Post by sbutter on Aug 8, 2012 14:28:08 GMT -5
I finally had one of my dreams come true! My family and I got to go to the Kiger HMA 
It was supposed to be 104 degrees that day, but it ended up being mostly overcast with some sun and puffy clouds. We did get rained on a little bit. There was no one near Ant Hill and past Ant Hill there was an actual gate we had to open and close. The road was rough, but dry. I could see why the road would be hard to get in on unless the weather was nice. I was the first one to spot the kigers 
I didn't have binoculars but one of my parents did (I was farther in front). I wasn't sure what to expect, but once we saw that we were getting near Lambing Grounds, we ditched the truck. I walked on ahead and tried to use the trees to block my view from the horses but use the ridge line as a visual guide. The closest group of kigers to me at the time were some bachelors on the ridge-line opposite of me. Blaze was over there with them. The rest of the kigers were on the valley floor further in Lambing Grounds. I tried to stay parallel with the boys but get in a spot so I was as close as I could be to both herds. Once I reached that spot on the road, I bushwhacked it in towards the ridge I was on. I used the trees as cover again and got right on the top of the ridge by crab walking with my camera balanced on my stomach lol. I didn't want to push my luck by trying to get closer, since it would be harder to do as well. No one had noticed me. I watched the bachelors for a while to see if I could figure out who they were. I noticed Blaze also has a white sock on a front foot. Most of my more detailed information came after the fact when I zoomed in on my pictures on my camera. It was still hard to ID accurately with my telephoto zoom while in the moment.
At first I thought there was a bunch of mares, since there were a lot of big bellies, but on closer inspection, there were quite a few well-fed stallions in there as well. One dark dun stallion that was one of them main trouble makers was the only "lean" looking one. He seemed more stressed about getting a mare than the others did, since no one else was as lean as he was. It took me the day after to figure out which of the stallions was Van Gogh. There was another very similar grullo stallion that stuck close to him and his band. For conversation sake, I started giving some of them names through associations. The second grullo I started to call Van Eyck (will call him Van Stop, since Bobbe calls him that). The LadyRose looking mare I called LadyHawk. The bachelor with the blaze is... Blaze. The chestnut/dark red dun suckling colt was Chester. Dun stallion with deformed ear...Floppy.
On a side note, if we do end up naming some of the wild kigers, I was thinking that maybe naming more for physical characteristics might be helpful and less confusing or something along those lines. I wasn't sure if romantic names would get the general public too attached to specific horses and future adopters would feel bad about renaming them. So if anyone can think of a clever way to easily remember which one is which, that may be helpful for future updates on the herd out there
My unofficial count on foals showed 9. 5 of them had obvious dun factor while the other 4 were either base coat or mysteries. Several mares looked like they were heavy in foal. I was surprised to see how close everyone grazed and stayed close to each other. The bachelors were right in there with only a few on the far edges of the main herd. One baby liked to hang out with two bachelors while no one else was near them. At first I thought the mother may not have the best instincts, but the bachelor just stood guard and I saw several other instances of the same thing. Van Gogh had the largest bunch, but he did have two other stallions with the herd. Van Stop was one of them and was right there, but seemed to stick close to one mare in particular. VS did help VG herd the mares away from some bachelors. A dun stallion was the third one in that herd. He seemed to be more of the lieutenant than the grullo. Floppy had two dun mares with him and a foal. This foal liked to hang out with the 2 bachelors that were trailing and pestering the whole time.
Once my camera memory was almost full, my dad and I decided to walk the ridgeline without trying to hide. My my stayed behind and did some video of their reaction. We walked for a couple minutes and watched the herd. The first two kigers to notice us were two bachelors that were way out in front. They looked up and just stared at us. Then some of the other kigers noticed that they were staring at something, so they started to look around and they spotted us. Then they all moved down the valley while the bachelors on the ridge ran to an easier opening on their ridge. They mostly trotted and settled down further in the valley away from us. When they were all trotting off, that was the best time to try to figure out who was in what group.
