Mustang Pictures--------------

Just some random pictures, some taken in 2008 and some taken in 2016. The next to last picture is Gypsy. She was
looking much better than she looks today. She was only a week away from giving birth to a new baby we call Sugar.
The close-up is of Wrinkles. He has lost his wrinkles and is not as friendly as he use to be.

Side Note; I'd like "Carabiner" to send me a Personal Message.

I clicked on them all and enjoyed them all. Except I worry about Gypsy. I know, nature takes its eventual course...but still.. .she does look good in this photo, was that 2008? If so, that was 9 years ago (where has the time gone???) That is a lifetime to a horse.

The stud in the last picture has a neat head.

Thanks for taking the time to share with us once again! So appreciate it and always look forward to seeing the mustangs!

This wonderful picture posting program won't let me post any pictures with high pixtel's. This picture was taken in April or 2016. In late summer of 2016 she looked really good. Last winter has taken it's toll along with Sugar sucking the life out of her.
I think when the grass turns green she will pick up again. I just hope she doesn't get pregnant again.

Lactating in the winter doesn't do any animal any good, mare or foal; cow/calf, etc especially without supplementing extra feed. Darn BLM messing things up. Too bad they just can't do away with the old or crippled ones instead of their 'mismanagement' of most everything.

I still enjoy them, it is amazing how horses condition can change from spring to fall.

This picture was taken on Mach 16th 2017. She is exceptionally thin and limping on her left hind foot. She has to be ten
or eleven years old.

Ohhhhhhhhhh. How sad. :cry2: That was in March? Hopefully she can make it to green grass. 10 or 11 years old and has had a foal every year since when? Two or three years old?

We have a neighbor that keeps a little bay horse shut in a corral and half a corral part of the time because cows are in the other half part of the time (these people seem to like to shut things up). I feel awful every time I drive by. I'm not sure what to do about it. No telling how long he has been confined. I wonder about his feet, since part of the time it is muddy in there. I try to console myself that if I wasn't driving by, he would still be there, only I wouldn't know about it. I have thought I would go talk to them about mineral and see what I could find out. WHY would they have a horse and keep him so confined? I have NEVER seen that horse out of that corral in a years time. So maybe Gypsy is better off than that horse. If they had a choice, I would bet they both would chose her life over living shut in a corral.

This picture was taken on the first of March 2017. She looks worse than she feels I guess. I tried to head her off to get a picture from in front of her, but she took off on the run to get away from me. She was almost carrying her left hind foot.

I hate to think it and even worse, I hate to say it. If she is that lame and that thin, there is a good chance a predator will get her. :cry2: Maybe that is best. I've learned a horse can often overcome one thing, but very seldom two. It's probably only a matter of time.

She was always so thrifty looking, fat and sassy. This is so very upsetting to me. I'd like to remember her as she was...

It's especially hard to see an animal suffering when there is no way to help. Not any easier to consider that there is just no way to help wild horses considering the way they apparently are mandated by law to live. Yet, I dislike even more to see them living in too small corrals, as we have seen in both ND and SD in recent years. Are they managed at all, or how is the attempts to prevent pregnancies handled?

Seems like it would be sensible, even humane, to 'manage' them to the point they can get somewhat accustomed to being gathered and handled enough to castrate most males, and find sure methods to prevent, or at least limit the number of mares that get pregnant. At the least to keep numbers in check to fit acres available. Attempts to keep the blood lines as close as possible to actual mustang heritage.......or else to take off the excess numbers and sell or give them to responsible owners to make good productive, responsible use of them, imo.

mrj

mrj said:

It's especially hard to see an animal suffering when there is no way to help. Not any easier to consider that there is just no way to help wild horses considering the way they apparently are mandated by law to live. Yet, I dislike even more to see them living in too small corrals, as we have seen in both ND and SD in recent years. Are they managed at all, or how is the attempts to prevent pregnancies handled?

Seems like it would be sensible, even humane, to 'manage' them to the point they can get somewhat accustomed to being gathered and handled enough to castrate most males, and find sure methods to prevent, or at least limit the number of mares that get pregnant. At the least to keep numbers in check to fit acres available. Attempts to keep the blood lines as close as possible to actual mustang heritage.......or else to take off the excess numbers and sell or give them to responsible owners to make good productive, responsible use of them, imo.

mrj

Click to expand...

That makes too much sense, mrj, and they do try and sell or 'adopt' them, but that hasn't worked well either.
I understand that if a rancher takes in mustangs that they are very well-paid by the government for doing so. I have only heard how lucrative it is (no input), I don't know anyone personally who has done it. I know of a few that have looked into it, but it take a LOT of range to run many horses, even mustangs.

I think our member, 'mustang' said they give the mares shots so they won't breed, but the shots run their course and the mares are bred late, therefore the foals are born late and are on the the mares all winter; and therein lies another problem. So giving the shots was a Band-Aid not a solution.