A Wintery Adventure - DAY ONE
❄️ Into the Cold...❄️
February saw some good precipitation on the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range!
Ginger and Kerry arrived to find much of the range under a blanket of white—and the snow continuing to fall. It was the beginning of another Pryor adventure!
From Kerry:
On the first day, it's tradition to drive all the way through the range, stopping to glass from all the outlooks. With the snow falling softly and the temps low in the early morning, we didn't see too many horses. Not even our "Greeters at the Gate," who are normally so easy to see (Hickok, Seneca, Kitalpha, Ursula...) as we enter the range.
OK... we pretty much "got skunked" as Ginger would say. 😂
We found ourselves all the way through the range and decided to visit the Ewing-Snell Ranch to stretch our legs and let Addie play in the snow. As you can see, she doesn't like the white stuff at all (sarcasm)! 👇
Ginger's pup, Addie (8 mos.), proved to be an exemplary and well-behaved traveler on her very first trip to the Pryors! Photos Kerry Ferguson
Having struck out with horses in the Dryhead, we continued to head away from the horse range toward Barry's Landing in search of some Big Horn Sheep—and we weren't disappointed! 👇
Some ewes and their lambs move along the road of the Barry's Landing Campground, located on the Montana-side entrance to the Dryhead. Photo Ginger Kathrens
With some success with the big horns to spur us on, we decided it was time to head back into the Pryors. As we made our way into the Dryhead, we saw a horse standing near the road. It appeared to be a filly—a fairly young one—and she was all alone! 😲
As we neared, we discovered Ximena, not yet two years old, alone with no family anywhere in sight. What had happened to separate her from her family? We watched her for a while, hoping her family would materialize. Eventually, she headed slowly down the road in the direction we had just come.
We would keep an eye out for her for the next few days of our trip, but didn't see her again. We let Nancy Cerroni at the Pryor Mountain Mustang Center know that we found Ximena alone and hope to hear that she finds either her family or other horses soon. 👇
Young Ximena stands all alone along the main road through the Pryor Mountain Horse Range. ©TCF
Moving on, we found Tawa and his band foraging on the grasses that peeked through the snow. After admiring them for a while, we headed over to Lower Sykes.👇
Tawa and his band forage on winter grasses. They seem to enjoy windbreak provided by the hills on either side. ©TCF
We wanted to make our way up where we could see Turkey Flats—a favorite spot for winter foraging for bands like MatoSka's! But before heading toward the red buttes of Lower Sykes Road, we drove out along a power line service road. No horses out there... But we did find some deer! 👇
It's fun to catch sight of the pretty mule deer. The snow makes spotting them easier! ©TCF
Surprisingly, we found Encore and family (Xacara & Hamlet) retracing our tracks along the service road! We stopped to get pictures, but young Xacara seemed unusually skittish and urged Encore and their band stallion Hamlet to move on. 👇
We were surprised to see Cloud's look-alike daughter down in this area!
Encore and Xacara move past us quickly. We later learned from Nancy that Xacara had received her first PZP shot (dart) and then the booster. No wonder she wasn't eager to see more two-legged visitors! ©TCF
Rather than follow on foot (it was cold, and they were heading up hill!) we decided to head up the Lower Sykes Road to try to see them from another angle.
Instead, of moving ahead... We immediately got stuck in deep snow—with no shovel other than a small hand trowel that I had in my backpack. After a couple hours of digging, we realized that we had spun our tires down in to into the slippery mud with no hope of gaining traction. A walk to the nearby Fish Hatchery found us the help we needed. The men on duty got out the tractor and had us out in moments.
With 1–2-foot drifts over much of the road and the snow continuing to fall, Sykes would not be accessible to us by SUV for the entire trip. 👇
Fish Hatchery gentlemen to the rescue! They needed the extra-strength fishing pole to land these two fish! 😂 If you enlarge the picture, you will see the TCF truck up ahead - stuck! ©TCF
Determined not to let a little thing like snow or getting hopelessly stuck get us down. We continued! On Tillet Road, we made it out to the Admin Pasture and glassed across it out to Turkey Flats and beyond. We saw a couple of sets of horses in the far, far distance. One group of 6-7 looked like it included what we thought might be Pride and his mares along with a few other horses we couldn't identify. The other small band was unidentifiable. 👇
This photo is zoomed in as far as it can go. How many horses do you see? ©TCF 😀🔎
Back to the Dryhead in the late afternoon, we found Oglala's band moving along and up into the hills not far off the paved road. The bands have shifted quite a lot over the winter months, and Oglala's is no exception. A very strong and skilled stallion, his is typically one of the largest bands in the Dryhead. Even he has suffered from bachelors stealing his mares this winter, though, he has managed to get most of them back. 👇
Oglala keeps an eye on his mares as they travel up into the sage and shrub. ©TCF
As we make our way out of the horse range at the end of the day. We stop near the gate, looking for our "Greeters." We find Hickok—and he is alone. Where are his girls? His devoted Seneca?
We watch and wait, but they don't materialize. Could they be farther off, hidden by bushes? Perhaps just below a hill's ridge? We hope so.
🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹
The sight of Hickock against the rugged terrain was a welcome yet worrisome end to a challenging, but ultimately rewarding, day. Each moment in the Pryors reinforces the importance of protecting these incredible horses and their untamed world. 👇
Hickok forages, alone, as we watch him from near the entrance to the horse range. ©TCF
This wintery adventure continues!! If you thought that getting stuck in the snow without shovels was interesting, it doesn't end there! Check out Days Two & Three to read (and see) the rest of this story.