El Mariachi - June, 2008: |
It was so nice to get back to the 3-Strikes Ranch to see my boy! And, we finally got to see the ranch without snow on the ground! It was really quite beautiful. The weather was perfect, the grass was green and the wildflowers were blooming all over the place. Most importantly, El Mariachi looked fabulous. His herd numbers close to 20 now. He must be quite content at having acquired such a large family.
This trip was special in another way. My Aunt and Uncle drove from Wyoming and met Tom, Mom and I in Alliance. My Aunt Peggie (who has inspired me to do more with my photography, DVD's etc. over the years) suffers from emphysema and macular degeneration - it's really difficult for her to get out, and hard for her to see much anymore, but she braved a weekend away in Nebraska for a chance to meet El Mariachi. It was by sheer luck that a "drama queen" mare brought most of the horses back to base, right before we arrived. Jason closed gates (to briefly contain the horses right around the ranch), so that Aunt Peggie could view El Mariachi up close. She thought he was magnificent. It was such a treat to have my Aunt (a lifetime horsewoman) get to see the wild stallion that means so much to me.
My Aunt Peggie cracked me up when she arrived at our motel room Saturday morning and announced, "Let the expedition begin!" And so it did. Here we are arriving at the ranch. Aunt Peggie, Uncle Wil, Mom and Tom.
El Mariachi's band at the ranch.
They've decided they've hung out long enough and make a break for the gate.
Running right by us.
Encountering a closed gate.
Heading west to another exit.
This little foal looks pretty strange right now as he sheds out.
Sunday morning, Tom and I went back to the ranch by ourselves while Mom, Aunt Peggie and Uncle Wil slept in and recovered from the previous day's adventure. It was a gorgeous morning at the ranch.
As we walked west from the ranch to see if we could locate El Mariachi and his band (we only had 1500 acres of West/Summer range - out of the 2000 total - to cover!), we came across this donkey family. Too cute!
Jason has taken in all kinds of Mustangs, donkeys and burros - some were actually pets, but most are wild. We never know which are which. Tom was kinda taken aback when this little fella walked right up to him. We later came to find out this is Sheldon - and he loves attention...butt rubs in particular. HA!
He's really sweet! I just love these guys!
Tom wanted to go northwest, but I kept getting pulled southwest and after walking for about 45 minutes, we topped a hill and there he was, right below us. I couldn't believe our luck! This was taken between 5:45-6:00 a.m. Just beautiful.
El Mariachi will certainly always be wild and hard to approach. As soon as he saw us, he rounded up his herd and left. We walked directly north and then turned west again where we hoped we'd see at least some horse dots as they left us behind. We lucked out again as he was on top of a hill just a bit north of us (with his 2 favorite mares who were with him the last time we were out).
Such a grand stallion.
What a sight!
See ya next time boy...
It was so warm out, one of the ranch dogs (Chewy) decided to use one of the stock tanks as a swimming pool!
And, no visit to Alliance is complete without a trip to Carhenge! 