continue to fight for our wild ones.

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