Boy, do I have some catching up to do. Little did I know how challenging it would be to fulfill that photography/Facebook/blogging commitment!

Let me start with Sunday, May 16. We had been in Malheur NWR for a few days but I volunteered the first three days. My cousin and her husband decided to join us after ten years of harassing them. Since they are birders, that’s what we did first. Finally, I harassed her into going up to the South Steens herd with us. It’s not her cup of tea, but she was a good sport and went along.

We decided to take them to a place that horses can be pretty reliably seen, the “Hollywood” herd. I suppose they are called that because they are easily seen and desensitized by humans. They parade like movie stars and some of them look like movie stars!

We were not to be disappointed. After an initial run up the road, we came back down and saw about 40 horses in the Hollywood Meadow. Wowzer- even for us! We wasted no time getting there.

Of course, we carefully moved in. Marty and I have a system that works well for us. He moves in carefully with his big lens and when I am sure they are OK with him, I slowly move in behind him. Well, with this herd, you could walk right up to them and if you don’t, they might walk up to you.

Regardless, we did our usual routine, but in pairs. Marty with my cousin’s husband, Don, and my cousin, Karolyn, and I. No problem whatsoever.

The first thing we saw was an injured pinto off by himself. Before we knew it, two stallions took off after him. They came to a screeching halt, turned in circles around him, each smelling the stranger and the stranger smelling them. Then they seemed to accept him, turned and left. The single stallion never chose to join the larger group, though this scenario was repeated three different times over a three hour period of time.

The injury was to the stallion’s jaw, whether from another horse bite or a cougar, it was pretty significant. I would guess the injury was a couple of weeks old, with some good healing present. He appeared on the thin side, as if he hadn’t eaten well for a week or so. I can easily imagine it would have been painful to eat. He seemed to be doing alright now but he will certainly be disfigured.

So, forty horses! This group was clearly made up of at least three different bands, several that we have seen and photographed in the past. One of the groups was a bachelor band of five stallions that we had not seen before.

Anytime you mix multiple groups, lots of stallions and more than a few mares, you WILL see skirmishes. We weren’t disappointed. Two of the stallions gave us quite a lot of action. One stallion, a beautiful medicine hat that we have seen in the past was intent on protecting the entire group. He was the biggest instigator behind chasing the injured stallion.

We spent a lot of time with his family group, the largest part of the forty, last year. At that time, an older medicine hat was clearly the stallion in charge, although the youngster displayed a lot of aggressiveness toward other stallions but not the lead stallion.

Last year's lead stallion with another group's new leader

This year, the older horse had clearly abdicated his role, willingly or unwillingly. He was singularly uninteresting, choosing to eat and sleep the entire time we were there. Had he just turned the reins over for this year or had the younger stallion now yanked them from him?

The lead stallion of another group, either a silver dapple or dark liver chestnut paint (I am NOT an expert on horse colors), but a stunning horse nevertheless, stole the show. We have seen him in years past, rather a sedate horse then, but in his prime now. He chased everything that moved and a lot of things that didn’t.

We must have two hundred shots of him, not too many by any stretch with such a beautiful animal. He chased, bit, and herded; everything a stallion should do.

Another beautiful dun stallion with a dorsal stripe and striped legs was more concerned about his family and keeping them out of trouble. He was very attentive and protective, even watching over the foal in his group. This is a behavior we have seen with the stallions in this herd many times before.

The group of five stallions had a young horse and an older horse that were quite smitten with each other. Regardless of the action going on all around us, they just kept grooming each other. It got to be quite humorous to watch. Horses running, chasing and biting, and here these two stood in the background nibbling at each other.

Interestingly, the lead stallion of these five appeared to be a younger stallion and was next to the smallest in the group.

Big personality, I guess.

About an hour into the shoot, another photographer joined us. This didn’t faze the horses either, in fact, at one point they ran so close to him that he couldn’t shoot. We had a good chuckle out of that!

What were the other thirty-five horses doing while five or so were being rambunctious?

Eating, sleeping on their feet and laying down, grooming each other and largely ignoring the disruption. We can’t show that in the photos but is always an amusing part of watching the horses.

You would think everyone would be interested in the action, but that is far from true.

“Oh honey, it’s just the boys again.”

We saw three or four mares with GA branded on their flank. Apparently, this signifies mares that were given birth control at the round-up. It doesn’t affect the current pregnancy but there will be no pregnancy this year.

The South Steens horses were rounded-up in December 2009. We didn’t know what to expect when we went back. We were relieved to see horses we feared were missing and are hoping those that are missing are in the back country or adopted. I still haven’t been able to face the corrals.

There appears to be some mixing of horses after the round-up. Our favorite, a tricolor mare was clearly with another stallion last year, though likely this year’s foal was his. He was present with another mare. The older pinto stallions we had all seen before.

What was new was the addition of more solid color horses to this particular group. Lots of my Facebook fans have said they have seen many of these horses before in other areas. Now they are part of the Hollywood herd. Genetically and possibly socially, as well, a good thing. However, there was clearly family group disruption. Perhaps, that is also why there were so many skirmishes; horses still getting to know and trust each other.

Over the years, we have watched the presence of sabino and medicine hats (forgive me if my terminology is wrong but don’t hesitate to correct me) grow in this group. When we first started photographing the South Steens horses in about 2004, medicine hats were rare. Now they are quite common. I am told there can be genetic issues with this. I am also told that the injection of solid color horses will likely stabilize the negative genetic tendencies. Whether by BLM design or just a by-product of releasing horses in a different area than they were captured, this is likely a positive. Remember, I am a mere photographer, but I am passing on what I have heard from authorities that I trust.

After three hours we decided we were satiated. We left, my cousin and her husband going back to the refuge and us heading up the hill to see if we could see more horses. By the way, my cousin left solidly addicted to the wild horses.

We didn’t see any other horses and when we came back down a half an hour or so later, the horses had split into three distinct groups.

Our overall impression of the morning: Absolutely AWESOME. It will rank high on our list of favorite shoots for quite some time, I think.

We have been out to the wild horses two more times since last Sunday. I will blog about that next….

Be sure to check my website for a complete set of pics from this shoot.