What Do Wild Horses Do All Day?
Have you ever wondered what wild horses do all day? I certainly have.
Marty and I have spent whole days with the wild horses before. However, usually we go find a place to rest in the middle of the day and then go find the horses again. That is, if they haven’t already wandered off on their own long before our rest period.
In May of 2012, we decided to spend the whole day with the Onaqui herd, if it was possible (sometimes it just doesn’t work that way). It was near the end of this trip to Utah and weather there could turn on a dime and wreck our plans to go out. We wanted to make it this best day that we could.
We arrived just as the sun was coming up. Since we had a 45 minute drive to the HMA, we had gotten up at o’dark thirty.
We found the horses pretty far out in in the meadow, but we were hoping they were coming in soon. From the previous mornings we had spent with them, it was about that time.
We were right. It didn’t take long for them to start to drift into the waterhole.
As is typical with wild horses, they came in in groups; family band by family band. You know this from my last blog Wild Horses: Life at the Waterhole. If you haven’t read that one, I encourage you to do so.
This particular waterhole had a trough and a pond. A second trough was dry. There was plenty of water for all though.
It’s always interesting to see about 40 horses share…
Of course, with that many horses so close to each other, there are bound to be clashes.
Stallions are bound to think another stallion is too close to his mares. Or perhaps, that was his spot. Who knows?
Family bands tend to take turns at the trough or the pond. Well, mostly. There is a heirarchy though. Bachelors always wait until the last to drink, sometimes even after all of the other horses have left. It doesn’t mean they aren’t creating all kinds of mischief on the edges of the herd though. 😉
We have spent a lot of time with horses at waterholes. It is typical for them to come in and drink and then leave. Even a herd of 75 horses, may take only 15 minutes to drink and then they go. Not this time though. For whatever reason, this group stayed around the waterhole for an hour. They rested, ate, played in the water, and of course, the stallions did their “thing.”
Some just hung out with their friends or ate.
But There Were More…
We knew that all of the horses from this area of the HMA weren’t there. We had seen a large group behind a hill when we came in. We suspected they would come to the waterhole sooner or later, but of course, we didn’t know when.
The first clue they were coming was the large cloud of dust behind us. A few minutes later, we could see it was horses. They came in band by band, nearly in single file.
For those of you who read my last blog, this is the same video. You can skip it if you want, but on the other hand, it’s a pretty cool parade!
There are about 75 horses here, including Old Man loosely bringing up the rear.
But They Kept on Going
We fully expected this group to come to the waterhole we were at. After all, we had seen all of the horses at this same waterhole several times now. However, much to our surprise, they walked right past the water and kept going…
I had been watching for King’s band. Finally, there they were. This turned out to be our very first sighting of Moondrinker. Mama G, his dam, still had the umbilical cord hanging out, so we knew he was only an hour or so old.
This shot is the closest we got to a complete family photo- and it’s the “going away” view! LOL
The horses kept going…
Of course, the boys had to stop and scuffle – even the band stallions.
The bay roan is a band stallion and the two blacks are bachelors. The roan was feeling playful and ran over to participate in the games.
He seemed to lose interest when the bachelors started getting more serious. Or maybe something else was more interesting than the youngsters goofing around.
I love this image. It just says so much! LOL
Eventually they kept on going too…
There was plenty of play going on. Just watch this chaos!
These goofy stallions include older band stallions, lieutenants, bachelor stallions and even a yearling who wanted to get in the mix.
Youngsters made the trek too, even if they were only a couple of hours old.
The little ones have to stop and rest. It’s a long hike to where they are going.
Just where ARE they going, anyway?
These horses know each other intimately, spending most of the year together. Yet, stallions sometimes get a little testy when other stallions get too close to their mares.
We are following at a crawl in the pick-up. We could run and not keep up with horses, even when they stop and graze and rest. I found that out last year!
We keep going and going. We have never been this far up the road.
Another Waterhole!
AHA! Another waterhole! This one must be much better than the one they passed an hour or so ago. The horses all stop here. The horses at the first waterhole left the first waterhole and have joined them now.
One-ear, who only has one mare at this time, waits to go to water. His mare has gone boldly forward (back center).
The large group mills around the waterhole for a while, just resting, grooming and sleeping.
There is definitely a whole lot of grooming going on here!
Moving On
Eventually the horses drifted slowly away, first to a meadow at the base of hill. They stayed there for several hours, most of them sleeping. Occasionally, we would see one of the bachelors make a fuss, but generally it was very quiet.
Unlike other days, we decided to stay right there. We took our quiet time too, Marty napping and me reading, but checking on them off and on with the binoculars.
They eventually ended up on the side of this mountain, far from where we were parked.
On the Move Again
Late in the afternoon, the horses began to move around a bit. After a few minutes, it became apparent they were moving again. Would they come back to the same waterhole? Nooooo…. off they went in the direction we found them in the morning – the first waterhole.
We’re on the move again!
With an occasional stop to take a roll…
Or to take a nap…
Uh oh, maybe it’s not time for a nap after all!
Time to get along there little one, we have places to go!
Oh No! Where is Mom?
Sometimes in the chaos of moving, a foal will get separated from its mom. This foal ran too far ahead and suddenly realized he didn’t know where mom was.
Is THIS Mom?
After a couple of attempts at other gray horses, including one cranky stallion (he shooed him off), he finally found mom. Maybe he’ll stay closer this time!
Then there is something about being a bit toooo close- you CAN get a nose full of tail!
And On We Went
On and on we went, following the horses while they stopped to eat, sleep, roll, tussle with each other and just generally did what horses do.
We finally left the horses at dusk, in the meadow just above the first waterhole. We had traveled over six miles from the first waterhole to the second and then back again. What an interesting day it was!
A day in the life of a wild horse…
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Until next time…
Barbara
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