A frosty morning with some of the amazing wild horses in Arapaho Creek of the Red Desert.... a heavy fog is lifting as the sun peeks through breaks in the foggy clouds, a soft breeze chilling me as I wander through this magical winter vista, enjoying the company of a few of the wild horses I have come to know in this wild land of theirs.
There are three different family bands in this video...
The old grey mare bonded with the black & white stallion following the bitter winter of 2022/23, they roamed for several months with another grey stallion that now has his own little family, and then the bay pinto stallion joined them in 2024, he is young and has not offered any challenge to the smaller but incredibly fierce black & white stallion.
The palomino pinto mare lost her entire family in the bitter winter, I had known them for many years and found them all near each other when the snows finally melted.... she joined this bay stallion and his two mares that spring, she was incredibly terribly skeletal thin and distressed, but after several months with him and his two mares. she became calm and confident again.
Unfortunately that winter cost many more mares lives than stallions, and now mares are stolen back and forth, this bay stallion has lost his two other mares, and for a little while he was challenged by another for this palomino girl, but he refused to give up and I was happy to see them together again, from the timing of when I have seen them together that is likely his gorgeous pinto foal with the palomino girl.
And finally, the beautiful buckskin stallion has the largest family band.... he has been with the same grey pinto mare for as long as I have known him - we first met in 2020, he kept them all together and alive through the bitter winter - he has wisdom that is needed to survive and thrive in the desert!
The gorgeous grey stallion a year ago was dogging this buckskin boy, it was wearing him out a bit, and had it been a harsher winter he may not have won. A year later and these two have become allies.... the grey is younger and he is taking on most of the challengers, with the buckskin sometimes stepping in to help and make sure his family stays together for at least one more winter.
Arapaho Creek
Red Desert of Wyoming
December 2024