Starting Your Ponds Back Up Yet?

[pecan]

Thanks CE, sounds like your daughter is a neat person! I would love to raise horses. It has always been a dream of mine. The horses in those pictures are not mine. They belong to God. They are all wild mustangs and I love seeing them.

 

[j.w]

The photo w/ the horses,trees and sage brush reminds me a lot of Eastern Washington here on the other side of the Cascade mountains. Lots of heat in the summer and snow in the winters. Love that there are still those beautiful horses running free pecan! We will prolly just stay here in this area as our families are here and we can travel away in the dreary days of Fall and Winter to sun and warmth of the Southlands.

 

[CountryEscape]

Pecan, last summer when I was visiting my daughter in UT, she took me horseback riding to the mountains, where she had seen some wild mustangs with another friend. We saw the small band again that day. What a delight that was! We didn't get near as close as you did, or you have a really big telephoto lens on your camera! My daughter snuck down to pretty close to them, before they finally winded her! What's so funny is that people have the impression that the stallions rule the herds. They DO rule who gets to stay in the herd, but as far as where they move to, the mares decide that. Those horses are really fat, so that pic was probably taken in the spring I would guess, or you have some really nice growth where your property is. They were beautiful horses, loved the buckskin and dun in the pic. Yes, it's great to have God's creatures roaming the landscape in some states yet. None here in Illinois. No free range going on here. Every piece of land here has someone's name on it, or the State owns it. I guess that's the way with most states, but figure there may be some property still owned by the Government, available for the bidding, although you may never get electricity or water out to it. Have to do it like the pioneers did centuries ago, and homestead it!

 

[pecan]

CE, those pictures were taken last year early June and we were that close. The dun kept his eye on us the whole time LOL

Funny you say "Have to do it like the pioneers did centuries ago, and homestead it!" because that is pretty much what our property is. There are no power lines or water piped for an hour on dirt roads in any direction. Also no cell service for the same distance which I think is a plus It is the only time I truly get away from work. "Sorry guys I will be off the grid, you will have to call someone else"

 

[CountryEscape]

Yes, it's a good place to go and have peace and quiet, that's for sure. My daughter met an older lady that lives up in the mountains. I can't remember the name of the little town now, but 95% of the people only live there in the summer. This older lady, however, lives there all year round. She gets snowed in, they don't plow all the way up there, every winter. She has a land line, as there is no cell service up there, or at least nothing that is predictable. She is a pioneer at heart, and loves to work hard. It will be a sad day when they tell her she can no longer live on her own, as that will mean coming down from her mountain haven. I hope that day never comes for her! What a great woman. She comes down off the mountain only once a month for the most part, to get supplies and groceries. Like in the old days. You didn't go to town every day because you were out of sugar. You planned your list and got all the supplies once a month. I think I could have been a pioneer woman myself, although I like certain luxuries now, like furnace and AC units. I'm NOT a fan of mosquitos either, so that would have been really tough for me. But, to live where the horses and the deer and elk run free? Priceless!

 

[j.w]

Hey girls its very interesting listening to your horse talk stories. I'm figuring out the words you are using as I go. Had to go look up Dun tho.

 

[CountryEscape]

Dun and Buckskin are words horsey people know well! They both refer to the color of the body of the horse, but the Dun refers also to the stripe down the horse's back. If I recall, there was one of each in her up close pic. They are usually highly sought after colors for horse people. Not as common so appreciated more.
I looked back at the pic, and the reason the buckskin (golden brown with black mane, tail and legs) is looking and watching is because he is likely the stallion of the herd. It's his responsibility to watch for danger. Good boy!!! The dun is the light cream colored one in front of him, probably one of his foals, and you can see the dark stripe going from the base of his mane to his tail. Another really unusual color of dun, too!!! The front horse is a bay. So, there you go!

 

[pecan]

Ha! I thought the stallion was called dun. See I am learning too And he sure was the stallion looking after his herd. What amazed me is the size of his neck compared to the other. He is a big a boy and we see him a lot around the property. I think he is gorgeous The dun baby is super cute too.

I did a little research about wild mustangs a while back. Horses are not native to this continent. I found out that when the Spaniards came over, they brought horses. Well the Indians were known for raiding Spanish camps and stealing them. So the Spaniards brought a bunch over and let them go, this way the Indians could just catch the horses running free rather than raiding the Spanish camps. Well the horses ran free, survived and even thrived. I can't remember what kind of horse the first ones were but after breeding with others and various domestic breeds (that got loose and lived with them), over the years they became a breed of their own. Mustangs. Mustangs are different in that they have babies of all shapes and colors (due to the various horse breeds that created them) unlike most domestic horses that are pretty specific shapes and colors because of their specific breeds.

