A great trip- 5 days of roaming wild in the high desert of SE Oregon with friend Alice McCammon, who I've been going out there with since 2011. we hiked nearly 5 miles in the backcountry with no guarantee of wild horses at this waterhole and took a chance... even though I was taught to estimate and balance effort to reward. But this is an area which has little seen and some of the most stunning mustangs. The potential for reward to effort was a good investment return, we decided. We initially sat hidden in the canyons shade near the valley. We sat there for a while at the quiet waterhole watching a distant pair of geese, and began talking about how many more minutes we were going to wait before making the long trek back. Suddenly we heard a stallion holler echo off the north wall of the canyon valley we sat near “OMG they’re here!” were comments we exchanged. We decided to move further away down the canyon’s shady east side so they can freely come to the basin without interference and we could observe them less likely detected. We waited and waited like two eager kids at Christmas with butterflies fluttering about. A few minutes later heard the distinct sound of a hoof thud on the hollow sounding dirt, and soon numerous hooves striking rock. The Sultan band came into the clearing and watered with enthusiasm... splashing, pawing, and even rolling in the water. As they were leaving we moved to higher ground and looked back at the wild colors moving back inside the canyon valley. As they headed up the ancient mustang trails, I liked how a few in the back stopped to observe us. **I'll be posting a full video on my channel, I hope you follow me there too, to get notified of when the videos are up
www.youtube.com/mustangmeg (click on the bell icon there to create settings.) So many wonderful moments, and will continue to develop my journal here as I recall specifics and moments, so this is a work in progress. But until then, here are some of my short-hand notes to the group I work with covering Oregon herds- Oregon Mustang Group (OMG), and thought you guys who follow the South Steens wild horses closely may appreciate the field notes: Aztec no foals Kamaria very preggers. Royale band looks good/intact Arroyo and War Chief 6 in band plus the two stallions Cash with a sorrel and cremello Topaz following BigBlack Dusty foal in YB band to mare Lacey (daughter of Shiloh). Little Vogue elder mare Callista and colt, Callista still lean but better. Surocco has four in his band, he's darkening in dappled color. Audacious has Sunshine and Pinyon. Sunshine looks somewhat better but still rough but will make it. Pinyon fuzzy-cute and observed him nursing a full meal. Marquee with Spartacus and three others- a bay mare, dunalino mare, and sorrel offspring. Juniper is in with or among Arrow and Ditto band, as said the other day- isolating and snaking away Chardonnay and Jackie (both of which look better). Merlot with Halfmoon, bay mare with bay roan shedding colt, and Firefly. Nine in maestro band plus maestro. Gray Lady colt as we’ve seen, is a knockout. Eight in Valor band including V. Valor looks outstanding like he skipped winter- good weight, slick and fantastic muscle tone. CloudWalker is now a band stallion with a pinto mare and solid sorrel offspring. Shaman w four! A buckskin filly and pale palo from somewhere (yet to be determined). Sadly, looks like no foal this year for Jocelyn/Shaman. Her 2019 colt is fuzzy and looks good. Red Vogue band- Kindle have sorrel filly. His leadmare- Saige is huge. Remington Caesar band 25+ and Chaos is now in this mix. Sultan band good sized and all look good at a back country waterhole. Mariposa w Eros, Natchez w bachelors. Arrow not tolerating Dibs and Mundoo, lots of skirmishes/fights. All three giving Juniper some space almost giving up letting him try and snake away Chardonnay, Jackie and offspring. Chablis goes with them too, but often returns to Arrow, and soon followed by Chard and the rest. Juniper is having a hard time trying to extract those mares as they keep returning to Arrow with the rest they are bonded to like Hattie (Hattie has an adorable solid sorrel foal). Spartacus/Marquee seen w a dunalino mare, a pallo and a sorrel and a bay w a star. Also, Bacharotte of Noah band has a very fresh pinto foal, too far to gender id. Cremello foal (too new to get too close, and too far to id) to Casino black mare. Bachelor stallion Topaz (Charm's 2014) is now following BigBlack band. Navajo bay mare has a sorrel colt with wide upper blaze and either it's Otonio or Bentley has a pale cremello filly and small silver pinto. I'll have to compare blazes of the black band stallion and hopefully id history on the other two. Houdini is now running with young bachelors, including Stryker (Juniper colt). Jorja of Cruiser band has cute red colt with big white face - Jorja looks better than she usually does this time of year.
