El Mariachi - February, 2008

El Mariachi - February, 2008:

We were back in Nebraska at the 3-Strikes Ranch to see my boy, "El Mariachi," for 3 days the weekend of February 9th. Jason (the ranch owner) had already moved El Mariachi into a 40 acre "test" pasture a couple of weeks prior to our arrival in anticipation of his "total" release. The test pasture allows other Mustangs to teach El Mariachi about boundaries. He seemed quite content during the whole process. He shared the 40 acres with several other mustangs and another stallion, Voo Doo - they seemed to share a "mutual respect" (as Jason described it) for each other and there was no stallion drama (even when El Mariachi's mare would flirt with Voo Doo and then go running back to him - quite a game for her).

Weather was kinda brutal for the release - COLD and windy. The wind made it darn near impossible to take pictures, but I got a few. More importantly, El Mariachi and "El Mariachi's Dakota" (his 10 year-old lady love that Jason let me name - Dakota means friend in Navajo) have been released onto the ranch's Winter Range with the other wild horses. Dakota is from the Twin Peaks herd in California (she still wears her BLM neck tag and has the BLM hip brand that designates her as an older horse).The two pretty much hung around the ranch for the first few days. Jason says that's a good thing - they feel secure at the "base" and will come in if there's a really bad storm or something once they do move out onto the rest of the ranch. After we left, Jason said he saw both of the horses out with the main group further away from the ranch, but they came back to base the next day. Guess El Mariachi is just feeling his way around and will probably go back and forth as do many of the fully released Mustangs. A few days ago, Jason e-mailed me that he watched a mountain lion cross right in front of El Mariachi...who just watched it cruise by. He's probably seen them before - he sure didn't get very excited at the siting.

I still can't get close to El Mariachi, but he does seem more relaxed than he did when we left him in January. The more I'm there photographing, the more he may come to accept me and maybe I'll be able to get closer then. It's just so satisfying for me to see him enjoying his freedom and his new mare. It's been such an incredible experience to have been a part of.