Walkabout 2020-Day Ninth

Today was one of the best days so far in the Basin. We saw an astounding number of horses, and even watched a band change stallions. Eclipse’s band is now under the auspices of Bobbie -although Bobbie has his hands full with such a large band.

We started with a few horses right outside our camper

We either stand still, or move very slowly so as not to spook horses when they are close to the cat. She was very curious.

We headed over to the other side of the Basin and found horses bear Lake Draw. We also ran into a car full of people from New York- naturally I was excited to see fellow NYC-ers.

Laramie- daughter of Cheyenne and Corona

Laramie and her two foals- last year on the left and a mini-me on the right

Karen and I both decided if Jason Momoa was a stallion, this lovely deep liver chestnut would be a likely candidate.

We ate lunch on top of the Basin- 7,000 feet up

The afternoon was spent at the Oasis waterhole. We saw a stallion named Bobbie take over another stallion’s band. Eclipse lost his band today, it it is a big band and there were many horses watching the two stallions interact.

Bobbie’s new band – formerly Eclipse’s band. It is a large band and they don’t seem to like the new management

Bobbie snaking (herding) the band. Stallions snake to show dominance. Bobbie is known for firm, aggressive band management. His track record of keeping band is not great.

Bobbie guarding his new band against Eclipse (horse and the end of the burm

It will be interesting to see how this turns out tomorrow. We’d love for horses to stay together as family bands forever, but Mother Nature decides in the end who it fittest to lead a band. Often it isn’t the strongest, sometimes it is the fastest, or the most clever. With such a large band, Bobbie has his work cut out this evening. Eclipse and other bachelors would love to run off with a mare from the large band.