Another trip to the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range

Visitors to the Circle B Bar T over the last 15 years have seen a lot of Montana and Wyoming but it has only been recently that the wild horses in Pryor Mountains have been discovered by Clint & Marty. We  invited the Johnsons plus Dana and Kate Teegardin to joint us with the anticipation of seeing some different country and some wild horses. The drive from Fishtail is about 2 1/2 hours and the plan was to have dinner in Edgar, Montana on the trip home.

As we entered the wild horse range, everyone was on the lookout for wild horses. Before we got to the area where you can see the Big Horn Canyon, we saw another kind of bighorns.

 The Bighorn Canyon was next and still no horses. We were almost through the wild horse section of the park when what should we see but 4 wild horses, and they were all stallions. While we we taking photos and enjoying the experience, this photograph was captured, it was titled, "I've got a secret"

If you have observed the blog recently, you know that I have figured out how to get the names of the wild horses. The name of the dun was easy. It is Kemmerer. There were 3 black stallions and that took several days to find out my favorite. He was the stallion sharing the secret with Kemmerer and his name is Hawk.

After you leave the wild horse area you approach several ranches. The most popular is the Lockhart ranch. You can walk throughout the ranch, but the most interesting part is to visit the buildings that are still there. They are in good shape, considering their age. This is the background of the name and the ranch.

This makes for an interesting visit. The next photograph is one of the buildings and Kay Johnson walking through the doorway. You have to admit it looks like it's in pretty good shape to be over 60 years old.

It was now time to start our return. The real question was, will be seen any horses on the way out of the range. When we got to the area where we saw the 4 horses on our way in, we spotted them again. They had crossed the road but were very visible. Kemmerer was posing for us when I captured this photo of him.

If you haven't been to the Pryors, it's worth a trip. We'll probably be back with other friends so keep watching the blog for more wild horses.

 

Horses, more than Arabians

Over the past couple of years, Marty has been visiting the Crooked Creek Ranch near Lovell, Wyoming to participate in horse activities centering around Dressage and Eventing. Clint discovered that within a few miles of the Crooked Creek Ranch is the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range. So, he drops off Marty and the horses and heads to find some "wild horses". Memorial Day weekend was no exception. Marty, Wendy, and Johanna were involved with the horse events while Clint was hoping to find new places to see the wild horses. Although Clint took several hundred photos of the girls and other participants, the first 3 are of the Circle B Bar T gang.

This is Grover with Wendy Bleacher riding and Johanna Kern observing. The last time you saw Grover he was jumping over a log in one of the Crooked Creek pastures with Marty aboard. This was taken in the enclosed arena where they were obviously jumping.

You may have seen some photographs of Quasar in the past. The big boy is now 17 hands was hopping over this pile of logs with no problems. Johanna is on board and everyone was pleased with their performance. Johanna and Quasar participated in the more advanced competition and they won. Wendy and Grover were third.

Marty has started to train with Majestic Dancer, better know around the ranch as "Doc". Since the 2 of them are just getting started, they were in the "grasshopper" class (beginners) and they did very well, winning the competition.

So the girls and their horses headed home not only proud of their rides but of their winnings as well. So what did Clint do.

He stopped at the visitors center in Lovell to get maps and an update as to where the bulk of the 100 plus wild horses were. The staff at the center gave Clint several ideas but told him he needed a high profile vehicle and 4 wheel drive if he wanted to go where the bulk of the wild horses were. Clint thought, no problem with his Dodge pick up truck.

Clint headed down a number of dirt roads with the maps he had been furnished. Each of the roads ultimately headed into the mountains along very narrow dirt roads and one by one Clint turned around before he got near the horses.

So. . . . . back to the area that he had been visiting on prior trips. After the first 2.5 hours he had seen no horses but did meet a couple from Colorado who have visited the wild horse range frequently. Clint decided to make one more tour of the range before he returned to Crooked Creek to photograph the activites there. Almost 12 miles into the range, the second time,  he spotted the couple from Colorado and it looked like they had found a horse.

A beautiful gray stallion. Clint's new friends added something special. They were frequent enough visitors that they knew the horse by his name. It was Fiero. To prove this, when Clint got home he keyed in Fiero on the internet and found a very similar picture.  Clint's new friends, then asked if he had seen the welcoming committee at the south entrance. Clint said, you mean the Big Horn sheep. They said no, there are 2 stallions, Hickok and Jesse James and their girl friends that are always hanging around near the lake and the clump of trees as you enter.

After Clint had taken enough photos of Fiero, he headed back to Crooked Creek to catch up with those activities. But, guess what, as he neared the south entrance, who was standing near the road.

It was Jesse James. Yes, Clint found Jesse James on the internet as well.

Stay tuned as we visit the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in the future and introduce you to more of the horses. Marty wants to be part of the next visit as well.