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I have a deep amazement with and respect for wild horses. And a particular love of paints, probably due to owning one and pasturing 8 others on our place outside of Cody, Wyoming years ago. Some time ago I posted a pic of a black stallion and said that I would say more about my encounter with the McCullough Peaks Mustangs, which is a mostly-paint band, outside of Cody, Wyoming. So here it is.
We had been searching for a band that we could get close to, and from our vantage point at the top of a ridge, we could see a herd more than a mile away, across a stream, up an embankment, and across a valley. We headed down to the stream in a 4-wheel drive truck, only to be stopped at the swiftly-flowing seasonal stream. We could neither ford it in the truck, nor on foot. As we headed back out to try a different approach, my husband saw in the rear view mirror that the herd was on the move, and moving fast – straight towards the stream we had just left. He pretty much yelled at me to grab my camera bag and start running. It was a half mile back to that stream. I know I beat some kind of personal record, with a 40-pound pack, no less! I arrived just in time to see the horses running down the embankment and into the stream. I admit to not taking as many photos as I could have, but the experience was there, and I immersed myself in it. I can still conjure that feeling of being there. One must be respectful and keep a distance away, so I sat quietly in the grasses and watched for the next 50 minutes, only taking 202 photos.
I believe this is Booker Rose, a grey sabino stallion born in 2002. Although he doesn’t have paint markings, I’m also very partial to greys.
Posted by Terri Toll on 2018-07-23 01:23:00
Tagged: , McCullough Peaks Mustangs , D610 , Nikon , Nikon D610 , Nature , Wyoming , Wildlife , Wild , Wild Horse , Cody, Wyoming