Sorry it took so long to post this! Will try to post some pictures to add to the story
It was supposed to be 104 degrees that day, but it ended up being mostly overcast with some sun and puffy clouds. We did get rained on a little bit. There was no one near Ant Hill and past Ant Hill there was an actual gate we had to open and close. The road was rough, but dry. I could see why the road would be hard to get in on unless the weather was nice. I was the first one to spot the kigers 
I didn't have binoculars but one of my parents did (I was farther in front). I wasn't sure what to expect, but once we saw that we were getting near Lambing Grounds, we ditched the truck. I walked on ahead and tried to use the trees to block my view from the horses but use the ridge line as a visual guide. The closest group of kigers to me at the time were some bachelors on the ridge-line opposite of me. Blaze was over there with them. The rest of the kigers were on the valley floor further in Lambing Grounds. I tried to stay parallel with the boys but get in a spot so I was as close as I could be to both herds. Once I reached that spot on the road, I bushwhacked it in towards the ridge I was on. I used the trees as cover again and got right on the top of the ridge by crab walking with my camera balanced on my stomach lol. I didn't want to push my luck by trying to get closer, since it would be harder to do as well. No one had noticed me. I watched the bachelors for a while to see if I could figure out who they were. I noticed Blaze also has a white sock on a front foot. Most of my more detailed information came after the fact when I zoomed in on my pictures on my camera. It was still hard to ID accurately with my telephoto zoom while in the moment. At first I thought there was a bunch of mares, since there were a lot of big bellies, but on closer inspection, there were quite a few well-fed stallions in there as well. One dark dun stallion that was one of them main trouble makers was the only "lean" looking one. He seemed more stressed about getting a mare than the others did, since no one else was as lean as he was. It took me the day after to figure out which of the stallions was Van Gogh. There was another very similar grullo stallion that stuck close to him and his band. For conversation sake, I started giving some of them names through associations. The second grullo I started to call Van Eyck (will call him Van Stop, since Bobbe calls him that). The LadyRose looking mare I called LadyHawk. The bachelor with the blaze is... Blaze. The chestnut/dark red dun suckling colt was Chester. Dun stallion with deformed ear...Floppy.
On a side note, if we do end up naming some of the wild kigers, I was thinking that maybe naming more for physical characteristics might be helpful and less confusing or something along those lines. I wasn't sure if romantic names would get the general public too attached to specific horses and future adopters would feel bad about renaming them. So if anyone can think of a clever way to easily remember which one is which, that may be helpful for future updates on the herd out there
My unofficial count on foals showed 9. 5 of them had obvious dun factor while the other 4 were either base coat or mysteries. Several mares looked like they were heavy in foal. I was surprised to see how close everyone grazed and stayed close to each other. The bachelors were right in there with only a few on the far edges of the main herd. One baby liked to hang out with two bachelors while no one else was near them. At first I thought the mother may not have the best instincts, but the bachelor just stood guard and I saw several other instances of the same thing. Van Gogh had the largest bunch, but he did have two other stallions with the herd. Van Stop was one of them and was right there, but seemed to stick close to one mare in particular. VS did help VG herd the mares away from some bachelors. A dun stallion was the third one in that herd. He seemed to be more of the lieutenant than the grullo. Floppy had two dun mares with him and a foal. This foal liked to hang out with the 2 bachelors that were trailing and pestering the whole time.
Once my camera memory was almost full, my dad and I decided to walk the ridgeline without trying to hide. My my stayed behind and did some video of their reaction. We walked for a couple minutes and watched the herd. The first two kigers to notice us were two bachelors that were way out in front. They looked up and just stared at us. Then some of the other kigers noticed that they were staring at something, so they started to look around and they spotted us. Then they all moved down the valley while the bachelors on the ridge ran to an easier opening on their ridge. They mostly trotted and settled down further in the valley away from us. When they were all trotting off, that was the best time to try to figure out who was in what group.
Sorry it took so long to post this! Will try to post some pictures to add to the story
