horses on Cherry Grove
Tag Archives: horses
February Thaw
Lemmons Meadow.
It’s been a weird winter so far. We’ve had lots of snow, lots of thawing, and a lot of bare ground for February. The critters are glad for the warmer temperatures.
cows with puddles
Bucks in the Mouse Pasture
horses in the Wyoming Field
Casey training horses
Adios, old year
from our Christmas tree
New Year’s Eve morning dawned bright and clear. We had a huge pile of wood to burn from an old building we had taken down. We had livestock to tend, bucks to work, and resolutions to make.
Ewes on winter pasture
Adopted wild horses eating hay at sheep camp
Hampshire buck saying “Put me in, Coach!”
Bringing the bucks up the chute
The All-Girl sheep moving crew–Taylor, Siobhan and Meghan
Meghan and Pat sorting
Rambouillet ram out the cutting gate
Meghan, Siobhan and Taylor with the bucks
McCoy checking things out
Pat, with his fire-tending assistants–Seamus, McCoy, Tiarnan, Rhen and Maeve
Sharon with the fire-tending crew (McCoy un-photo bombed)
Maeve, Seamus and Meghan
Out with the old, in with the new
Horses grazing with the last sunset of 2016
Headed for the Promised Land
Destination: the sagebrush sea
Every year at this time, we are almost there with the final leg of our 150 mile trek as the sheep trail from their summer country in the Medicine Bow and Routt National Forests to winter pasture in Wyoming’s Red Desert. Each way, spring and fall, we must cross the overpass across the Union Pacific line, and the underpass below Interstate 80–both coast to coast trails of a different sort. We make this part of the trail on WY Highway 789. For several miles, we share the highway with cars, pickup trucks and trailers, motor homes, and semi trucks hauling everything from livestock to oilfield supplies. We flag the road, ‘fore and aft, to warn traffic that the sheep are on the highway. We’ve only had a few near wrecks over the years, due mostly to inattentive or inexperienced drivers, and sometimes bad weather. Mostly we see our neighbors, who wait and wave, fellow travelers, and folks who stop and take photos and ask questions. I always send up a prayer of thanks when sheep, dogs, horses and humans have safely threaded the needle, and are on their way to the Red Desert. Then I pray for a good winter, good feed and a good living for all.
at Rodewald’s gate
Jean Carlos on the run
Filo on the railroad bridge
headed East
passing the Fireworks Stand
sharing the road
Prima Express–dos direciones
Under I80
Ovcharka livestock guardian dog sees them through the gate
trailing crew–Rhen, Pepe, McCoy and Pat
more crew–Pepe, Tiarnan and Meghan
Tiarnan and Modesto headed north on adopted wild horse
The Ides of April
Bull fight
The bull fight crowd is pretty placid
the cranes of spring
Seamus on the run
Free range children
Seamus with Val and Dulce
McCoy, Tiarnan and Maeve ready for lambing
Gathering cows off the Med Bow
and we have to leave the Forest because???
October 1st is our off date for the cows on the Medicine Bow National Forest grazing allotment. We have had a blessedly wet summer, so we are leaving plenty of feed behind. The days have been warm, so the cows see no reason to leave to Forest. Still, we have to gather them and trail them into Sheep Mountain, our contiguous private land pasture. Good grass awaits them there. The next project is to work the cows and calves.
Eamon waiting for Fancy to grab breakfast before we head out
Randy, the Shanghaied range rider
the last of the salt licks
Peanut was also salt hungry
Fancy grabbing lunch
Val, the Borgie (Corgie/Border collie cross) brings up the cows
Ladder Ranch
