* Tabasco *

Stewart Creek HMA WY0033

231,124 acres, of which 215,369 are BLM-administered public lands.
The Continental Divide (eastern boundary of the Great Divide Basin) traverses the HMA in a north-south direction.
Elevation Range: 6500 to 7900 feet.
Annual precipitation: 7 - 10 inches.
AML: 150 horses
Colors: Full range, including tobiano paints.
Origins: The present population has been influenced by the routine escape of domestic saddle stock from the surrounding populated areas.
Size Range: 14 to 15 hands and 800-1000 pounds.

Info above provided by mustangs4us.com author Nancy Kerson

In November 2006 I googled the internet for a blue roan and came across a rescue in my state that had a BLM Mustang blue roan filly. Long story short my mom and I ran down to this rescue just to "look" at this filly, and we fell in love with Shoshoni and Tabasco! We filled out the paper work and I ended up as the proud adopter/parent of these two remarkable mustangs.

What can I say about Tabasco? He is one of the most charismatic horses I have met. He is not bashful and is quite inquisitive. He is always up to some sort of shananagain and usually makes you laugh about something. He will come over to see what you are doing and wants to be the center of attention. Heaven forbid you are loving on someone else as it should be him! He comes by his name rightly and it suits him to a "T" : ) because of his coloring and his (sometimes) ornery/hot personality. He is not a mean horse but can be a bit pushy and sometimes does not have a concept of "personal space". He can be know as "the intimidater" to some lol. If he ever gets in a mood like that usually pushing him away a few times gets his attention and he will behave a little bit better.

He picks up on things pretty easily and most times is a confident horse. He is always watchful of Sundance and Sundance is always teaching him bad habits (like splashing in the water trough).

He loves to play and get rowdy. He knows how to push Shoni's buttons and get her to go along with him. He is fun to watch but hard to take pictures of unless he is distracted by something. In just about every picture that I have of him (since February 2006) he is walking towards the camera. Then if you literally run to the other side of the pen, stop, turn around and point the camera, he is too close because he was either chasing you or walking really fast! : ) Even flapping my arms trying to get him to stay back (in poses with Shoni) he just gets this look on his face and points an ear to the side like "Your kidding me right?"

Walking towards me with the ball in his mouth

He loves to roll and he loves to get scratches. His favorite spot? His neck and his BUTT! lol

Above: Tabasco and Mom

He is a very nosey horse and is always doing something to get some sort of attention. Like sticking his head through the panels or sticking his nose between the wall and tarp into the hay barn and cheesin at us. Lol He is such a lovable little guy and he never ceases to amaze me or make me laugh.

* Shoshoni *

WY0035 Lost Creek HMA

Above: BLM mustang Shoshoni

The Lost Creek HMA encompasses 250,000 acres, of which 235,000 acres are BLM-administered public lands. The HMA lies within the Great Divide Basin, a closed basin out of which no water flows. Some desert playa and vegetated dune areas are interspersed throughout the HMA. Several sensitive desert wetland riparian areas occur throughout the area, including both intermittent and perennial lakes and streams. Elevation ranges from 6500 to 6800 feet. Winters are long and severe. Annual precipitation averages a little less than six inches. The Lost Creek HMA is joined on the east by the Stewart Creek HMA, on the north by the Antelope Hills HMA, and on the west by the Divide Basin HMA.
The AML for this HMA is 70 horses. A full range of colors is present. The present population has been influenced by the routine escape of domestic saddle stock from the surrounding populated areas. The horses range from 14 to 15 hands and 800-1000 pounds mature weight.
Genetic testing on the Lost Creek wild horse herd has shown the horses to carry a very high percentage of genetic markers identified with the Spanish Mustang breed. This means the horses are genetically more like the Spanish Mustang and other New World Iberian breeds than they are like other breeds such as American Quarter Horse or Morgan. These characteristics make the Lost Creek herd unique among the wild horse herds of Wyoming tested so far.
Info above provided by mustangs4us.com author Nancy Kerson

In November 2006 I googled the internet for a blue roan and came across a rescue in my state that had a BLM Mustang blue roan filly. Long story short my mom and I ran down to this rescue just to "look" at this filly, and we fell in love with Shoshoni (and Tabasco!). We filled out the paper work and I ended up as the proud adopter/parent of these two remarkable mustangs.

Who knew when mom and I went down there that this would turn out to be such an interesting and rewarding journey (one that is not even close to being over yet!). It has been an amazing learning experience and I would definitely do it all over again!

Shoshoni is one of the sweetest horses I have ever met (you can even see it in her eyes). She has a gentle nature and can be very attentive. She does not bite (except one time Tabasco came up and bit her on the butt and she passed it on to my arm. It hurt but did not even bruise!) but will slightly nibble and she is very sensitive. She picks up on things quickly but needs help with her fleeing reaction. She is the type to run away first and ask questions when the "danger" is far away from her!

She is a curious thing. A more cautious curious but curious nonetheless. She likes to "people watch" and sometimes I wonder what she is thinking. She is the dominate one at feeding time (between her and Tabasco) and the rest of the time she is passive. She has a great personality and is beautiful to boot! Her coat is always changing colors (I call her my horse of many colors). From whitish gray, to almost completely black, to the blue and so on. I have never had a roan before Shoni and am assuming that all roans change colors in some way. When we first saw Shoni changing to the lighter gray we thought she was going to go white on us! lol It is fun to guess though and also to confuse people when they see pictures. They usually think she is a different horse. : D

Above: They figured out how to get hay from the hay barn (ahem!) and she is leaving the hay to say hello :D

I cannot say enough great things about this horse (tho I may be a little biased :D). There is just something about her and her nature that make you take notice. I think that she has some of that mother hen personality and when it comes time to ride her I think it is going to be more noticeable. She seems like she'd be the type to walk carefully so that no one falls off. I can't wait to find out! : )

Above and Below: Shoni and Dad

Nothin' productive to do...

