Wild life photographer and film maker, Ginger Kathrens, went out into the Pryor, or Arrowhead Mountains of Montana. Soon, she spotted a wild horse band led by Raven, a pitch black horse with a white star, and set up her camera to film them. Just minutes later, a very light palomino mare, later named Phoenix, led her newborn right past Ginger's camera!
He was very different from all the other foals roaming the Arrowheads. He was almost completely white! All the other horses were darker colors, like duns, roans, and grullas, while both he and his mother were a light palomino color, making them like glow-in-the-dark targets for the wild cats. Ginger thought of the wispy clouds when she looked at the fragile colt, so she named him Cloud.
Through his life she tracked him, worried over him when she couldn't find him in the winter, rejoiced when she found him in the spring, cheered for him when he started his first family, was all but brought to tears when he was rounded up for auction by the BLM, rejoiced when he was let free, and agonized all over again when a year of drought brought fire to the horse range.
He has had his ups and downs, and turns16 in May this year, making him one of the oldest wild horses alive.
So now that I have told you the very short version of his story, here is mine.
Mom and I have been planning a trip to see some wild horses the BLM rounded up, in San Angelo, a place 2 and a half hours from here. At 9 A.M, we set off. We got to San Angelo at about 11:45, so Mom stopped and made me eat a burger. Then we headed to the Spurs Arena, where we knew there were wild horses.
That's when we got our giganto scare. We saw a place with lots of horse corrals, horse stalls, and it was all empty. Every stinkin' one. We drove past another place, empty as well. And there were no people that could tell us where they might be. Finally, someone could tell us one more place to check.
We did, and voila, we saw horses!!!! But STILL no people to tell us if we were in the right place or, if we were, if we could look around at the horses or not! Someone working for the BLM came and told us we could look around, take pictures, and all that.
There were 6 pens. All of them held at least 6 wild horses, except pen 1 and pen 6. They held burros. Pen 1-Jennys- female burros. Pen 2- Yearlings-the name says it all. Pen 3- Geldings- Gelded stallions - (extra thought, they already have to freeze brand a WILD stallion, now they get to geld him too?? Whee, what fun.) Pen 4- Mares- female horses. Pen 5 - Some more yearlings. Pen 6 - Jacks- male burros.
So I was super careful not to touch any, because I knew that they would more than likely spook. But then the BLM guys started leaning on the fence, petting a horse or two that would let them close enough. There was a mare that I would have LOVED to take home. She was super sweet, and no matter where you petted her, she always DIDN'T CARE ONE BIT!!!! She was really sweet. One filly let me pet her, a gelding, nother yearling, nother mare, and a burro. All in all, I pet almost all the horses!!! It was amazing!!!
Now I will enlighten you with pictures!!
![]() |
Some beautiful mares |
![]() |
A gelding with a strange, gorgeous star |
![]() |
One of my favorites, a palomino gelding |
![]() |
Me petting an adorable, fluffy Jack burro |
![]() |
Me petting a gorgeous gelding I finally convinced to come close enough |
![]() | |||
Two silly yearlings grazing together. I grabbed this pic when one looked up. |
No comments:
Post a Comment