My Favorite Photo of the Year

This is my favorite photograph I have taken of the pintos this year so far.  This shot of Moonbeam was taken very earl in the morning at the back end of our neighbors property about  6 weeks ago.

The Herd

I took these photos of Little Lady last week.  I had not seen her for a few weeks since I was busy with
the pintos at my place.  She has grown a lot, she has very long legs so we suspect she is going to be a big horse.  I love watching her run.

The herd next door running when they see us bringing them food.  Mama must have been lagging behind as she is not in this shot.

Spunky Little Lady

I am having so much fun photographing Little Lady.  She is very sweet and each time I go to see her she looks bigger. I took this picture today and it is the first time I have seen her use the salt lick. She can eat the grass fine because it is tall but when I put the feed down on the ground she can't quite reach it. I tried feeding her from my hand but she is still a little shy, although I have been able to touch her very quickly.  If you click on the image will get a larger version and you can see her tongue.
The photos below were taken on June 13th and on the 8th.
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Graceful Thunder

I love watching Thunder run, he is so majestic and such a free spirit when he is running.

Here he is running up the hill today after I called out his name.  He came when he saw us bringing food for the herd.  Even though he looks very small here, you can get a sense of the beautiful place he gets to live in.  It was a glorious day today and all the herd was very happy not to have too much wind and no rain. (We had rain and fog the past two days.)

May Brings A New Filly!

On approximately May 24th Mama gave birth to a sweet little filly. We named her "Little Lady" after Lady the old mare who died last March.

She is just a few days old in these photos.
While I was photographing her and her mother, Miss Moonbeam (Missy) and  Thunder decided to get into the act!

Poor Sweetie had to watch all the action from the other side of the fence

Today I started thinking about the other foals that have been born since we met the herd.  Here are images of the earlier babies.

Suki, a colt, born July 28th, 2009.

 Miss Moonbeam born May 6, 2010.

Splash a filly, born July 5th, 2010

Sweetie's Trials and Tibulations

Here is a photo of Sweetie and Lady during happier times.  After Lady died, Sweetie was kicked out of the herd by Thunder.  Lady always protected Sweetie from Thunder.  She would literally stand between the two of them. So we brought the herd over here and closed the gate between our place and our neighbors (where the herd has lived most of its life).  We hoped that Sweetie would find his way to the back end of the property where the other two stallions, Little One and Suki live. They had also been sent packing by Thunder but found a safe haven.
Our neighbor even tried to lure him with carrots back to the other stallions but Sweetie after making it half way turned around and went back up to the front ocean side of the property.  A few days later he kicked the fence down between the two properties so he could rejoin the herd over here.  However Thunder would have none of that and banished him down by the ocean on this property.  So we sent the herd next door and closed the gate so now Sweetie is over here all by himself.  It took him a few weeks and much coaxing to convince him he was safe here and did not need to stay down solely at the ocean end.  He now comes twice a day to the corral for food.
He had some sores from Thunder but they are all almost healed now. He is calm once again but lonely and misses the herd. He can see them on the other side of the fence and sometimes I can see the herd visiting him at the fence line. He and Thunder eye each other across the fence and Thunder tried to kick the fence down to get at him again so we had to run a hot wire.
These are wild horses and have not had a halter on them.  So getting Sweetie to his new home with Little One and Suki is not an easy task. We have plans to transport Sweetie with a lovely trainer  but the date has not been set yet.

In Memorium

I am sad to report that the old mare Lady died last March.  She was over 30 and some people think she may have been over 40 years old! She spent her whole life here on the coast and died on the land she lived her whole life on.  She had been slowing down the last year and the last few months before she died she wasn't interested in carrots anymore but did enjoy the feed we give the herd.
On the whole she was a very sweet natured horse and you can see she had a sweet face. She was the only horse in the present herd that had ever been ridden.
We had a very rainy winter, especially in March and the herd was staying over next door where they have more trees to protect them from the rain. I saw Sweetie, Lady's son on the hill by himself for several days which was very unusual so I suspected that Lady was gone.  Due to many very rainy days it took awhile before anyone could go over and find her. She is sorely missed.