Above: Tabasco and Shoni (BLM Mustangs)

At this moment I have nothing productive to do so I have been playing on my computer with photos that I took this evening. Now here I am online typing up another blurb (with photos!) for my blog... : ) I'll have to keep this one on the shorter side since it is just about my bed time...

Above: Sundance (Missouri Fox Trotter) "cartoon photo"

Above: Shoni (BLM Mustang)

Above: Tabasco (BLM Mustang)

Above: Sweetie (Quarter Horse)

Above: Pebbles (Quarter Horse)

Sleepy Heads

Whiskers (cat), Bailey (beagle mix) and Missy (belgian malinois)

Chances are that if you are an animal person and/or have animals you have noticed how much they love to sleep and take their naps! Or maybe you have noticed how they love to soak up some sunshine. I found some pictures of my critters enjoying their down time and thought I would share. : )

Whiskers

Bailey (back) and Missy (front)

Tabasco (BLM mustang)

I wonder what they were thinking/dreaming...

Shoshoni (BLM mustang)

Shoni and Tabasco

Shoni and Tabasco

Our animals could teach us so much. Spend time with family and friends, take lots of naps, and enjoy the little things in life! : )

Missy she was sleeping with her tongue out and

after a couple of pics she opened her eyes.

The rough life of a puppy dog! They do have excuses though because they are always running around and playing! Then they take their little naps and are ready for round 2!

Bailey

Tiki (farthest back), Spider (middle) and Sweetie. Tic Tac Toe? : )

I hope you all get to experience and enjoy a little bit of downtime this weekend!

Horse fun and Merry Christmas!

About a week ago we noticed that Sundance had some marks on his face near his muzzle. We were finally able to see it in the sunlight and noticed more spots so we called our vet to ask what he thought the spots were. He thinks that it is ring worm. He suggested getting some tenactin (for athletes foot) and putting that on the spots. It doesn't look like it is helping much but it is not spreading so that is a good sign! It also does not appear to be bothering Sundance so I might just call the vet and see what he thinks.

Above: Spots on Sundance's muzzle

Above: Sundance, Tabasco, and Shoni

The weather was really nice yesterday so when I got off of work I ran outside to spend some time brushing on the horses and taking some pictures. Tabasco was being super ornery so I was not able to brush him or Shoni very long. He comes by his name rightly lol what a pill! He also knocked over his trough from splashing in it so we got to clean that out! Our farrier was supposed to be coming out today but he cancelled and we are rescheduling for Saturday (hopefully). It will probably be colder and snowing by then. Today would have been a nice day for it but you know Colorado weather. It's always changing so Saturday could be 50 degrees again lol.

Above: Tabasco thinks he's cute since hecan have his head over the panel instead of through it! : )

Above: Shoni looking to see what I am up to

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Holiday) and soon the new year will be upon us! 2007 flew by for us and hopefully 2008 will be a little more relaxing!!! :)

Above: Tabasco coming over for a visit

Above: Shoni heading over for her close up

Dogs like snow too!!!

The other night it snowed again and while I was doing chores I decided to let my dads crazy year old german shepherd Ruby outside to run around. My dad picked her up from an animal shelter in July when she was 7 months old. She is a huge shepherd (when she jumps up she is eye level with me and I am 5'9!). Ruby is an indoor dog with no clue how big she is! She thinks that she is about the size of a chihuahua and that she is a lap dog. That by the way is a dangerous combination! Lol

Anyway, she was sooo excited that it was snowing and was going crazy eating snow and running around. It was entertaining to watch and I just thought that I would share a few pictures! ; )

Above: Ruby with snow on her nose.

Above: Ruby trying to catch snowflaskes on her tongue!

Above: Ruby with LOTS of snow on her nose from eating it!

Above: Ruby giving me kisses with her paw on my shoulder saying thanks for playing in the white stuff!

Cold Weather = Crazy Horse

I woke up this morning to snow. Not a lot, just enough to cover the ground in white stuff and make it really REALLY cold outside.

I went out to do chores this morning and I felt so bad for the horses. They had snow on their backs and icicles hanging on their whiskers and manes. I don't know why they prefer to stand outside instead of going into their shelters to get out of the weather...

Above: Shoni with icicles in her mane

Above: Tabasco with icicles in his mane & whiskers

I went into the haybarn and got the hay and started toting it out to the horses... Got some nice shots of Sundance in the process.

Above: Sundance

Above: Sundance

Fed Tabasco, Shoni, and Sundance then it was off to feed the girls. Cold weather really makes the horses crazy sometimes. They love to run and buck in it. I got to see my share of it. By the time that I made it to their gate Pebbles was full of kiss and viniger just runing around. I was so happy though to get some really good action shots of her. Must be a good fun day! : )

Above: Pebbles

Above: Sweetie and Pebbles

Above: Sweetie and Pebbles

Above: Sweetie and Pebbles

Above: Pebbles