People used to catch them and even kill them for destroying crops. But in the 70's the federal government passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act officially protecting them.

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"That Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West; that they contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people; and that these horses and burros are fast disappearing from the American scene."​

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The BLM manages them now, tracking their populations and branding their necks with the BLM brand. Every March the BLM does a Mustang round-up. Using helicopters they herd them, sedate them and capture them. I have heard they take the old and sick and out of the herds, they keep a small percentage of the healthy to auction off to the public and give some of the females birth control shots to keep the population down. Then let them go.

They say there are 3000 here in Utah.

 

[j.w]

When I was reading on the net about the dun I read something about zebra striping can sometimes show through on some of them. Always loved horses but never got a chance to have one of my own. Got to ride a few times and it was great fun and so relaxing. Really a special feeling of freedom comes over you when sitting on those big massive creatures flying through the wind!

This is what I was reading on the net:


primitive dun markings


In addition to having a light coat dun horses have some or all of a number of primitive or zebra markings. This may be because of pleiotropy, with the dilution allele having more than one affect on the phenotype. However occasionally these markings occur in non dun horses, such as bays and chestnuts. This indicates the possibility of there being a separate gene or genes, with at least one being tightly linked to the dun gene. It might also be that the dun allele has pleiotropic affects and there is another gene affecting primitive markings, perhaps with the allele for markings only existing in a few lines.
The primitive markings of dun horses are the face mask and/or cob-webbing, ear tips and edging, the dorsal stripe, leg barring (zebra stripes), neck and shoulder stripes or shadowing, mottling, and mane and tail guard hairs. They vary in color according to the base color of the horse and, except in the case of guard hairs, will match the mane color, for example being black on a yellow dun and red or brown on a red dun.

A darker mask is always present on the faces of dun horses, but varies considerably between horses in the extent of its coverage and the amount contrast between the mask and the rest of the head. The mask will be on the bridge of the nose and usually around the eyes, sometimes extending down to the jaw and muzzle or occurring as outlines to the lips and nostrils. Sometimes the whole head is dark and the mask can even extend further to cover the neck. White facial markings can obscure or accentuate the mask, depending on the extent of markings in comparison to the mask. Cob-webbing may occur on the face, in the form of fine darker lines extending from under the forelock over the forehead. Darker color may occur at the tips of the ears and encircling the ears, and occasionally covering a larger portion of the ear (up to about three-quarters of it).
The dorsal stripe (also descriptively known as a lineback) runs along the backbone of dun horses, from the withers to the base of the tail. It may occasionally be broken.

 

[CountryEscape]

Interesting info about duns and buckskins. Here are some pics of my mule, Clyde. He has the dun stripe down his back, plus the shoulder stripe, and from the right angle, you can see the stripes of black above his black socks on his white front legs. These are all very favorable traits on a mule. Mules tends to have these dun characteristics, even though they may not be the typical dun color, which is usually a buckskin (golden tan) or cream color.

Wow, and looking at these pictures, he sure has gained weight this past winter! I need to get him out and start riding him again, get him (and me!) back into shape.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Nice fat mule CE, is he easy to ride?

 

[j.w]

I like Clyde, I bet he has plenty of personality! I read somewhere that mules can outjump a horse.

 

[CountryEscape]

Haha, mule owners will tell you mules are better at EVERYTHING than horses. It's really funny how they defend the "long ears". Clyde is far fatter now, and he rides like a dream. He can be bull headed, but will follow other horses anywhere, and he goes anywhere by himself, too, which is what I will do with him this weekend. He has a Fox Trotter for a mom, so he can gait (ride smoother than a trot) but doesn't tend to do it on his own, I have to "encourage" him to get into that speed/pace. Personality? Never had a horse with so much as him. They are very smart, tend to do things you would never guess an animal to do. He has kicked at me, though, too, and that was NOT a good trait, but I've learned what triggered that kick out (he didn't get me, just was a warning) and don't brush with a hard brush on his back ankles anymore. LOL Mules are known for being more sure footed, and until I rode one and then Clyde, I really didn't believe it. But, it's true. They must be able to step into smaller areas, between rocks, etc. than horses, and the fact their hooves are much narrower than a horse's, I assume that is the reason. Mule owners will say they are just smarter, I say it's the way their body is made. But, then, I have horses, too, and don't want to say Clyde is better than them. :razz:

 

[pecan]

Clyde is a handsome boy

 

[mjw74]

Has anyone seen this new bit of kit?